According to the special inspector general, Neil Barofsky, in testimony prepared for the House of Representives, the financial bailouts, along with the bank and other economic rescues, could end up costing the federal goverment (that means you and me) as much as $23 trillion. [UPDATE: The $23 trillion figure is based on the amount of money that has been guaranteed by the federal government, aka the taxpayers, as part of the bailouts. Under a worst-case scenario, if everything tanked and we had to make good on all of the guarantees, then approximately $23 trillion is the total exposure.]
This number is staggering. For the government to be on the hook for this total amount, several worst-case scenarios would have to occur. While the odds of literally everything going wrong is unlikely, given the idiotic economic decisions being made by our elected leaders, it's not out of the realm of possibility that some worst-case scenarios could occur.
This amount is nearly double the nation's entire economic output for a year and is more than the total costs of all the wars the United States has ever fought, put together.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25164.html#ixzz0Lr4Ad3TR
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