In testimony to the US Senate Finance Committee, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Neil Barofsky there were $3 trillion worth of bailout programs, the equivalent of an entire agency or three just to stop the US financial system from going up in smoke, and that the banks had shown no interest in disclosing how they were spending taxpayers' money.

Barofsky said: "One thing, however, was apparent from the responses - complaints that it was impractical or impossible for banks to detail how they used TARP funds were unfounded. While some banks indicated that they had procedures for monitoring their use of TARP money, others did not but were still able to give information on their use of funds."

All this raises an obvious question. Why hasn't the US Treasury forced the TARP recipients to provide certified reports to Treasury on how they are using taxpayer money? That's the only way we will get some transparency into the system.