• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion
TOTAL: $3.92 trillion
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28 comments:
Makes you think about all the use we could have had with all the money. But no, the purpose is merely to keep the boat afloat, without a purpose, bound to fail as it's about paying for last decade's misallocations of resources.
We had the opportunities, but we chose to buy overpriced homes and internet stocks, instead of moving civilization forward. Now it's gonna take a decade until we see such business friendly conditions. Let's hope we don't blow it up next time. That is, if there's a next time.
Or...put another way:
$7 Trillion = 70,000,000 Humvees @ $100,000 each.
So, $7 Trillion will only buy Humvees for 23% of the US Population.
We are talking play money, aren't we? Aren't we???
At what point will all these bailouts cause inflation? So far, we're just pouring money into hole dug in the sand at the beach...it just keeps disappearing.
You can even add cost of WW2 .....and we may have more $ committed as situation unfolds....Bernanke is going to aim for low inflation.....question is how much control the Fed has in order to prevent the beginning of hyperinflationary forces.....
Holy cow, even I am getting a little bit worried now. I don't care if I lose my townhouse (even if that occurs I won't sweat it). I still have cash saved up. What I am worried about is a long deflationary depression. I can handle a nice 9 to 18 months of recession. But a long deflationary depression, now that is a scary scenario. Let's just hope that the government can keep pumping money and get us out of this mess. Maybe they can, but I feel all of the ammunition is used up and what little they have is futile and we will probably enter into a deflationary depression.
We can't follow the money anymore (or the jets):
GM Asks U.S. FAA to Bar Public Tracking of Leased Corporate Jet
Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., criticized by U.S. lawmakers for its use of corporate jets, asked aviation regulators to block the public’s ability to track a plane it uses.
“We availed ourselves of the option as others do to have the aircraft removed” from a Federal Aviation Administration tracking service, a GM spokesman, Greg Martin, said yesterday in an interview. He declined to discuss why GM made the request.
I heard the bailout has cost 74000/ household to this point.Maybe they should buy everyone a forclosed house.
Nick said...
Holy cow, even I am getting a little bit worried now. I don't care if I lose my townhouse (even if that occurs I won't sweat it). I still have cash saved up.
WTF? You mean you still have your open HELOC line of credit that you hung on your townhouse? You have spent way too much energy calling us F*cked Savers to now post that you have money saved up.
Which is it?
No kidding. We're done.
Stick a fork in us!
Can anyone name the fools are still buying our T-Bills?
Is anyone buying our T-Bills?
When the rioting starts, I just want people to remember to burn selectively. Start with the realtor stores/homes, then move on to the store/homes of the mortgage companies/bankers.
Thank you, Nick. I have never seen a stronger signal of inflation than your personal concern about deflation.
As Keith has posted many times, here and on HP, Bernanke has publicly stated that he won't hesitate to use the printing press. Bernanke has said he will personally drop dollars out of a helicopter if that's what it takes.
Prolonged deflation, as occured during the Great Depression, is only possible when the currency is pegged or based in some way on gold or some precious metal or independent item.
Milton Friedman (Bernanke's guru) placed a lot of the blame for the Great Depression on the failure of the fed to devalue the USD. Of all the mistakes Bernanke may make, failure to sufficiently devalue the USD is not one of them.
Tell the truth.
Blogger JaneZ said...
Nick said...
Holy cow, even I am getting a little bit worried now. I don't care if I lose my townhouse (even if that occurs I won't sweat it). I still have cash saved up.
WTF? You mean you still have your open HELOC line of credit that you hung on your townhouse? You have spent way too much energy calling us F*cked Savers to now post that you have money saved up.
Which is it?
For your information Jane Z, I took out the HELOC money and spent it on luxury vacations, electronic goodies, etc... But in the meantime the money from my job (I work as a trauma nurse and yes I am a male nurse so you can make fun of me if you want). My wife is a school teacher. So we have saved a lot of money (all cash in a safe deposit box). Now compared to a HP'ers/Sasher, I probably don't have as much money socked away as you folks. But I do have money socked away (two years worth for living expenses).
You folks think that I am 100% completely stupid. I am not. You can call me a scammer, a crook, a thief, etc... My motivation is that I saw people getting away with mortgage fraud (I never committed mortgage fraud), living way beyond their means, etc.... So the conclusion I arrived was that; "it doesn't pay to be honest and live with in your means in this country anymore". That is why I engaged in the actions I engaged in.
Sorry, but I don't know why our society decided to reward bad behavior. But it did just that and ended up telling anyone who lived below their means "you are a sucker". I am no sucker and I got TIRED of it. So I decided to join the party.
Blogger Paul E. Math said...
Thank you, Nick. I have never seen a stronger signal of inflation than your personal concern about deflation.
As Keith has posted many times, here and on HP, Bernanke has publicly stated that he won't hesitate to use the printing press. Bernanke has said he will personally drop dollars out of a helicopter if that's what it takes.
Prolonged deflation, as occured during the Great Depression, is only possible when the currency is pegged or based in some way on gold or some precious metal or independent item.
Milton Friedman (Bernanke's guru) placed a lot of the blame for the Great Depression on the failure of the fed to devalue the USD. Of all the mistakes Bernanke may make, failure to sufficiently devalue the USD is not one of them.
Tell the truth.
November 27, 2008 4:05 PM
Paul, check out a book called Conquer The Crash by Robert Prechter. He makes a very strong case of a deflationary depression. He explains that the Federal Reserve can do nothing about falling asset prices. Not even printing more money can end up causing massive inflation. Remember, Japan tried the same trick and it didn't work for them.
BTW, who are all of the fools that are still buying up U.S. Treasuries? Don't they know that America is BROKE? And it isn't such a "safe haven in a time of trouble"???
I still have cash saved up.
Good luck with that cash thing. I hope it works out.
If you're not buying physical gold and silver as well as slv, slw, hl, dgx, gld, gdp right now, then you're going to be absolutely financially crushed by the end of 2011.
Ask Keith - he knows!
p.s. don't forget USO, DBO, DXO
pss. we are all so f*cked.
This is what it takes to try and stave off complete systemic collapse. This is the worst ever, in history, because it is a global event now.
It's all going down and I think it will be within the next 3 months.
Watch Obama come out early and say, "It's about survival now". In other word's if you have food, water and shelter you are lucky. Many will not.
Joe M.
So I am thinking, what's the big deal? It is only 7 compared to 15...and then I realize that it is trillions, not billions!
Another looming disaster: Commercial mortgage meltdown!
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081127/meltdown_coming_soon.html
After Hank Paulson dropped the TARP (or is it TRAP?), new creative ways are in the making to help banks “cook the books!”
The aforementioned article says this:
“The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering another option that might ease the crisis, one that would change accounting rules so banks don't have to declare huge losses whenever the market declines.”
WOW!!!!!!! AAAAWSOME! There is no shortage of crooks in our system of government. Our problems are being taken care of by the most skillful felons in the world. We should stop worrying too much about the future of our children!!
A shameless money party before the crooks slink out of Washington in January. I hope that everybody realizes that.
All right! Free cash for HP/Sootandashes. It's about time.
http://tinyurl.com/6c6bk4
Jack
Nice work Keith . The price is so high because of leverage / It would be the same as taking a million dollar house and lending out 30 million on it . This is what these
creeps did . You say how dare they and I agree with you .
When the rioting starts, I just want people to remember to burn selectively. Start with the realtor stores/homes, then move on to the store/homes of the mortgage companies/bankers.
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Duly noted.
I always imagine some of the biggest engineering structures which usually don't go over a $1-2b. $1T = like 1000 longest bridges or longest tunnels in the world. Maybe we could span Atlantic for that or build Moon city and deport all bankers and Realtors:) For $1T could we build high speed rail from every major city in US cut air traffic in half, dependence on oil all the s$it they talk and talk and talk for decades. BTW Acela costs around $25m that is 40 000 these high speed trains per $1T!
Nick said...
You folks think that I am 100% completely stupid. I am not.
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No, I think you are a greedy little braggart.
So the conclusion I arrived was that; "it doesn't pay to be honest and live with in your means in this country anymore". That is why I engaged in the actions I engaged in.
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Nailed it yourself: It doesn't pay to be honest.
Since when were we supposed to be paid to be honest?
---For $1T could we build high speed rail from every major city in US cut air traffic in half, dependence on oil all the s$it they talk and talk and talk for decades.
All big science ideas make one look like anti-Milton Friedman socialist. In essence, most mainstreamers, since the 80s, have bought into the markets already make the right decisions type of mentality for big science projects to take hold. This fault is that of our society, with the bankers laughing their way to the even bigger bank.
If we built a bridge to the moon, and we spent $28 million per mile, it would cost $7 trillion.
"If we built a bridge to the moon, and we spent $28 million per mile, it would cost $7 trillion."
Sad thing is that money would be better spend than bailing out the criminals on Wall Street.
Quote:
"
So the conclusion I arrived was that; "it doesn't pay to be honest and live with in your means in this country anymore". That is why I engaged in the actions I engaged in.
"
And there you have it: The stupid American living in a stupid nation. What the American need badly right now is a good dosage of "Captain Trip".
Please, "Captain Trip", pay the American people a visit soon. Maybe in 2009...
The American will open their fatty arm to receive your grace, "Captain Trip"...
hmmm, it would be interesting to see those historic numbers as a percentage of GDP too.
If we built a bridge to the moon, and we spent $28 million per mile, it would cost $7 trillion.
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dude, we can't even build a bridge on earth over a river for 28Million per mile.
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