U.S. Rescue May Cost Taxpayers $23.7 Trillion

Bloomberg Article

U.S. taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $23.7 trillion to bolster the economy and bail out financial companies, said Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Treasury’s $700 billion bank-investment program represents a fraction of all federal support to resuscitate the U.S. financial system, including $6.8 trillion in aid offered by the Federal Reserve, Barofsky said in a report released today.

“TARP has evolved into a program of unprecedented scope, scale and complexity,” Barofsky said in testimony prepared for a hearing tomorrow before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

I'm getting about as Bailout Weary during this Administration as I was War Weary during the Bush Administration.

Do we really need to foot the bill for more Bailouts?

I understand that if these businesses fail that it will cause a domino effect that will cost consumers more in the long run through lost wages, inflation, and increase cost of living.

However, at this point, I say let Darwinism have it's way with the Market. Let the Behemoths who have grown fat off the pork from Washington die as they should. Those businesses that bail themselves out will be better off to serve the public interest any way.

About the only Bailout I can get behind at this point is Bailing Out the American People. Instead of relying on Trickle-Down Economics (once called Voodoo Economics in a previous Administration), why not try Trickle-Up Economics? Bailout the American People and let them spend their money where and on whom they wish...pumping up the markets and restoring consumer confidence to our Economy. Mortgage Lenders will be bailed out because those American People who are behind on their Mortgage can start paying on it again, and Wallstreet will be bailed out because the rest of the American People will be buying and investing again.

Wow. My rough calculations puts that at about 90K for every person in the US. That would be a LOT of trickling up. It would fix MY problems for a couple months. Well..it seems like it would anyway.

That's a big number.

$23,700,000,000,000.00

Who makes this crap up?

I STILL do not understand how the banks "failed"

The last I saw the "actual" fractional reserve was 3%. That means a bank actually gave you $3,000 dollars from a depositor and $97,000 dollars in "pixie dust" (computer entry) for a $100,000 house loan. The depositor's $3,000 would be paid back in 4 to 5 months the rest is pure profit minus admin. costs. So how the heck can they screw up a sweet deal like that???

Please someone explain to me how with a profit of $150,000 on every loan that is paid off they can be "bankrupt"? Heck the HOUSE is worth more than the $3,000 max they have in the deal!

The whole thing smells like a "Creative Accounting Shell Game" where the "pixie dust" is suddenly considered real even though it was created out of nothing and represents nothing.

reply to post by fraterormus


How would you recommend bailing out the American people? Any ideas? More printed cash that is spent immediately will just result in hyper-inflation. So what would you recommend? At this point, I think the dish is cooked, and more seasoning won't improve the taste. Its still rotten and will taste like dookie....

reply to post by crimvelvet


I think the answer lies in the far simpler question of "Do you realize how many hundreds of mortgages have actually been fully repaid out of the millions that have been handed out?"

Why the bailouts are immoral:

Lender lends to borrower.

Lender goes broke
Borrower goes broke

Government says oh no, that hurts the economy..

So they lend $ to Lender
Borrower is still broke

If the Lender gets free money, why doesn't the Lender? .. they used 300 billion to dish out to the poorest Americans under Bush .. and 23 trillion to a select few banks.

Why?

The simple comparison shows just who they really care about.