Neil Barofsky is the man who tracks the historic bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. The 39-year-old special inspector general monitors a dozen separate bailout-related programs that now account for nearly $3 trillion in financial commitments. A former federal prosecutor, Barofsky has subpoena power and has launched about three dozen investigations since being named to the post in December 2008. In an audit released in July, Barofsky made clear that he was intent on demanding transparency from all quarters -- including the U.S. Treasury. His next audit is due in October. During an interview with the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, Barofsky made some striking observations. Among them were:

1. He found hundreds of banks capable of tracking their use of the TARP money - despite claims by the U.S. Treasury that the task was impossible.
2. If the purpose of the TARP rescue was to increase lending, it has failed.
3. The U.S. financial system, now dependent on bigger and fewer banks, is shakier than ever.

• Contact Us: cspolar [at] huffpostfund [dot] org (Christine Spolar), lsebert [at] huffpostfund [dot] org (Lagan Sebert)
• See all Huffington Post Investigative Fund coverage of .
• Do you have information about this story? Send us a tip or submit a correction.
• Follow the Huffington Post Investigative Fund on Twitter or fan us on Facebook.

take full story

...or share

As a philanthropic venture, and in the open-source spirit of the Web, everything the Huffington Post Investigative Fund publishes is free for the taking, to publish online or in print, under an Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Creative Commons license. The following conditions apply:

Attribution — You must credit the Huffington Post Investigative Fund and provide a link back to the original story on our site (you may not suggest that we endorse you or your use of our work).

No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon our work.

Please note that this license applies only to original I-Fund content, and not to any third-party, copyrighted materials that may appear on our Web site.

grab the story