By Jeff Harding
Just in case you missed this, Neil Bardofsky, the guy in charge of auditing TARP and related programs, said yesterday that “U.S. taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $2.37 trillion to bolster the economy and bail out financial companies.” This includes all obligations by the Fed and Treasury, including money spent, pledged, or guaranteed.
The Treasury was quick to retort that, “These estimates of potential exposures do not provide a useful framework for evaluating the potential cost of these programs,” [Treasury spokesman Andrew] Williams said. “This estimate includes programs at their hypothetical maximum size, and it was never likely that the programs would be maxed out at the same time.”
Here are Bardofsky’s calculations:
Click to enlarge
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“This estimate includes programs at their hypothetical maximum size, and it was never likely that the programs would be maxed out at the same time.”
Given the fact that the ‘worst case scenario’ is routinely an underestimate when it comes to gov’t spending, we should be very afraid.
Am I missing something? The numbers in the calculations total $ 2,365 Billion, which translates to $2.365 Trillion. Where is the $23.7 trillion number coming from?
Chris, the numbers are in the billions, not the millions.
And, Lloyd, as usual, you are correct.
Just got around to revisiting this thread, and I’ll belatedly say it again: $2,365 Billion = $2.365 Trillion.
Where’s the 10x multiplier coming into effect here to get $23.7 Trillion?
Chris, the numbers in the boxes are in billions, not millions. So if you add up all the billions, you get up to the trillions. So, for example the TALF number is 1,000 billion which is a trillion.
Why is this so difficult for you? Look at the last line at the bottom of the graphic, where it says “Total”.
Now give me the actual figures you see, in that next column, in terms of Billions, and Trillions.
$2,365.0 Billion
=
$2.365 Trillion.
Now if that bottom line Total is not supposed to represent the actual projected total for these bailouts, then where is that number coming from? I interpret that “Total” from the graphic as being the total projected amount claimed in the text. And it projects 2,365 BILLION dollars, which is equal to 2.365 TRILLION dollars.
Again, where is the 23.7 Trillion figure coming from? Nothing on the graphic reads $23.7 Trillion.
Chris, I never understood what you were talking about. Now I do. Thanks for pointing this out.