17 JUN 2009, Wednesday

1. It is exceedingly difficult to convey exactly how much we are spending on all these bailouts. Talking trillions (versus mere billions), and people's eyes glaze over. Humans have a hard time conceptualizing numbers that large. The graphic shows the the total costs to the taxpayer of all the monies spent, lent, consumed, borrowed, printed, guaranteed, assumed or otherwise committed. It is nothing short of astonishing.
   It includes the total outlay for all the bailouts to date. In just about one short year (march 2008 - March 2009), the bailouts managed to spend far in excess nearly every major one time expenditure of the USA, including WW2, the moon shot, the New Deal, Iraq, Viet Nam and Korean wars — COMBINED.
   206 years versus 12 months. Total cost: ~$15 trillion and counting . . .Un-flipping-believable.
2. "And what did we get...another day older and deeper in debt...I've sold my soul to the company store." Crikey! At least with the Lousiana Purchase we got ownership of almost half the land mass of the United States.
3. Well, this about sums it up better than I could have imagined...a letter writer to the Glenn Beck Show telling our politicians "Both parties are awful...it's time to man up!"