Open Left

Start using the Larger Number! (4.00 / 1)

David, in your commentary I would ask that you consider using the Larger Number (See Bloomberg) every time you comment on the financial industry bailouts.  

This relates to your earlier postings about the difference between the activist class and the mass media market(s).  I don't see any real penetration into the mass media about the extent of the guarantees that have been made by the Fed.  I suspect that most people don't have any idea just how much of their money has already been pledged, or what kind of risks the Fed and the Treasury have already incurred, or what they may yet incur.  Typically what I hear on NBC Nightly or on NPR is something about TARP being $700 Billion, and there's some discussion about the "proposed" Geithner plan which "may" end up costing 1 trillion.  If the fed is mentioned, it's mentioned the same way you referred to it here; that the numbers discussed don't include the guarantees issued by the Treasury and the Fed.  

Well, if those guarantees are worth 400% of the actual monies already expended, don't you think you should include that?  Isn't that, in fact, more important, because it is in fact the vast majority of the monies taxpayers can expect to have to cover?  It seems to me that that is the number that ought to be receiving the bulk of the attention.  

---

by: Jbearlaw @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 13:49:08 PM CDT

i second that -- it's all guaranteed and is as good as spent already -- the total keeps growing, too (4.00 / 1)

i hate that tv still uses the 700 billion lie, and 3 trillion is just another lie and minimization. The Bloomberg link also says over 4 trillion has been spent outright anyway -- not 3.

people need to know the full extent of this thievery.

---

by: amberglow @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 16:18:36 PM CDT

[ Parent | ]

and the chart in the link i posted is worth spreading around too -- (4.00 / 1)

it lays out just how many different ways various branches and departments are throwing our money away by the shipload.

---

by: amberglow @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 16:20:20 PM CDT

[ Parent | ]