Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Total Costs of Bailouts So Far...
This Slate piece tallies them up. In terms of commitments (not actual money going out the door), the government had promised, as of Nov. 25, $5.6 trillion in new handouts, er, measures to revitalize the economy. (I think it starts with the Term Auction Facility from the end of 2007.) To put it in perspective, I heard on the radio that a Bloomberg story had found that this was more than all of the United States major wars (and it included Afghanistan), even when adjusting for inflation.
Now remember back when they first bailed out Fannie and Freddie (and then especially AIG), and all of the bad things that certain economists were predicting? Do you think at that point, if we knew for sure that it would lead to an outpouring of almost $6 trillion in new commitments in just a few months, that they would have said, "Let them go bankrupt and let the chips fall where they may"?
Now remember back when they first bailed out Fannie and Freddie (and then especially AIG), and all of the bad things that certain economists were predicting? Do you think at that point, if we knew for sure that it would lead to an outpouring of almost $6 trillion in new commitments in just a few months, that they would have said, "Let them go bankrupt and let the chips fall where they may"?
Comments:
I'm still holding down the vomit from all the "subprime is contained" rhetoric from *last year*. And yet Biden was on Meet the Press saying that "every" economist he has talked to says the stimulus package must be breathtakingly large. Um, maybe he's not talking to the right economists.
# posted by 
: December 23, 2008 at 9:08 AM
: December 23, 2008 at 9:08 AM
Government economists get government jobs because they give answers the government wants to hear.
Jim O'Connor
Jim O'Connor
# posted by : December 23, 2008 at 9:35 AM
: December 23, 2008 at 9:35 AM
Dr. Murphy.
I’m not sure I agree 100% with Mr. O’Connor, but I sincerely doubt, even if they knew what would it would lead to an additional $6 Trillion in commitments,, that the legislature/gov’t would have thought twice. In fact, knowing it would only be 6 Trillion, they would have probably asked for more.
C. Roe
I’m not sure I agree 100% with Mr. O’Connor, but I sincerely doubt, even if they knew what would it would lead to an additional $6 Trillion in commitments,, that the legislature/gov’t would have thought twice. In fact, knowing it would only be 6 Trillion, they would have probably asked for more.
C. Roe
# posted by : December 24, 2008 at 9:05 AM
: December 24, 2008 at 9:05 AM
Never underestimate the ability for people--especially legislators--to spend other people's money.
Perhaps this isn't the "worst part," bit something has me saying that the worst part of this is that the eventual increase in prices due to the inflated dollar will be blamed on greedy corporations.
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Perhaps this isn't the "worst part," bit something has me saying that the worst part of this is that the eventual increase in prices due to the inflated dollar will be blamed on greedy corporations.
# posted by : December 25, 2008 at 11:31 PM
: December 25, 2008 at 11:31 PM Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
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