Most people would agree that it is difficult to put the cost of bailing out our financial system into real terms. Including the recent Citi rescue, some estimates are as high as $4.6 trillion dollars in total costs. So, we would be remiss in not sharing this shocking visual representation of the government bailout as it currently stands. The chart needs little explanation to get its point across. Jim Bianco of Bianco Research has crunched the numbers, compounding each of these historic government expenditures by the rate of inflation (using CPI) so we can compare apples to apples.
Its impossible to argue that this is a cheap solution to this crisis, but we hope this enormous effort has the desired effect. However, it appears we have little choice in the matter now and a massive full-scale effort to re-ignite the economy is underway. For better or for worse, here we go.
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