Posted on 01/08/2009 6:49:01 AM PST by ex-Texan
The total value of the bailouts undertaken by the federal government in 2008 now exceeds the combined cost of every major war the United States has ever engaged in, according to a comparison of war costs calculated by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the value of the bailouts as calculated by Bloomberg News or Bianco Research.
According to CRS, all major U.S. wars (including such events as the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, but not the invasion of Panama or the Kosovo War), cost a total of $7.2 trillion in inflation-adjusted 2008 dollars.
According to Bloomberg, the federal government has made commitments worth a total of $8.5 trillion in the bailouts of 2008. That includes actual expenditures as well as loan and asset guarantees.
Bianco Research puts the total value of the bailouts at $8.7 trillion.
The $296 billion spent on World War II, America’s most expensive war, would be $4.1 trillion adjusted to today’s dollars, according to the CRS report from June.
The adjusted cost of the Civil War would be $60.4 billion for both the Union and the Confederacy combined. The inflation-adjusted cost of the Vietnam War would be $686 billion. The cost of the current Iraq war up to last June was $648 billion, while the adjusted cost for Afghanistan to that point was $171 billion.
The total cost of the American Revolution was a relatively inexpensive $1.8 billion.
“World War II was financed by savings, the American people’s savings, when Americans bought war bonds,” said Olivier Garret, CEO of Casey Research, who analyzed the value of the bailout compared to the major U.S. wars and other major historical government expenses. “Today, families are in debt and government is in debt.”
A Bianco Research report cited in Politico puts the number for the total value of bailouts at $8.7 trillion and also affirms the value to be higher than the cost of all American wars and historic initiatives. A spokesman with Bianco Research could not be reached for comment as this story went to press.
The bailouts, led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, were taken as emergency actions to keep U.S. companies from going under and to prevent a total financial markets meltdown in the United States. Similar bailouts were issued in other countries to address the global financial crisis.
The Bush administration is mulling whether to use some of the $700 billion in TARP funds approved by Congress to bailout the financial industry to bailout U.S. automakers.
The bailouts could put U.S. taxpayers in a tough spot in the future, said Pete Sepp, spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union.
“I’m assuming the figures do not include the Cold War defense expenditures, which would probably amount to several trillion on their own,” Sepp told CNSNews.com. “In any case, it’s a stark illustration of just how quickly the federal government has gotten into a huge financial hole and dragged taxpayers into it in the process.”
“We can only hope and pray that many of these liabilities and guarantees and commitments the government has made will not have to be made good on,” Sepp said. “If we were to be responsible for paying out all of these obligations, even in the period of one or two years, it would be financially disastrous to the government’s credit rating and our own as taxpayers.”
Garret pointed to the cost that will be paid by Americans in the future. “Future generations of Americans are going to continue to finance the enormous amount of debt,” he said.
According to Bloomberg, the federal government has made commitments worth a total of $8.5 trillion in the bailouts of 2008. That includes actual expenditures as well as loan and asset guarantees.
I suspected this was the case. But I could not find a mainstream news report that spelled out my suspicions. The cost of these bailouts exceed all the major wars in history. And greedy corporate crooks are still lining up for more 'free money.' Obama wants to stimulate the economy with another $ 2 Trillion immediately. That ought to bring the total cost up to more than $ 10 Trillion.
Freaking insanity prevails in D.C. The government is going to print money until the US Dollar is worthless. Then they want to print Ameros and wipe out all debt with new currency. Insanity !
I want my personal bailout, too. Where is my bailout _______ ?
They are Fools and we should mass and toss them all out on the streets on there arsssss
*Ping* ! . . .
Just Damn!!!
Just as I had expected. Feckless stupidity.
"No one suggests that the cost of the bailouts will by $8.5 trillion . . . "
You are incorrect. That $ 8.5 Trillion is official. Check out the headline below.
It was featured on FR and many freepers commented . . .
The total cost of these bogus bailouts will easily exceed $ 10 Trillion. The 50 States are waiting in the wings, begging for more bailouts. That includes the cost of the royal shafting that Americans received thus far.
Bernanke and Paulson lied in testimony before Congress. They ought to be arrested and charged with perjury. Then Bush and Congress conspired to rape taxpayers for excessive costs for the next thirty years!
A Trillion Here, A Trillion There, Pretty Soon We’re Talking About Real Money !
Is there an exit strategy?
No I’m not. People throw around the $8.5 trillion number because it’s eye-catching, but far less has actually flowed out of the Treasury, most of it never will (since most of that number consists of guarantees of things that aren’t going to fail), and even much of what did flow out—such as the $350 billion in equity investments in banks—will surely bring some return to taxpayers when those stakes are eventually sold or redeemed.
Are
So
Screwed...
No.We.Are.Not.
The final bill will not be even close to 8.5 trillion. Maybe we will show a slight profit.
Guarantees do not represent outflow, just the potential.
8.5 Trillion sells advertising, government grants and more viewers. You figure it out.
This is the point of the left
THE DC INSIDERS ARE WHISPERING THAT A BIGGER NEW DEAL COULD HAVE PREVENTED WWII.
(Hitler would have won but war would have been prevented)
SPENDING EQUALS POWER FOR THE LEFT.
The set up for 2010 and 2012 will be the “republicans want to take your handout.”
That's your opinion, but remember Bush and McCain saying "The economy is fundamentally sound" before telling us that it was all going to fall apart unless we coughed up $7B.
Guarantees do not represent outflow, just the potential.
If you think we are going to recoup these trillions - or even half of it, I have a bridge to sell you.
Most of these "guarantees" consists of shoveling our money down a bottomless rat hole of depreciating debt or failing business models to try and prop up failure. All it does is put us on the hook for more when this fails, which it will.
It's like trying to catch a falling knife. It's stupid and is likely going to hurt, real bad.
Well I guess if every major bank in the country catastrophically fails and every company goes bankrupt and defaults on its commercial paper...
And even so, it looks like that $8.7 trillion number includes monetary stimulus, which is completely different from expenditure of taxpayer dollars. They obviously wanted a headline-grabbing number, not a serious estimate of the cost of the bailouts.
Good luck trying to convince people of that when most of them don’t know the first thing about accounting.
My arguments have been falling on deaf ears for months.
You're thinking of things like the automaker and AIG bailouts, but a far larger share of this number comes from things like the guarantee of money market funds. The vast majority of these are not going to fail, and even when they do "fail"--as the Reserve Primary Fund did--actually losses were only a few percentage points.
Got my wife's car serviced today.
Paused while reading my latest W.E.B. Griffin book to listen to two "economic experts" conclude that Obama would bring about a better economy because he will be in charge of the money printing presses.
Nearly cried out loud when one said, "He's not even in yet and look at what he's done for the price of gas!"
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