The Congressional Oversight Panel's August oversight report, “The Continued Risk of Troubled Assets,” examines the economic implications of troubled assets and assesses Treasury’s strategy for removing these assets from bank balance sheets. The Panel found that the future performance of the economy and the performance of the underlying loans, as well as the method of valuation of the assets, are critical to the continued operation of the banks.

Last fall, as increasing numbers of subprime mortgage-holders defaulted on their loans, the financial markets for these assets effectively ceased to function. In response to the crisis, Treasury proposed a major government program to move hundreds of billions of dollars in troubled assets off the banks’ books. But by the time the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was signed into law in early October, Treasury had decided to use TARP funds to pursue a different strategy: providing banks with a capital buffer to write-down many of their troubled assets and to build reserves for the future. Today, ten months later, substantial troubled assets remain on banks’ balance sheets. The Panel's report examines the implications of this fact for the economy.