Economic rescue could cost $8.5 trillion

[bemildred]

Source: LA Times

Reporting from Washington -- With its decision last week to pump an additional $1 trillion into the financial crisis, the government eliminated any doubt that the nation is on a wartime footing in the battle to shore up the economy. The strategy now -- and in the coming Obama administration -- is essentially the win-at-any-cost approach previously adopted only to wage a major war.

And that means no hesitation in pledging to spend previously almost unimaginable sums of money and running up federal budget deficits on a scale not seen since World War II.

Indeed, analysts warn that the nation's next financial crisis could come from the staggering cost of battling the current one.

Just last week, new initiatives added $600 billion to lower mortgage rates, $200 billion to stimulate consumer loans and nearly $300 billion to steady Citigroup, the banking conglomerate. That pushed the potential long-term cost of the government's varied economic rescue initiatives, including direct loans and loan guarantees, to an estimated total of $8.5 trillion -- half of the entire economic output of the U.S. this year.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pricetag30-2008no...

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Sounds like we are going to have a war on money, or something like ...

[CatholicEdHead]

1. It was only $7T last week

What are we, made of money? Let's bring on the runaway inflation.

[Baby Snooks]

2. The American ATM Machine...

That's what the taxpayers have become to Wall Street and to Congress. Need a litle money? Not to worry. The money is not deducted from your account. It is deducted from the account of the taxpayers which at this point is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy overdrawn.

[wtmusic]

3. Great - borrow more.

Borrow from our children to give loans to corporations that have already failed once at being globally profitable.

This is insane.

[Psephos]

10. Exactly n/t

[UpInArms]

4. more militaristic jingoism going on here -

wartime footing in the battle

win-at-any-cost approach previously adopted only to wage a major war

World War II

cost of battling

like a war Cabinet

fighting a global war

Just as with World War II, the government can worry about paying the bills once the enemy is defeated.

but would fall well short of the deficits of World War II

When, oh when, will someone with a major news outlet call the truth out?

When will someone say that this economic crisis is of the Bush mal-administration's making?

Why do they avoid this topic and act as though Bush had nothing to do with the problem and demand that Obama come in and clean up the mess before he even takes office?

If the president (Obama) has the power to clean this up - why in the world does everyone act as though the problem was not created by Bush and all of his policy decisions?

[denverbill]

5. Well, I guess funding Social Security and Medicare is no big deal then.

If we can borrow $8 trillion to avoid a recession, we can borrow trillions in the future to pay for those things.

[CatholicEdHead]

8. Any SS "hole" was at max $2T or so

We seem to be spending that money on these bailouts.

[defendandprotect]

6. $7.7 last I heard .. and WHY is it we shouldn't be spending this money ...

to restore nation, create green jobs --

ELECTRIC cars and new plants to build them --

SOLAR and wind energy and products we actually need?

Let the capitalists making crap sink --

We owe capitalism and corporations NOTHING --

And let's simply remove the age restrictions on Medicare --!!!

[PSPS]

7. Should read "bush's final pillage of treasury could cost $8.5 trillion"

This is nothing short of bush's final purge of both the treasury and the entire credit of the US straight into the pockets of his cronies, whose lifeless bodies should be swinging from lamp posts. Since all of this money won't create a single real job, it's all for naught.

[ozymandius]

9. In the real world these idiots who ran these companies into the ground

will be obliged to admit their idiocy. The last ten years of profits have been illusory. Time to admit that. To cover for these companies' bad decisions will have to end because we cannot afford this as a nation. There's simply not enough dollar value to spread around.

[w4rma]

11. These companies should just go bankrupt. It is not worth 8.5T to keep them around.

Not one of these companies that is getting bailed out actually builds or grows anything, anyway.

[Javaman]

12. just imagine what our world would have been like if moron* got his way

and social security had been privatized?

we are heading for a major ass recession (we are only in the beginning right now), now imagine with a privatized SS with the market so low we would have been in the beginnings of a major ass depression right now.

personally, I still believe we are heading for a depression, but that's just me.