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Was The TARP Bailout A Failure?

Foreclosure housing house
Flickr Photo/Taber Andrew Bain (CC BY 2.0)/https://flic.kr/p/6WB4v4

Why didn’t the TARP bailout fund help the small businesses and homeowners who were slammed by the 2008 financial crash? Neil Barofsky left his job at the US Attorney’s Office in New York to become special inspector general in charge of overseeing the bailout money. He says, from his first days on the job he was met with hostility from the treasury officials overseeing the TARP fund. He charges that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner funneled money to Wall Street firms in ways that bordered on corruption. Neil Barofsky joins us with the inside story.

North Korea recently threatened the United States, Japan and South Korea with nuclear war following new United Nations sanctions. Yesterday, Kim Jong-un oversaw an artillery drill near a disputed South Korean border. Tensions appear to be rising. What should we make of these threats? Could North Korea strike the United States? We'll talk it over with Donald Hellmann, political science professor at the University of Washington. Plus, scientists are trying to apply big data to help them see trends and solve problems. At the University of Washington, researchers looking at global-health trends have discovered some disturbing trends in Americans' health. We'll learn more from Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the UW.