What We're Hearing

Congressional TARP cop Elizabeth Warren (and a friend to mortgage brokers everywhere) was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night, slamming (to some degree) Treasury's accounting of how much bailout money has gone out the door. Ms. Warren says $590 billion in taxpayer cash has been spent. The Treasury's figure is a bit lower. "There is a dispute over" how much has been spent, she said. Meanwhile, she also said that for every $100 of tax dollars spent buying preferred shares in banks, the government (taxpayers) have received just $66 in value. Why? Because the secondary market value of these preferred shares has fallen. At least that was her argument. And I was just kidding about Ms. Warren (she of Harvard) being a friend to loan brokers. Ms. Warren does not like loan brokers in the least…