Liberty Phoenix

New, Hard Evidence of Continuing Debt Collapse!

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/new-hard-evidence-of-continuing-debt-coll...

We are governed through our perceptions. Sooner or later, reality will intrude and people won't understand what went wrong until it's too late.

Cooking the numbers and risky investments have contributed to the underfunded pension fund fiasco:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&refer=home&sid=alwTE0Z5.1EA

Most young people aren't promised a pension anymore and they certainly can't count on the looted Social Security "trust" fund to be there. Now the older generations, whose recklessness has destroyed the economy and any hope for the younger generation to save enough to compensate for their lack of retirement benefits, are once again looking to the younger generation to bail out their underfunded pension funds, so that they can retire in the style they've become accustomed to. When will the shamelessness stop? When will this game of musical chairs finally come to an end?

Each household is now on the hook for $100,000. And be it through taxes or inflation, you will pay.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/16620

Of course, we can now add World War II and the Civil War to our list of things that cost us less than these bailouts:

• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Civil War: Cost: $8.3 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $239.4 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• World War II: Cost: $288 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $3.6 trillion
• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
 

TOTAL: $7.76 trillion

With a trillion to spare. Absolutely mind boggling!

Initially based on:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/big-bailouts-bigger-bucks/

Civil War Costs from here (as of 1879):
http://www.civilwarhome.com/warcosts.htm

Just when you thought it couldn't get any more egregious. Now we'll be bailing out all of those rich people who invested in Bernard Madoff's shady investment fund.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081216/ap_on_bi_ge/wall_street_arrest_asset...

This was not an ordinary fund that just anyone could invest in, it was by invitation only. An elite fund, for elite investors, paid for by you and me. Absolutely shameless and unjustifiable.

I know, the suspense is killing you. Will Ron Paul be for or against the bailout?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvFZH_adksc

Just to put it all in perspective, the cost of these bailouts now exceeds the combined costs of the following:

• 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

From:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/big-bailouts-bigger-bucks/

How much longer until we can throw WWII ($3.6 trillion) in there as well?