Oppenheimer's Meredith Whitney: TARP Funds Used Up By Write-Downs

In a report released this morning, famed analyst Meredith Whitney is saying the the TARP funds injected into America's banks are likely to be used up in write-downs ($44 billion in the 4th Quarter alone) and reserve requirements rather than lending.

Here's the Bloomberg article.

More bad loans to come, apparently! Were the taxpayer bailouts premature? Does this mean all those funds injected into the banks were wasted, if all they did was provide the banks with funds to write off more bad debt? And does it mean the taxpayers will be on the hook to pay all those bad debts -- with interest -- now that that debt has been transferred to the Federal balance sheet? Sure looks that way!