Breakdown of U.S. Bailout - $8.5 Trillion

If you're wondering how big the U.S. bailout has gotten of U.S. financial institutions, you're not alone. Most media outlets could not explain it last week after the joint Treasury/Fed Reserve announcement that Citigroup would be next in line and would receive a massive $300 billion infusion from the U.S. govt.

Bloomberg news did the only analysis I've seen adding up the total already spent to $3.2 trillion of $8.5 trillion committed. How did the numbers get so big? Here's the analysis (click to enlarge):



As you can see, the much debated and approved Congressional legislation commonly known as "TARP" is only $700 billion of the $8.5 trillion available to either the Bush Administration or the Federal Reserve which is technically not accountable to either the President or Congress.

Are these numbers large? Yes, they are massive, amounting to 60% of the entire U.S. economy.

Keep this in mind next time you hear someone saying: we can't afford to bailout the auto makers and save American jobs.