While Washington debates cutting Social Security and Medicare the facts are in on the “recovery” – it’s a bust. Not only has unemployment remained historically high – 7.7% officially, 23% by the old metrics – but poverty has spiked to historic highs.

The failure of the Treasury Department under Tim Geithner to rein in bonuses for companies bailed out by taxpayers has been an issue since TARP began.

Transcripts released by the Federal Reserve reveal the central bank misinterpreted the downswing in the housing market as a positive signal of the market pricing in risk rather than the beginning of a bust that would quickly unravel the financial markets.

AIG is considering Wednesday whether the company should join a lawsuit against the government that spent $182 billion to save it from collapse. If AIG decides to join the complaint, which seeks $25 billion in damages, it would pit the company against the government that in 2008 kept it from buckling under the weight huge losses on mortgage-backed securities and other toxic assets.

In what borders on performance art, AIG is launching a condescendingpublic relations campaign to thank American taxpayers for letting them extort bailout money from Congress.

The Special Inspector General for TARP, Christy Romero, has recommended that the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department stop using LIBOR, the benchmark interest rate derived in such a slipshod way that it was rigged for years. But the Fed and Treasury aren’t taking Romero up on the request.

I believe this is former Special Inspector General of TARP Neil Barofsky’s 206th media appearance in support of Bailout. He has tirelessly criss-crossed the media landscape to tell the story of his time in Washington and offer a warning about a government captured by Wall Street.

I’d be a bit surprised to see Neil Barofsky grace the airwaves of CNBC again. But I have good news for CNBC. I have another exciting guest opportunity for them.

I went through last week why I don’t think Ed DeMarco will be fired. Now Neil BArofsky, who has a passing knowledge of the individuals involved, entered this debate. Geithner has used the moral hazard/strategic default argument plenty of times over the past few years. Now it could be that Treasury has magically turned the corner and gotten the message that the economy needs widespread debt relief. But the fact that this lines up perfectly with the upcoming Presidential election is enough to make one skeptical.

Former TARP Inspector General Neil Barofsky’s new book Bailout is worth reading for so many reasons, some of which are simply the hilarious anecdotes, but trusted Geithner adviser Lee Sachs is one of the distinctly less hilarious parts about the book. I remember writing something along the lines of “!!!” in the margin when I noticed his name and infamous affiliation “Tricadia” in Ron Suskind’s book but it wasn’t until Bailout—and I’ve read a lot of these goddamn books!—that I got a real sense of his influence on Geithner—and the magnitude of the taxpayer shakedown he might have pulled off had a lesser cop been assigned to patrol the bailout beat.