2008-11-25 Big Bailouts, Bigger Bucks
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- when: 2008-11-25
- author: Barry Ritholtz
- source: The Big Picture
- topics: 2008 Wall Street bailout
- link: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/big-bailouts-bigger-bucks/
- title: Big Bailouts, Bigger Bucks
- summary: “The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay in American history”, even when earlier outlays are adjusted for inflation.
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.
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The only single American event in history that even comes close to matching the cost of the credit crisis is World War II: Original Cost: $288 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $3.6 trillion
The $4.6165 trillion dollars committed so far is about a trillion dollars ($979 billion dollars) greater than the entire cost of World War II borne by the United States: $3.6 trillion, adjusted for inflation (original cost was $288 billion).