Sunday, November 30, 2008

Christmas is getting expensive...

When the mainstream media, say, ABC News, says that the bailout is getting expensive, maybe we should sit up and take notice. That "$700 billion" bailout is now expected to cost as much as $7.5 trillion, which is more than twice the inflation-adjusted cost of World War II ($3.6 trillion). This could increase the national debt to some $18 trillion, and the total unfunded liabilities of the U.S. Government to more than $60 trillion. According to Russell Goldman at ABC News:


"Bailout programs also include a Federal Reserve plan to buy as much as $2.4 trillion in short-term notes called commercial paper that began Oct. 27, and an FDIC plan to spend $1.4 trillion to guarantee bank-to-bank loans that commenced Oct. 14, according to Bloomberg News, which first compiled the total cost of the bailout.

"'No one really knows if any of this is going to work," said Barry Ritholtz, CEO of Fusion IQ, an online quantitative research firm and author of Bailout Nation. '"

In addition, the Feds are putting in $600 billion to purchase Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt, and $800 billion to shore up consumer credit.


How will we pay for it? Print more money. You know what happens when we print more money? Ask the folks in Zimbabwe.

Virtual buckeye to Rob Williams at Vermont Commons.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Or 1923 Germany when the Reichsmark was worth more as fuel for the stove than it was as currency for a loaf of bread. People actually burned the money in their stoves because a loaf of bread went for 400 billion (yes, with a "b") Reichsmark.