Cost Of Financial Crisis Mounting In The Trillions

November 18. 2008

Frustrated NYSE worker

Just when the public thought the financial news pouring out of corporate America couldn’t get any worse, it is now being confirmed that the tab for cleaning up the U.S. financial crisis is in the trillions.

Financial Crisis Tab Already In The Trillions

Given the speed at which the federal government is throwing money at the financial crisis, the average taxpayer, never mind member of Congress, might not be faulted for losing track.

CNBC, however, has been paying very close attention and keeping a running tally of actual spending as well as the commitments involved.

Try $4.28 trillion dollars. That's $4,284,500,000,000 and more than what was spent on WW II, if adjusted for inflation, based on our computations from a variety of estimates and sources*.

Biggest Budget Items In US History

Not only is it a astronomical amount of money, its' a complicated cocktail of budgeted dollars, actual spending, guarantees, loans, swaps and other market mechanisms by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and other offices of government taken over roughly the last year, based on government data and new releases.

http://www.cnbc.com