Reply #4: Great article. One point though -

[truedelphi]

it is far more than a trillion.

The original Bailout was seven hundred billion. But an almost equal sum had been handed over to certain banks and financial firms between Aug 2007 and Sept 2008, a handover that the media ignored.

So count that as 1.4 Trillion.

Then the government went ahead and purchased the Toxic Assets, and experts still quibble over whether that was a 2.1 trillion handover, or up to 3.8 trillion.

Plus we simply gave many banks monies - some tens of billions here to Bank Of America, some tens of billions there to Goldman Sachs. Other banks as well. AIG ALONE HAS RECEIVED OVER 150 BILLION. AND AIG SERVES AS A PASS THROUGH, SO THAT THE BANKS/FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS IT DEALT WITH COULD HAVE THEIR LOSSES ON DERIVATIVES MADE GOOD.

THE TOTAL THAT NAOMI KLEIN MENTIONS THESE MANEUVERS COSTING US NOW STANDS SOMEWHERE UNDER TWELVE TRILLION. BETWEEN ELEVEN AND HALF TRILLION AND TWELVE. OF COURSE, THAT INCLUDES BUFFING UP THE SYSTEM SO THAT THE FDIC ASSURANCES MEAN SOMETHING, AS WELL.

Unfortunately for those of us that believe a trillion is REAL money - there is very little in the way of oversight. Other than the fact that we should "trust" Bernanke, Geithner, Summers Rubin etc.