ACCORDING TO Bloomberg, the total government/federal reserve commitment has climbed 73% since November:
The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or guaranteed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s.
New pledges from the Fed, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. include $1 trillion for the Public-Private Investment Program, designed to help investors buy distressed loans and other assets from U.S. banks. The money works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation. The nation’s gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion in 2008.
And as listed in a chart posted at the end of the story, of that amount $4.169 trillion has already been paid.
MEANWHILE the signs of of the times aren't good:
U.S. Economy: Consumer Confidence Hovers Near a Record Low
Confidence among U.S. consumers stayed near a record low and a survey of purchasing managers showed business deteriorated further in March, indicating the economy remains deep in a recession.
The Conference Board’s confidence index was at 26 this month from 25.3, the lowest reading since data began in 1967, in February. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said its business barometer decreased more than forecast to 31.4; readings below 50 signify a contraction....
The S&P/Case-Shiller index showed today that home prices in 20 U.S. cities fell a record 19 percent in January from a year earlier, as demand plummeted and foreclosures rose...
Today’s data contrast with signs the economic downturn may be past its worst. Retail sales excluding cars and trucks unexpectedly rose 0.7 percent in February, the Commerce Department said March 12, and consumer purchases rose for a second straight month. Home sales and orders for durable goods also rose unexpectedly in February.
Still, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its March payrolls report on April 3, and economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimate the U.S. lost another 658,000 jobs this month...
BUT THERE ARE THOSE who are doing better. From USA Today:
Report: AIG bailout money behind banks' recent profitability
The financial blog Zero Hedge has posted an "exclusive" that claims that, according to an insider's account, AIG (yes, that AIG) "was responsible for the banks' January and February profitability." ...
ZH tries to explain the 'mumbo jumbo' in 'layman's terms':...
In simple terms think of it as an auto dealer, which knows that U.S. taxpayers will provide for an infinite amount of money to fund its ongoing sales of horrendous vehicles (think Pontiac Azteks): the company decides to sell all the cars currently in contract, to lessors at far below the amortized market value, thereby generating huge profits for these lessors, as these turn around and sell the cars at a major profit, funded exclusively by U.S. taxpayers...
Over at Seeking Alpha, a columnist calls the e-mail "scary" and says that if it's true...
...then (a) the banks still aren't anywhere near sustainable profitability...
Which may be why we're hearing this...
Geithner Says Some Banks Need ‘Large Amounts’ of Assistance
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said some financial institutions will need substantial government aid, while warning against any attempt to tax investors who join a federal program to buy tainted assets from banks.
"Some banks are going to need some large amounts of assistance," Geithner said yesterday on the ABC News program "This Week." The terms of a $500 billion public-private program to aid banks "cannot change" for investors or they’ll lose confidence in the plan, he said on NBC’s "Meet the Press."
And nothing more of this, from October, 2008...
LA CROSSE, Wis. — Democrat Barack Obama promised Wednesday that if he is elected president "American taxpayers will never again have to put their money on the line to pay for the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street."...
"When I am president, financial institutions will do their part and pay their share, and American taxpayers will never again have to put their money on the line to pay for the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street," Obama told 15,000 supporters gathered in downtown La Crosse. "That's a pledge that I'll make to you today, and it's one that I'll keep as president of the United States."