Book deal for watchdog who helped oversee bailout

[May 24, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The man who helped oversee the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry has a book deal.

Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General of the controversial TARP program from 2008-2011, has an agreement with the Free Press for a memoir that will recount his many clashes with the Treasury Department and others in the government. The book is called "Bailout" and it's scheduled for release in July, the publisher announced Wednesday.

According to the Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Barofsky criticizes officials in both the Bush and Obama administrations who were "in thrall to the interests of big banks" and ignored warnings about mortgage fraud "and other abuses." He resigned in March 2011 and publicly criticized the bailout as too favorable to Wall Street.

[Associated Press]

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