From Bloomberg today:
"The U.S. government has pledged more than $11.6 trillion in the past 19 months on behalf of American taxpayers to bail out banks and stimulate economic growth...
"It hasn’t been enough to stop banks from collapsing. Regulators seized 14 lenders this year, including eight this month. Last year, regulators shuttered 25 banks, including Washington Mutual Inc., the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.
"The S&P 500 Banks Index slumped 9.9 percent today, halting a four-day advance of 30 percent spurred as concern eased that banks would be nationalized and Obama’s first budget proposal asked for more financial-bailout funds."
More alarming, perhaps, than the amount of the total tab is that it continues to grow with no end in sight!
