Yes, PPIP did begin. What I didn't realize is that a lot of this profit came from derivatives, not sales of the assets themselves. The actual program size was $40 billion, which is still a good amount of money but less than the original $1 trillion planned. So money was made without as many assets changing hands as the Treasury anticipated... I guess that's an even worse outcome?

I recommend reading the following article which talks about the failures of PPIP: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/01/richard-alford-why-ha...