Finance

Downgrades Outpacing TARP Funding: Analyst 

Meredith Whitney has rightfully made a name for herself throughout the current credit crisis — mostly by being right in her calls — and her latest call in a research note late Monday is a doozy. The prominent Oppenheimer & Co. analyst suggested that the pace and effect of securities downgrades in the fourth quarter alone will be enough to eat through the roughly $300 billion in funding provided to banks via the U.S. Treasury through its Troubled Asset Relief Program and associated capital purchase program.