[lbo-talk] Bailout Total: $29.616 Trillion Dollars: Government Accounting Office says $16 trillion

[Jordan Hayes]

> Nomi Prins has the latest numbers here:
>
> http://www.nomiprins.com/storage/bailouttallyoct2011CLEAN%20NO%20FORMULAS.pdf
>
> $9.2 trillion total bailout, but much of that was guarantees, not
> expenditure.

I don't get it.  It's supposed to be okay to say "Here's how much it 
cost" in the headline and then below, in the discussion, cop to the fact 
that this is not, um, what it cost?

I'm with Doug on this one: who gains from inflating these (already 
large) numbers?

As an example, in Nomi's graphic under "Who got it?" there's a $2.8T 
number assigned to "GSEs" ... given that the GSEs are now in 
conservatorship, what does it exactly mean to bail yourself out?

Bleah,

/jordan