1) The bailout is one of staggeringly massive proportions.
The number being bandied about for the size of the bailout is $700 billion. Keep in mind, too, that this is an opening number. It doesn’t necessarily include relief for upside-down homeowners, strapped consumers, foreign banks or many other potential “extras” that could be added to the tally.
And yet, all by itself, $700 billion is a breathtaking number. How breathtaking, you ask?
* $700 billion is more than four times the cost of the Savings & Loan bailout in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
* As Dan Herszenhorn of the New York Times points out, $700 billion is “more than $2,000 for every man, woman child in the United States.”
* The bailout is roughly equal to what has been spent (so far) on the Iraq war, and more than a year’s annual budget for the Pentagon.
What’s worse, the terms of the bailout give the Fed and Treasury unprecedented power. In a single stroke, America has trashed its reputation as a bastion of free-market principles, possibly beyond repair.
It is so bad, in fact, that the finance minister of Italy is making fun of us.
“Greenspan was considered a master,” Italian money man Giulio Tremonti says. “Now we must ask ourselves whether he is not, after bin Laden, the man who hurt America the most. … It is clear that what is happening is a disease. It is not the failure of a bank, but the failure of a system.”....
Bailout Nation: 5 Critical Things to Consider Now
by: Justice Litle posted on: September 24, 2008
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