AlterNet: Here are Some Sickening Figures to Help Put the Bailout in Perspective

[marmar]

Here are Some Sickening Figures to Help Put the Bailout in Perspective

Posted by Staff, AlterNet at 5:17 PM on November 25, 2008.

Barry Ritholtz puts the current bailout figures in a historical perspective ... and it ain't pretty folks.



Barry Ritholtz puts the bailout figure into proper historical perspective, and it ain't pretty folks:

If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars. People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.

Jim Bianco of Bianco Research crunched the inflation adjusted numbers. The bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures –- combined:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/108713/here_are_some_sickening_figures_to_help_put_the_bailout_in_perspective/

[unpossibles]

1. sheesh. nt

[ixion]

2. sickening indeed... a robbery of epic proportions

that will take generations for us to recover from, if we recover at all, which is in question at this point.

[shireen]

3. chilling

i heard this on Rachel's show last night. I wish she had credited the source of the information....

[jody]

4. I believe the "S&L Crisis" cost over $700 billion under #41. It's also the only item on the list

that is a real handout to corporations with no strings attached insuring We the People learned from the lesson and could prevent it from reoccurring.

Adam Smith coined the phrase "Invisible Hand of Competition" to contrast differences between central planning for the production of goods and services versus allowing consumers to choose among completing suppliers of such items.

Smith's observation has evolved into "Invisible Hand of Corporatists" wherein less than 1% of the population own over 50% of our financial wealth, control every important multinational corporation, control our government, and use OUR (THEIR) departments of State, Commerce, Defense, Treasury to protect, control, and expand their investments in every nation.

We have become: