Scary

[cherydactyl]

IMO, a version of this with a grey area for the extra $ in a pie the same size of the bailout pie would have been more visually effective.

Only, I'm wondering if this is right...is this falling afoul of the American Billion vs. British Billion problem? I didn't think our bailout was in the trillions yet....

Apparently, the source for the numbers is this article at Boing Boing porsted by Cory Doctrow. It includes the Citi bailout money, which is why it's over 4 trillion.

Yikes.



Oh My. There are some sources out there saying it's even worse than that:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/12/calculating-the-total-bailout-costs/

Comments

[theliel.livejournal.com]

isn't big picture awesum? that and calculated risk are pretty much my go to guys, with a side of bond dad blog.

[neraulia.livejournal.com]

Wuhhhhhh...... scary.

[gizelnort.livejournal.com]

Mmm....fascinating to see the committed levels of US governmental funding and also the more direct interaction between the US government and commerce. It reminds me of a "fast print" book by an expert I saw in bookstores about two weeks ago titled "Why the Right has given up the free market and why the Left should too."

I need some sweet deal where I get to write books of politically motivated pep talks for money.

It's not that bad, yet.

[nicegeek.livejournal.com]

As others on the original posting have noted, this is a misleading presentation. The actual amount that the government has spent is still in the hundreds of billions, not the trillions, and it's mostly been spent on purchasing preferred stock and making loans. The above numbers are assuming that every single company that the government is propping up will eventually still fail, forcing the treasury to step in as the insurer of last resort to pay off their debts. That's not a realistic assumption. It's even possible (but also unlikely) that the economy will turn around, and all of these investments will yield a positive return for the taxpayer in the long run.

I'm not saying that the situation isn't dire, but the above chart is giving a worst-case picture, which differs from the most probable case by about an order of magnitude.