In a report on initial capital injections into banks under TARP, the Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP) said that Treasury Secretary Paulson, the Federal Reserve Bank, and FDIC lied made "inaccurate statements" about the financial health of the several of the nine banks that received the first chunk of TARP money. And while news headlines glommed on to this aspect of the report, the SIGTARP made an important case for transparency.

Ultimately, the lesson is straightforward: accuracy and transparency will enhance the credibility of Government programs like TARP and restore taxpayer confidence in the policy makers who manage them; inaccurate statements, on the other hand, could have unintended long-tern consequences that could damage the trust that the American people have in their Govemment.

Image by Flickr user Jerry Vo used under a Creative Commons license.