If you give me a loan, then as it expires I take out a new loan to pay you back, would you say that you've made money from the arrangement? I would say that you haven't, as if I default the second loan you still take a net loss across all our transactions. However in the case of TARP, many TARP loans were rolled over into non-TARP loans, without the principal being returned at all.
We could also discuss whether it is a good idea to subsidize the losses of some parts of the financial and automotive industries but not others, whether this is really conducive to a healthy economy based on competition, and whether the incentive structure created by handing bags of stolen money to anyone who can credibly threaten to damage the economy is a good one, but this probably isn't the place to do it.
We could also discuss whether it is a good idea to subsidize the losses of some parts of the financial and automotive industries but not others, whether this is really conducive to a healthy economy based on competition, and whether the incentive structure created by handing bags of stolen money to anyone who can credibly threaten to damage the economy is a good one, but this probably isn't the place to do it.