TARP just a ruse?

I’ve always believed the excuse for forcing relatively healthy banks to take  TARP money was flimsy.    Now that Bloomberg is reporting  Treasury will allow 10 banks to repay TARP money,   I’m thinking about it again,  and wondering if the authors of “Bailout Nation” were right all along.

One of them, Barry Ritholtz,  blogs on the question here, as Stephen Spruiell notes at The Corner .