There has been much discussion of the bank bailout funds this week--and some of it is good news for those who want financial insitutions to start giving back.  Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan want to repay their TARP money.  And earlier this week Treasury Secretary Geithner says he expects $25 billion of the TARP funds to be repaid by the end of the year.  So where does that money go?  According to The Explainer--Slate's Christopher Beam--the money goes back into the program:

If a bank wants to return its TARP money, it gets siphoned back—by wire, usually—into the original pool. In his testimony, Geithner said there's $110 billion left of the original $700 billion allocated by the TARP program. So once the expected $25 billion is returned, the remaining stash should reach $135 billion.

The return of the money seems like a good thing all around.  But The Explainer points out there is a downside:

Of course, there are risks to letting the banks return money. One is that they'll need it again, which would create a public relations snafu. Then there's a systemic risk problem: If one bank appears stronger than others, the weaker ones might get hurt as investors yank their money, and short sellers bet against them. That's why Geithner is insisting on completing the stress test—which measures the banks' strength—before deciding which big companies get to return their money.

Read The Explainer's full explanation here.

And track the returned money at Slate's Tarp-O-Meter here.