What America's "bank bailout" is really costing taxpayers

How much so far? Try $2.5 trillion.

Here's how BailoutSleuth comes up with its total:

• $170 billion for banks who sold preferred stock to the government
• $150 billion given to AIG -- $85 billion initially, another $25 billion, and another $40 billion
  
• $2 trillion in emergency loans from the Federal Reserve to banks under 11 different programs that are separate from the TARP program, and which didn't require approval by Congress

U.S. may take stakes in banks

Henry Paulson, U.S. treasury secretary, pauses during a news conference on Wednesday.

(Evan Vucci/The Associate Press)

Having tried without success to unlock frozen credit markets, the Treasury Department is considering taking ownership stakes in many United States banks to try to restore confidence in the financial system, according to government officials.

The American recapitalization plan - Nationalization by any other name...

Federal Reserve to buy massive amounts of short-term debts

The Federal Reserve, through its power to raise and lower interest rates, exercises more influence over economic growth and the level of employment than any other government entity. That unusual role dates from the 1970s, when the executive branch and Congress pulled back from the use of fiscal tools — vast New Deal spending and targeted tax cuts — as a means of regulating prosperity.

The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday a radical plan to buy massive amounts of short-term debts in a dramatic effort to break through a credit clog that is imperiling the economy.

Disappointment over bailout plan triggers global sell-off

Closings for key Asia-Pacific stock markets. Global stock markets reeled Monday, as panicked investors scurried for cover on fears that a much-vaunted US finance sector bailout will fail to end a crippling credit crisis. (AFP Graphic)

"People are panicked that their bank is going to go out of business. People have just lost a lot of trust in the financial system and in these large institutions," said Anil Kashyap, professor of economics and finance at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He suggested the crisis has morphed from a near shutdown in lending to a new, more dangerous phase in which financial and other companies face greater chances of insolvency.

Asian markets plunge on fears crisis is spreading

A Japanese businessman looks back a digital stock indicator in Tokyo Monday, Oct. 6, 2008. Japanese stocks sank Monday to their lowest finish in nearly five years on growing worries about a global economic slump despite the passage of a U.S. financial bailout package. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 465.05 points, or 4.25 percent, to close at 10,473.09 — its lowest finish since February 2004. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Asian stock markets plunged Monday as investors took scant comfort from Washington's passage of a $700 billion bank bailout and focused instead on deepening financial turmoil in Europe that threatens to slow global growth.

Bailout bill could cost US taypayers $1.8 Trillion

Last week, the Bush administration proposed a three-page bill to bail out Wall Street to the tune of $700 billion. It died in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week. On Friday, though, the House approved a far bigger, broader, and beefier version of the bill--which has ballooned to a remarkable 442 pages. The vote was 263 to 171, with the bulk of the opposition coming from Republicans. Because the Senate already approved the measure, it immediately went to President Bush, who signed it into law.

Stocks drop on economic concerns despite bailout

Wall Street ended its worst week in seven years with another tumble on Friday on fears that the $700 billion financial rescue package may not unblock credit markets and stave off a U.S. recession. REUTERS/Graphics

Financial stocks, which had traded sharply higher on the expectation the bill would be passed, fell after the House vote. Traders cited profit-taking and said the market was now focusing on the tough economic road still ahead and on how the bill will be implemented.

Congress OKs historic bailout bill

US Republican Representative from Florida Adam Putnam (C) speaks to the press with House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (L) and Minority Leader John Boehner after a Republican party conference meeting at the US Capitol in Washington. The US House of Representatives Friday comfortably passed a revised 700-billion-dollar Wall Street bailout, bowing to intense pressure to help avert an economic meltdown. (AFP/Nicholas Kamm)

The final vote was 263-171 in the House, a comfortable margin that was 58 more votes than the measure garnered in Monday's stunning defeat. The vote capped two weeks of tumult in Congress and on Wall Street, punctuated by daily warnings that the country confronted the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression if lawmakers failed to act.

Top 10 tax sweeteners in bailout bill

The following are some of the top tax sweeteners in the Senate passed Bailout Bill. Not all the provisions are per se outrageous, but collectively are intended to help Congressional leadership get final passage of the 2008 Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

US financial crisis causes spike in online anti-Semitism

The US financial crisis has provoked an outpouring of anti-Semitism on the Internet, with Jews being blamed for the debacle on Wall Street, a monitoring group said on Thursday.

• "The age-old canards about Jews and money are always just beneath the surface," said Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which fights anti-semitism.
  

Mr. Foxman, you can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Do you really think all of the American people are blind?

Some bailout no votes turn to yes

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., gestures during a press conference about the financial bailout package on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 in Washington. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)

Desperate to avoid another market-crushing defeat, House leaders won key converts Thursday to the $700 billion financial industry bailout on the eve of a make-or-break second vote.

Looks like the fix is in...

Senate to vote on financial rescue plan Wednesday

US Senator Kent Conrad(C) talks with reporters outside the Senate Chamber the day after the House defeated a 700 USD billion emergency rescue for the nation's financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive without it. (AFP/Tim Sloan)

Majority Leader Harry Reid and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell say, however, that they're going to add a tax cut package already rejected by the House on Monday.

Stocks surge higher, but credit worries persist

A pair of traders share a laugh on the New York Stock Exchange floor, Tuesday Sept. 30, 2008. Wall Street has ended sharply higher as investors bet that lawmakers will salvage a $700 billion rescue plan for the financial sector. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The recovery in stocks wasn't unexpected as carnage on Wall Street often attracts bargain hunters, though questions remain about how investors will proceed. Without a bailout plan in place to absorb soured mortgage debt and other bad loans from battered banks, investors are left wondering what might restore confidence in lending.

Dow's historic drop reflects financial system's challenges

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, September 29, 2008. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

Even if the $700 billion bailout had succeeded, as massive as it would have been, it would have provided just one new leg for weakened credit markets to stand on. A recovery of the financial system will also depend on reviving the flow of private investment money, closing or consolidating weak banks, and a continuation of the extraordinary efforts by the Federal Reserve.

Where did the $700B figure come from?

You know where that very important $700-billion figure came from?

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday - see this Forbes article. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

They made it up to be sufficiently ginormous to frighten everyone into rapid action. And it worked. --- Andrew Malcolm

You know, it's kinda, sorta like, the 6 million holocaust number....

White House, lawmakers plan new bailout deal

Top congressional and White House officials, stunned when the House rejected a massive rescue plan for the nation's economy, scrambled to structure a new bailout proposal that would attract reluctant lawmakers and still soothe the unnerved financial markets.

"Doing nothing is not an option," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said after seeing the $700 billion emergency package for the nation's financial systems fail 228-205 on Monday.

For once, Congress heard as voters protested bailout plan

Almost until the early afternoon vote Monday on the financial rescue plan, voters bombarded congressional offices, protesting almost in unison: Don't bail out renegade financial executives and companies.

Dow Jones Industrial Average - Plummets

Dow Loses 777 Points After Vote

Stocks tumble as bailout plan fails in House

Trader Daniel Lomeli, left, watches the numbers as he works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday Sept. 29, 2008. Markets remain strained ahead of a planned House vote on an unpopular $700 billion plan to rescue troubled financial companies and as investors look over a deal for Wachovia Corp.'s banking operations. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Fear swept across the financial markets Monday, sending the Dow Jones industrials down as much as 705 points, after the government's financial bailout package failed the House.

House votes down massive bailout measure

"Many of us feel that the national interest requires us to do something which is, in many ways, unpopular," said Rep. Barney Frank, the Financial Services Committee chairman. Frank was a key leader in negotiating the deal over the bailout.

The House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue package, ignoring urgent pleas from President Bush and bipartisan congressional leaders to quickly bail out the staggering financial industry. Stocks started plummeting on Wall Street even before 228-205 to reject the bill was announced on the House floor.