The Cost of the Bailout: $2,000 Per Person - WashingtonWatch.com

[WillyT]

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WASHINGTON, Sept 21, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Bailout legislation that may sail through Congress this week will cost about $6,500 per U.S. family, a little over $2,000 per person, according to an estimate published on the WashingtonWatch.com blog.

The blog post can be seen by clicking (or cutting and pasting) this link: http://tinyurl.com/3foepw

Draft legislation that circulated over the weekend would authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase mortgage-related assets, and it would give him $700 billion dollars to work with.

"It is possible that the federal government will not expend all of those $700 billion, or even make some money back later," said WashingtonWatch.com Webmaster Jim Harper, "but I agree with those who call that possibility laughable."

The Resolution Trust Corporation, which was created to clean up the S&L mess, had an estimated cost of about $50 billion in the early years, but wound up costing about $124 billion.

"The bailout is plainly a sop to the financial services companies whose profits were privatized and whose losses will now be socialized," says Harper. "Proponents say that it's needed to prevent further financial catastrophe. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says that reforms will follow. It's up to you whom you agree with and whom you believe."

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Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/cost-bailout-2000-per-person/story.aspx?guid={5B81EF07-B271-45BE-87C6-595298E5BCAB}&dist=hppr

Only the beginning...

:shrug: