Fox Biz Anchor 'Frustrated' by Misuse of TARP

Fox Business Network anchor Alexis Glick is frustrated by the way the government's $700 billion financial bailout is being used, and suggested on "Money for Breakfast" Nov. 21 that it was contributing to market declines.

"I mean, look, we are now at levels at least on the S&P that we haven't been since 1997. You know, people are pretty unhappy with how the TARP fund is going," Glick said in an interview with NYSE Euronex CEO Duncan Niederauer. "I mean, it's got to be - I'm frustrated, I mean I don't know about you."

It's not the first time that Glick has taken issue with the misuse of TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Glick, the host of FBN's "Money for Breakfast," told the CBS's "The Early Show" Nov 13 that the Treasury Department's move away from the original plan to buy up troubled mortgages "does not make sense" and was "actually pretty outrageous":

[T]he markets responded to that yesterday ... Look, the original intent of this Troubled Asset Relief Program was to purchase troubled assets. And I think the marketplace started to adjust several weeks ago when we started to see the size and magnitude of the capital injections.

Glick said the real problem lies in the fact that Treasury wasn't doing anything to "stem the tide of foreclosures." The anchor made the point that if Treasury made the decision not to purchase troubled assets as the government, then it has no leeway in telling banks they need to start lending again:

They right now have no real guidance or oversight to say it's a must. They've already given the capital injections, so what you see right now is a potpourri of housing conversations between Fannie and Freddie, Hope Now, FHA Securities, the FDIC chairman has a different plan. It is so complicated and it's a mess.