Anyone curious what the total U.S. price tag for the crisis is thus far? You won't believe your eyes either.
October 09, 2008
– Comments (13)
I could hardly believe my own eyes as I sifted through the sources I researched for this article. I knew the total outlays from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury combined had to be approaching the $2 trillion mark, but that turns out to have been hugely conservative! Incredibly, our government and its private partner (the Fed) have tossed nearly twice that amount at this crisis, and still our credit markets are locked up like a Gitmo abductee.
I believe it is crucial for every citizen to be keenly aware of this tally, and so the many hours of research that went into this report represent a real labor of love for me. Please share this article with your family, friends, co-workers, etc. Let as many people as you can learn precisely what is happening here. The future impacts of these actions can scarcely be imagined, and the certainty of hyperinflation is now set in stone.
As you did so effectively with the "700 Billion Reasons to Own Some Gold" article earlier in the week, I humbly ask once more that all you Fools who think this is valuable information please recommend the article here so that it can find a wider audience. If we recommend it up into the top 5 articles, it will find a space on the Motley Fool homepage, and thus increase awareness of just what these expendtures mean for our collective future.
For my part, I pledge to keep a running tally of the complete price tag for this crisis going forward, and to report the result here and in future articles as appropriate. For now, and using a very conservative estimate for the recently announced commercial paper facility from the Fed, the total stands at a jaw dropping:
$3,891,300,000,000
For context:
We have surpassed the 2007 national budget ($2.77 trillion) by more than $1 trillion!
We have committed nearly five times the total direct cost to date ($800 billion) of the entire Iraq War!
Countries whose entire nominal GDP in 2007 was less that this amount: Germany, China, France, Italy, Spain, etc. etc. (only the U.S. and Japan were higher).
It's equivalent to 38% of our present national debt of $10.25 trillion, or nearly equivalent to the entire portion of our debt held by foreign governments ($4.27 trillion)
The hyperinflation we will experience by virtue of this flood of USD into the world markets will become the stuff of legend. Buy gold.
Thank you again for recommending the article.
TMFSinchiruna
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