Paulson bailout didn’t give taxpayers what Goldman gave Buffett

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: percent under Buffett’s terms and would be 0.44 percent if the Treasury’s warrants were exercised.

Treasury spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin wouldn’t say how the bailout conditions were set.

“Obviously, the government is going to have different objectives than a private investor,” McLaughlin said in an e- mail. “The main idea was not to turn a profit on Day One, but to provide stabilizing capital.”

Changes to TARP

Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, estimated in a Jan. 4 Wall Street Journal opinion article that TARP investments have earned about $8 billion while recapitalizing the banking system.

Government agencies have committed more than $8.5 trillion to shoring up the financial system, including the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program signed into law Oct. 3 by President George W. Bush. TARP was originally sold to Congress as a way to buy securities that had fallen in market value. Paulson shifted his emphasis to direct capital injections to banks to prevent the financial sector from foundering.

The House Financial Services Committee and TARP Congressional Oversight Panel plan hearings on how federal bailout money will be used during the administration of President-elect Barack Obama. The financial services panel scheduled its meeting for Jan. 13.

‘Something Worth Nothing’

“We believe the public has a right to know the value of the investments being made with the TARP funds and whether the terms Treasury receives for investing taxpayer dollars are as good as those that private individuals like Warren Buffett receive for similar investments,” said Elizabeth Warren, chairwoman of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel, in an e-mail. “This is a question we will continue to ask until we get a complete answer.”

Stiglitz said finance professionals at Treasury possessed expertise on warrant pricing that members of Congress didn’t.