Along with Dean Baker and a few others, I’ve been fighting a lonely crusade against those who insist that TARP “made money.” In a new report, the GAO faults Treasury for constantly shifting the goalposts on how they report that “profit” from TARP. It’s a slightly different argument, but one that highlights how this illusion of a successful TARP lies in manipulation of the numbers.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner forcefully denied the claim in a book by Ron Suskind that he ignored a request from the President to work up a plan to dissolve Citigroup. He further added that the entire theme of the book, about infighting in the White House over economic policy issues, bears “no resemblance to reality.”

Happy Debt Limit Day! The US government has officially reached the ceiling for the amount of debt it can float, $14.294 trillion. This does not yet mean that the government can no longer borrow money or fund operations, at least not yet. Tax dollars flow into the Treasury on a regular basis and can be used for ongoing operations. And there are a number of actions Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner can take to allow the space to keep the borrowing coming and meet the country’s financial obligations. Some have already been triggered, like ending state and local government bond issues. Today, Geithner begins to borrow from federal pension funds.

The US will reach its borrowing limit in less than two weeks, under normal circumstances. Since nobody expects Congress to come to their senses and pass a bill to allow the country to pay what it has promised, the Treasury Department has decided to start maneuvering to avoid default. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner believes he can hold out until around August 2nd.

Just as most derivatives are set to be put onto clearinghouses, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner exempted a large group of derivatives, foreign currency swaps, from the regulations.

Republicans probably are counting on Democrats to save them from the worst-case scenario. But let’s not overlook what we already know – Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has maintained, and nobody has denied, that Republicans personally assured the President that they would raise the debt limit.

The bank lobbyists are pushing hard for this exemption, which should tell you a lot about it. And Geithner appears to be right there with them.

So basically, you have the Treasury Secretary of the United States, three years after a major financial crisis, saying out loud that what’s good for Wall Street is good for America.

In other words, welcome your vampire squid overlords.

Tim Geithner won’t show up to House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa’s first hearing, on TARP and the foreclosure crisis, sending a top deputy instead. The deputy, Tim Massad, has no real experience with the Administration’s foreclosure mitigation programs. Maybe Geithner didn’t want to testify on foreclosures because he didn’t have anything to say beyond “Everything’s great!”

So you have this crazy circumstance where the payroll tax cut ends up a worse deal for low-income workers, who would spend the money, and a better deal for high-income workers, who probably won’t.