Locating TARP

In their efforts to track the TARP bailout, the Sunlight Foundation and Pew have created a map of what counties depend most heavily on TARP-recipient banks, breaking down separately the percents of total bank deposits, bank branches, and mortgage loans held/operated/issued by bailout-recipient banks in each of the nation's counties.

The measures aren't perfect, since the financial bailouts ramifications extend beyond those three economic dimensions (to business lending and investment portfolios, for instance). But it's an interesting map, and it does show us loosely how much each part of the country depends on banks that took TARP money.

It's noticeable how, when it comes to deposits and bank branches, the middle of the country seems to have avoided the reach of the financial bailout: from Illinois to western Colorado, most people keep their money in non-TARP banks. Which, I suppose, means the middle of the country bailed out the coasts...For mortgage lending, however, TARP-bank dependence is spread out evenly across the country.