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USA Edition | Today Is Friday, May 24, 2013 |
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Welcome To Newsroom Magazine
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Thanks To You We're Growing Faster Than Ever Before
Chances are you've noticed that Newsroom Magazine is a very different publication.
We care about journalism -- and we're well aware many other organizations do it far better than we.
Our editorial standards, rules of custody, and skeptical editing for everything we produce, disseminate or expose to public viewing reflects a seriousness of purpose.
Six years after our founding, Newsroom Magazine continues to evolve the online publishing and preservation model we pioneered.
There is good news to share: Newsroom Magazine is is thriving.
And some less good news: Our limited resources, both journalistically and financially, are limiting our expansion of content.
Online News Preservation
In the six years since its founding, Newsroom Magazine has extended the field of news publishing into previously uncharted areas.
We take a long range view of news -- one that considers both timeliness and historical merit.
What we do, and how we do it, was not possible in the print media era -- for our content is both timely and timeless in the sense that we share the power of immediacy with all online media plus the perseverance of an encyclopedia.
Newsroom Magazine's publishing model goes beyond immediacy -- for unlike the newspaper era -- what we publish is permanently preserved. And tagged, indexed, and constantly updated by automated sitemap sharing with Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex, Baidu, Sogou, Ewatch, Alexa, Facebook, and others at home and far away.
All of our content, is meant to be preserved. Thanks to the capture and storage of our content at Google, including all updates and changes, and full collection archiving by the U.S. Internet Archives, everything we say, write, opine -- whether wise, foolish, or inconsequential-- is preserved.
Newsroom Magazine content remains forever online, searchable and accessible 24 hours a day worldwide.
What's Hot Is Rarely What Matters
What we publish today is rarely as timely as the more traditional publications and online newspapers. What we choose to publish, sometimes days or months after a story first breaks, or on a subject neglected by most commercial media, is chosen to reflect one aspect of an ongoing reality for long term preservation.
From a handful of English-only readers when we published our first article -- the 1958 Edward R. Murrow speech before the Radio Television Directors Association in Chicago -- we have grown and wizened about our responsibilities to our readers and our own limitations and shortfalls.
Our most read article so far this year, The Adventures Of Bernie In Wonderland, was published November 23rd, 2009. The article consists of the unexpurgated SEC interview of Harry Markopolos in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi swindle case. It is not very interesting reading and it is very long -- but we published it in the belief that what it revealed was important and unlikely to remain online in its original format.
Newsroom Magazine's Storehouse Grows Every Day
The number of publications who devote themselves to publishing credible, responsible and probative content for posterity has dwindled.
Today Newsroom Magazine publishes a storehouse of credible, probative and relevant content -- well over 5000 articles including commentaries, essays, definitions, photographs, stories, reviews, discussions, tutorials, and logical explanations.
Our readership is nearly three times was it was only last year. Few might come to our content for entertainment -- for our purpose is otherwise.
If You Publish, They Will Come
We are read on Capitol Hill, along K Street, and in the halls of government inside the beltway and around the world.
We are read daily on college campuses at home and abroad. We're visited from military ships at sea. We serve law-firms, major corporations, Wall Street the UK Parliament, state governments and cities with credible useful information.
Some of the world's most prestigious news organizations use Newsroom Magazine for fact-checking.
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The amount of official news proffered each day by government, whether at home or abroad, is accelerating. Some of it newsworthy, most of it not.
Our job is to thoughtfully choose what's worthy of the attention of our readers.
About 1% of government issued news we receive each day qualifies as newsworthy. Only the most relevant, or reflective of government at its best, or at its worst, or evidence of overreach, or ineptitude makes it newsworthy.
We leave the issue of deciding which if any of these qualifications applies to what we publish up to the reader.
Formatted For People On The Go, Or On The Hunt
All of our government news content includes above the headline call out meant to convey the principal facts, action or information for those with little time to read a long document.
Our job is to carefully and skeptically choose relevant governmental content for our readers -- and to include the unexpurgated original source material, whose chain of custody we control.
Online Editorial Standards, Ethics And Purpose
Our commitment to time-honored journalistic standards and a clear statement about the ethics to which we agree to be held today and tomorrow, Newsroom Magazine began publication when the Internet was young -- 2006.
Our prime mission then, as now, is to publish non political ideas, definitions, essays and editorials.
To speak to the state of this honorable calling.
And to inform the public about those things, events and ideas that matter most to us all.
Today, tomorrow, forever.
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Overall, to date, we’ve recovered nearly 93 percent ($387 billion) of the funds disbursed for TARP ($418 billion). And we expect further income for taxpayers from the program moving forward.
Washington
Winding Down TARP: A Progress Report
January 24, 2013
TARP played a critical role in stopping an historic financial panic and stabilizing an economy in freefall. And once we broke the back of the crisis, we moved swiftly to replace temporary government support with private capital.
Overall, to date, we’ve recovered nearly 93 percent ($387 billion) of the funds disbursed for TARP ($418 billion). And we expect further income for taxpayers from the program moving forward.
In 2012, Treasury continued making significant progress winding down TARP – collecting nearly $70 billion in additional repayments and other income. Indeed, during the last year, we saw a number of important milestones, including the sale of our final shares of AIG common stock, Treasury’s announcement that it intends to exit its remaining investment in General Motors within the next 12-15 months (subject to market conditions), and other key transactions.
As we begin 2013, we thought it would be good opportunity to provide an update on our exit strategy for our remaining TARP investments[1] – program-by-program.
There’s more work to be done, but we’re moving toward the finish line as we continue winding down TARP.
TARP’s Bank Programs
TARP’s five bank investment programs have earned a significant profit for taxpayers. To date, we’ve recovered $268 billion through repayments and other income, which represents a positive return of more than $23 billion compared to the amount ($245 billion) initially invested.
In May 2012, Treasury outlined its exit strategy for the remaining investments in TARP’s largest bank program, the Capital Purchase Program (CPP). Treasury is winding down its remaining stakes through a combination of repayments, restructurings, and sales.
In December 2012, we provided an update on Treasury’s CPP wind down – which detailed how we had reduced our portfolio by more than 140 institutions and $8 billion through the means we outlined in May 2012.[2] In that same update, we also announced our intention to auction approximately two-thirds of our remaining CPP investments during 2013. Those auctions, together with additional repayments and a limited number of restructurings, should enable us to continue to make substantial progress in winding down the program.
Treasury has already closed three bank programs. Taxpayers realized profits on both the Targeted Investment Program (TIP) andthe Asset Guarantee Program (AGP). No funding was ever disbursed under the Capital Assistance Program (CAP), which was part of the successful stress test process federal banking regulators conducted in 2009.
The final bank investment program is the Community Development Capital Initiative (CDCI), under which Treasury holds investments of approximately $533 million, which represents less than one percent of the overall funds provided through TARP’s bank programs. These investments are in 77 community development financial institutions which serve lower and moderate-income communities that are underserved by traditional financial institutions. As we previously stated, Treasury will announce its wind down plans for this program at a later date.
Credit Market Programs
Treasury has already recovered more than 90 percent of the funds disbursed through TARP’s credit market programs and expects to realize a gain on these programs.
Last week, Treasury announced the full repayment with interest of its loans under the Term Asset-backed Securities Lending Facility (TALF) – a joint program with the Federal Reserve that helped support the markets for auto loans, student loans, credit cards, small business loans and other types of consumer lending. Treasury’s remaining credit support for the program was also eliminated. The amount of fees collected ($856 million) through the program exceed the remaining loans outstanding ($556 million), which means that there is no risk of taxpayer losses. At this point, each additional dollar recovered represents an additional dollar of profit for taxpayers on TALF.
In January 2012, Treasury completed the wind down of its SBA 7(a) Securities Purchase Program. Treasury recovered $376 million over the life of the program, representing a gain of approximately $8 million to taxpayers on Treasury’s original investment of $368 million.
As of December 31, 2012, Public Private Investment Program (PPIP) fund managers cannot make any new investments under the program. To date, Treasury has recovered 93 percent of the funds disbursed though PPIP – and taxpayers are currently expected to earn an overall lifetime gain on the program. Five of the nine PPIP funds have already been wound down at a profit for taxpayers. The total investments outstanding for the remaining four PPIP funds also continue to decline. Consistent with the terms of the program, individual fund managers will make independent determinations about how quickly those remaining four funds are wound down.
Auto Industry Programs
To date, we’ve recovered more than half of the TARP funds invested to prevent the collapse of the American auto industry. According to independent estimates, those investments saved more than one million jobs. And since the rescue, the auto industry has added more than a quarter of a million new jobs.
In July 2012, Treasury fully exited its investment in Chrysler Group LLC. Treasury recovered more than 90 percent of the funds committed to stabilize Chrysler.
By the end of 2012, Treasury had sold more than two-thirds (612 million shares) of the shares of General Motors common stock it originally held (912 million shares). In December 2012, Treasury announced its intention to fully exit its remaining investment (300 million shares) in GM within 12-15 months, subject to market conditions. In January 2013, Treasury entered into a prearranged written trading plan to proceed with that December 2012 announcement.
Our only other outstanding auto-related investment is in Ally Financial. We outlined our exit strategy for that investment in May 2012. Treasury has already recovered about one-third of the total $17 billion invested, and it expects to begin to monetize its remaining investment as the company completes two critical strategic initiatives; the chapter 11 proceeding for its mortgage subsidiary, Residential Capital, and the sale of its international auto finance operations. Indeed, in November 2012, Ally announced that it had reached an agreement to sell its remaining international operations and that it expected total proceeds from those transactions of $9.2 billion.
AIG
In December 2012, Treasury announced the sale of its final shares of AIG common stock. Overall, Treasury and the Federal Reserve fully recovered the combined $182 billion committed to stabilize the company during the financial crisis – plus an additional $22.7 billion positive return for taxpayers.
Conclusion
During 2013, we expect to make significant additional progress winding down TARP’s investment programs and recovering taxpayer dollars.[3] We also continue to expect that the financial stability programs that Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC put in place during the crisis are likely to result in an overall positive financial return for taxpayers.
Timothy G. Massad is the Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Notes:
[1]Unlike TARP’s investment programs, funds disbursed through TARP’s housing programs to assist struggling homeowners at risk of foreclosure are not intended to be recovered. Eligible individuals can apply to participate in the Making Home Affordable Program through December 31, 2013, or to certain state foreclosure prevention programs in participating states through the Hardest-Hit Fund.
[2] As of December 18, 2012, that included 49 repayments for $6.9 billion and 91 auctions for proceeds of $1.5 billion, as well as a limited number of restructurings.
[3] For more details on Treasury’s lifetime cost estimates for TARP programs, please visit Treasury’s Monthly 105(a) Report to Congress on TARP at this link.?