The Cost of the Bailout

Here's a great conversation ender for when one of your relatives applauds the recent bailouts.

Lew Rockwell posted this on Lewrockwell.com's blog. It's a must-read.

Thanks to Steve Berger:

If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars. People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.

Jim Bianco of Bianco Research crunched the inflation adjusted numbers. The bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

So in the last 3 months or so, the United States government has essentially dedicated $696 billion more to the bailing out of th United States financial system than the combined cost of the Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, Race to the Moon, S&L Bailout, Korean War, New Deal, Iraq Invasion, Vietnam War, and Nasa.

Now, World War II is estimated at about $3.6 billion dollars inflation adjusted--$288 billion in 1945 dollars. So the bailout is already $1 trillion more than World War 2.

That should bring some perspective, and might even make a few people bring up their Thanksgiving dinner.