Financial Services Bailout Now Totals $11.8 Trillion
Bloomberg calculates a total of $12.8 trillion in commitments and disbursements for the ongoing bailout of the banks, together with the Bush/Obama economic stimuli.
But since the two stimulus packages together only add up to $787 billion plus $168 billion for a grand total of $955 billion, slightly less than $1 trillion, it seems to me that the more salient figure is the total committed to bailing out the banks, which now amounts to $11.8 trillion.
New pledges from the Fed, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. include $1 trillion for the Public-Private Investment Program, designed to help investors buy distressed loans and other assets from U.S. banks. The money works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation. The nation's gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion in 2008.
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