TARP Turns into Gold?

The Troubled Asset Relief Program, commonly referred to as TARP, is a program of the federal government to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions to rescue the economy from the financial sub-prime mortgage crisis that reached its peak in October 2008 during the Bush Administration. TARP officially ended last month on October 3, 2010.

Even as voters rage and candidates put up ads against government bailouts, the $700 billion lifeline to banks, insurance and auto companies could conceivably earn taxpayers a profit, many experts report. The most recent final net estimate of the cost, as of October 5, 2010, will be close to $30 billion, 95% less than the original cost to taxpayers.

This is significantly less than the taxpayers' cost of the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s. While it was once feared the government would be holding companies like General Motors, Chrysler, AIG, and Citigroup for several years, those companies are preparing to buy back the Treasury's stake and emerge from TARP within a year.

Of the $245 billion invested in U.S. banks, over $169 billion has been already paid back, including almost $18 billion in dividends, interest, and warrant proceeds. AIG is on track to pay back $51 billion from divestitures of two units and another $32 billion in securities. In April of 2010, General Motors announced the entire loan portion of the U.S. and Canadian governments' investments had been paid back in full, with interest, for a total of $8.1 billion.

The U.S. Treasury is expected to finish selling its investment in Citigroup early next year. The Treasury also expects to exit from government investments in AIG and the automotive industry much faster than anyone predicted. General Motors has announced that it is planning an initial public offering of stock later this year that will allow the Treasury to sell its GM shares acquired in TARP. AIG has announced a restructuring plan that will accelerate the timeline for repaying the government and put taxpayers in a considerably stronger position to recoup the TARP investment in the company.

BookCarts are complete learning activities for students with all resources needed to complete an inquiry-based assignment. This one-stop solution for teachers and students saves valuable classroom time, reduces plagiarism, increases time on task, and can customize learning resources for advanced, at level, or challenged students who are focusing on the same topic/issue.

Each BookCart learning activity copied by the teacher can be easily edited to add additional articles and websites, student directions for the activity, call numbers of print resources, an optional quiz, and essential questions for critical thinking for students to address in their reports.

ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity for student to learn more about the role of TARP in addressing the financial crisis of 2008: "TARP--Success or Failure?"

• Logon to the eLibrary Curriculum Edition TEACHER EDITION.
• Click the BOOKCART ADMIN link at the top of the Teacher Edition.
• Click the PROQUEST CARTS tab.
• Type "TARP--Success or Failure?" in the Search box.
• Click the COPY icon in the ACTIONS column to the right of this title.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS.

This BookCart already includes all of the information that a student needs to complete the assignment. But teachers can edit it to customize it for their students.

• Click the new BookCart Title to open it; it has the prefix "COPY OF."
• Delete "Copy of" and type your name in the AUTHOR boxes.
• Type your email address in the EMAIL box; or use your initials as a required filler.
• Optional: Edit the existing STUDENT DIRECTIONS and ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS in the DESCRIPTION box.
• Scroll down and click SAVE.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS.

You may also want to download our newest complete listing —there are more than 800 learning activities in the ProQuest Carts collection.

The list is organized by curriculum area and the titles are in alphabetical order. Each Cart title is hyperlinked to the ProQuest collection, so that clicking it, while in the Teacher Edition, will give you a shortcut so you can copy it to your local collection.

Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words (or a PowerPoint presentation of at least seven slides) that cites at least three resources. Student should use the search terms listed in the pathfinder below to ensure relevance and save time.

Students should address at least three of the following essential questions for critical thinking in their reports (you can substitute others):

• Why was TARP considered necessary by President Bush and a bipartisan Congress?
• Why is TARP so controversial today?
• Why is President Obama criticized for TARP in the election campaigning?
• What is your opinion on the success or failure of TARP and why?

Mario Vargas Llosa, 74, the Peruvian writer and literary giant in the Spanish-speaking world, was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced this October.

His body of work includes more than 30 novels, essays, and plays. He is the first South American writer to win the coveted prize since Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian storyteller, who is much better known than Vargas Llosa. Marquez won in 1982.

In part because of the spotlight Marquez drew to South American literature, Vargas Llosa's best-selling work has been widely translated in English, French, Swedish and German. Like many Nobel laureates, Vargas Llosa has written works that his country's authorities didn't appreciate. The Time of the Hero, released in 1963, described some of his harsh experiences in a military academy; officials of the school burnt 1,000 copies.

In their tribute to Vargas Llosa, the Swedish Academy cited a theme of "individual's resistance" in announcing the honor. The prize was given, the officials said in a statement, "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt and defeat."

Students should write a report of at least 150 words that cites at least three resources on the Nobel Prize winning author of their choice. Students should use the pathfinder listed below for best results. Students should address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can add or substitute others):

• What is the experience and culture of the author you selected?
• How does this life background affect his/her writing?
• What is the theme of the work that received the Nobel Prize?
• What common theme is found in many of his/her works?

Type "Nobel Prize" in the Quick Search box > Click "More" to expand the results

Your students can use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

Teachers may be interested in a ProQuest flexible rubrics model for evaluating inquiry-based learning activities.

Educators may also wish to employ the Quizinator Web tool (free, but registration required) for creating a variety of printed resources, including short assessments.

TARP is one of many economic crises that have occurred in the U.S. during the last sixty years in which the U.S. government played a proactive role. Students can learn more about the role of government in using the tools of fiscal and monetary policy to regulate the economy and deal with financial and economic crises.

Learning Activity: Student should select one of a variety of economic topics in which the government played a proactive role from the Study Unit resources of HSC. Assign students a report of at least 150 words, or a PowerPoint of at least seven slides, that cites at least three resources. Students should use the pathfinder below to find the best results for this assignment.

Students should address the following essential questions for critical thinking in their reports (you can add or substitute others):

• What economic situation did you select and why?
• What problem did the government action address?
• What strategy did the government use to address the problem?
• Was the action taken successful or did it just delay a more effective solution?
• What would you have done in that situation and why?

Click the History icon > Study Units > Type "Economic Policy" in the Keyword Search box > click "The American Economy Since 1945"

Your students can use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

Teachers may be interested in a ProQuest flexible rubrics model for evaluating inquiry-based learning activities.

Educators may also wish to employ the Quizinator Web tool (free, but registration required) for creating a variety of printed resources, including short assessments.

SPREAD THE WORD | DATABASE TOOLKITS BOOST USAGE