Today CBO released the fourth of its statutory reports on transactions undertaken as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)—the program established in October 2008 to enable the Department of the Treasury to promote stability in financial markets through the purchase and guarantee of “troubled assets.” The report discusses CBO’s estimate of the costs of transactions completed, outstanding, and anticipated under the TARP as of November 18, 2010.
November 2010
Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the economic stimulus package, certain recipients of funds appropriated in ARRA (most grant and loan recipients, contractors, and subcontractors) are required to report the number of jobs funded through the law after the end of each calendar quarter. ARRA also requires CBO to comment on those reported numbers. In its latest report, issued today, CBO provides estimates of ARRAs overall impact on employment and economic output in the third quarter of calendar year 2010.
The nations transportation and water infrastructureits highways, airports, water supply systems, wastewater treatment plants, and other facilitiesplays a vital role in the economy. Private commercial activities and the daily lives of individuals depend on that physical infrastructure, which is provided by all levels of government in the United States.
The unemployment rate averaged 9.3 percent in 2009, more than double what it was in 2007 and the highest it had been since 1983. In 2009, nearly one in four people (including children) lived in a family in which at least one family member was unemployed at some time during the year. Among people living in a family with income below the poverty threshold, one in three lived in a family in which at least one person was unemployed at some point.
The accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could cause costly changes in regional climates throughout the world and has led policymakers and analysts to consider policies to restrict emissions of those gases. One option for reducing emissions in a cost-effective manner would be to establish a cap-and-trade program for those gases.
This morning, CBO issued its Monthly Budget Review, which summarized the end-of-year budget results reported by the Treasury for fiscal year 2010. In that year, which ended on September 30, the federal government recorded a total budget deficit of $1.3 trillion, $122 billion less than the deficit incurred in 2009.
In a letter sent today to Congressman Paul Ryan, we described our analysis of the effects on prescription drug prices of certain provisions of the health legislation enacted in March.