So some banks want to return their TARP money. That’s great!

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The NYT has a story today about banks that want to return the money they took from the Treasury Department’s TARP stash because “the conditions have become so onerous.” Reporter Stephen Labaton makes it sound like this is a problem. I see it more as a necessary corrective to the biggest flaw with the original round of capital injections last fall—that, at least among the biggest banks, Treasury made no attempt whatsoever to separate the healthy from the sick. Now the government’s meddling is giving the likes of Goldman Sachs, Well Fargo and J.P. Morgan (and a lot of smaller banks) incentive to pay back their government money ASAP. Sounds like pretty good news to me. It would leave Treasury with more cash to deal with the most troubled banks, and would allow healthier institutions to get on with their lives. Am I missing something?