Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), otherwise known as the bank bailout or banking welfare program, has conceded that the program will result in a loss to taxpayers to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.

Barofsky said: "We need to temper or be realistic about our expectations, a dollar-for-dollar return is just highly unrealistic. It's almost certainly going to be a loss.

"Tens of billions of dollars are likely to be lost on the automotive bailout."

But while the bailout has cost American taxpayers, it did enrich the banks who have been able to provide record Wall Street bonuses. As Jerry O'Driscoll, a former vice president of the Dallas Federal Reserve and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute told Matthew Phillips at Newsweek, it might have stopped some banks from going under but it has not restored the health of banking system. It's still in bad shape, and it's costing US taxpayers.

That might help explain why the White House is now considering using the rest of the TARP money to help reduce the US deficit. That's a far more sensible solution to bailing out the greedy and incompetent, and not letting the market do its work.