Friday, September 25, 2009

Bank Bailouts, Compared

Ritholtz is doing public service stuff.

...let's add up some major US expenses, adjusting for inflation: Take the Marshall Plan ($115.3B), the Louisiana Purchase ($217B), the Race to the Moon ($237B), the S&L Crisis ($256B), the Korean War ($454B), the New Deal ($500B), Invasion of Iraq ($597B), (Vietnam War $698B) all of NASA ($851.2B) and WWII ($3.6T).

...all of that totaled $7.52 trillion dollars.

Compared to what?

direct cash injections, loans, assumptions of debt, commitments, guarantees, and other obligations (for Banks and Investment houses, and AIG):

$11.6 Trillion.

Yes, I argued at the time that since banks are (sorta) the Utilities of money, that preventing a shutdown of the financial system was extremely important.

That was before Paulson changed the game (before the ink was dry on TARP), and with the at least mental reservation that the Zombies should be sold off, instead of preserved forever in amber.

I shoulda knowed better.

2 comments:

Realism said...

This post is so dishonest that you should really be ashamed of yourself for printing it. That $11 trillion figure is based on assumptions that are impossible, for instance it assumes that every mortgage held by fannie and freddie defaults and the property is worth $0, that all of the shares that we've purchased in private companies are worth $0, etc.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/22/news/economy/bailout_watchdog_barofsky/?postversion=2009072210

You should be ashamed of yourself for spreading dishonest propaganda.

Dad29 said...

Hey, dipwad.

Learn how to read!

I did NOT STATE that the cost was firm--I included "guarantees, committments, and other obligations" just like Ritholtz did.

Frankly, I think Barry's better informed than you are (or CNN.)

Even then, I did NOT post that the $11Tn is sunk money. The actual gross total, by the way, including automotives, is around $24Tn.

You could look it up, but dcn't use CNN as a source.