November 26, 2008
Bailout costs more than Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, moonshot, S&L bailout, Korean War, New Deal, Iraq war, Vietnam war, and NASA's lifetime budget -- combined!
Barry Ritholtz, via Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing:
In doing the research for the "Bailout Nation" book, I needed a way to put the dollar amounts into proper historical perspective.
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.
Crunching the inflation adjusted numbers, we find 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 billionTOTAL: $3.92 trillion
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 01:34 PM | Permalink
Comments
More than the total cost of the US for WWII with a trillion to spare, too.
Posted by: John | Nov 26, 2008 9:26:49 PM
That is simply astounding!
And the effectiveness of this bailout is yet to be evaluated as well!!
Posted by: J | Nov 26, 2008 10:00:05 PM
Probably fairer normalized to (per-capita?) GDP.
Posted by: D | Nov 26, 2008 10:12:07 PM
Very sad indeed when the good people of this country with their hard earned money get to support bad moves by rich CEO's.
If we the people make a wrong move we get procecuted yet when a corporation that is running a busness to the ground immorally we get to be taxed heavier to bail them out. I heard someone say the other day " Americans are the weakest most gullible people on the earth" I thought that is extreme view, then I thought to myself , why aren't we in the streets demanding this corrupt government stop this huge crime against its people. We see nothing from the people. Then I thought, he is right we are.
Pathetic, we stand idoly by while we get screwed big time and they are even screwing our kids and we still make no move.
When the people are being robbed and enslaved and they do not start revolution they are handing their rights and freedoms over on a silver platter to their leaders. In this case the Federal Reserve.
No worries you have TV and your Ipod's while eating fast food everything's fine and when you do figure it out its gonna be too late. The kids surely do not deserve this kind of complacency.
Posted by: steve wells | Nov 26, 2008 11:18:16 PM
There is no way we will recover from this without a lot of pain
Posted by: anon | Nov 27, 2008 12:35:50 AM
How can Congress give the Big 3 such a hassle about $25 billion (which is supposed to be a loan - not a bailout/ handout like it is with these other companies) when they're practically giving it away to these companies who have stolen money from the American people right out of their mutual funds? What hypocrisy! Grandstanding arrogant jerks calling on accountability for U.S. automakers. Where's Congress's accountibility?
Posted by: Geoff | Nov 27, 2008 12:44:20 AM
Geoff-
I agree. AIG spends that much on hookers and blow during management meetings.
At least the auto makers make things (well sort of).
I know GM's response to the energy crisis was the Hummer, but maybe some of this will trickle up to our investment friends.
Posted by: Dave Ranning | Nov 27, 2008 2:51:47 PM
I have a solution to the economy crisis give each american a million dollars. I guarantee the money will be spent on new homes, cars and will stir up the economy. 350 million americans it would save a considerable amount.
Personally I hate to see my tax dollar go to some large firm and watch the ceo give him self an outrageous bonus along with the rest of the board.
Posted by: donna | Nov 28, 2008 12:46:20 AM
I have a solution to the economy crisis give each american a million dollars. I guarantee the money will be spent on new homes, cars and will stir up the economy. 350 million americans it would save a considerable amount.
Personally I hate to see my tax dollar go to some large firm and watch the ceo give him self an outrageous bonus along with the rest of the board.
Posted by: donna | Nov 28, 2008 12:48:12 AM
The Point of the Bailout is to ruin the economy even further, theres a clause in the Bill that says theres no limit to the spending, now they're going to keep on spending more and more until we're in a depression, after that they are going to kill the US Dollar and offer a new currency...most likely the Amero
Posted by: Hobo | Nov 29, 2008 9:13:06 PM
Hobo has hit the nail on the head! This has been a plan in the works for a long time.
Posted by: Paublo | Dec 1, 2008 1:43:10 PM
Here is an idea:
Let lousy businesses die. It works in nature doesn't it?
Posted by: Man Overboard | Dec 1, 2008 4:10:37 PM
How is this indexed to past cost?
Posted by: Alex | Dec 2, 2008 11:12:31 AM
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