Just how expensive have the bailouts been, in the US?
More expensive than World War II.
Wow.
That really, really puts it in perspective. After adjusting for inflation (which often seems underreported doesn’t it?) the US gov’t has spent more money bailing out financial institutions in the past four months than it spent in four years of fighting World War II!!
More below the fold…
Since the original data comes from Joseph Stiglitz — via “Arthur Cutten” and his excellent “Jesse (Livermore’s) Charts” — I believe it. I’ve read some of Stiglitz’ work (Globalization and its Discontents) as well as that of his former student Chang (Bad Samaritans); I enjoyed, and was immensely educated, by both.
I’d be interested to read Stiglitz’ opinion on Ecuador’s recent decision to selectively default on certain foreign debts. Questioning the very legality of predatory loans by the wealthy to the poor, is a creative asymmetric response. Doubt it’ll work, but either way, it makes for interesting times. 