Finding Cover in the Bailout

If you are just getting your head around CDO, MBS, SIV, ARS GSE, CDS, and other credit crisis acronyms, there is now one that covers them all: TARP.

Bad puns are just part of what we are getting with the government's proposed $700 billion rescue of troubled financial assets. In remarks on Friday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson repeatedly referred to the program as the "troubled asset relief program."

While TARP is not the official name -- that may be among the things that change when Congress gets it hands on it -- the Calculated Risk blog notes that "the tarp hides all sins."

Gretchen Morgenson is an early adopter, writing in her New York Times column on Sunday about the program: "I'll just call it TARP for short (you know, the kind of thing they spread over muddy fields so you don't soil your Guccis)."

Dominic Rushe in the Sunday Times of London notes that it is "an acronym that might appeal to Bush."

The word tarp is a shortened from of tarpaulin, which originally was a form of waterproof canvas covering used by sailors. It may be why sailors were called "tars."

All the better with which to navigate a credit storm, no?

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