From Money and Markets:
...Let's not waste our breath debating whether the plethora of government actions and programs since 2007 are philosophically right or wrong.
The fact is, they have failed.
In addition to the $152 billion Bush stimulus package in the spring of last year and the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in the fall, the U.S. government has loaned, invested or committed $200 billion to nationalize the world's two largest mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac … over $42 billion for the Big Three auto manufacturers … $29 billion for Bear Stearns, $150 billion for AIG, and $350 billion for Citigroup … $300 billion for the Federal Housing Administration Rescue Bill to refinance bad mortgages … $87 billion to pay back JPMorgan Chase for bad Lehman Brothers trades … $200 billion in loans to banks under the Federal Reserve's Term Auction Facility (TAF)
… $50 billion to support short-term corporate IOUs held by money market mutual funds … $500 billion to rescue various credit markets … $620 billion for industrial nations, including the Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, National Bank of Denmark, European Central Bank, Bank of Norway, Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank of Sweden, and Swiss National Bank … $120 billion in aid for emerging markets, including the central banks of Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Singapore … trillions to guarantee the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's new, expanded bank deposit insurance coverage from $100,000 to $250,000 … up to $500 billion in Fed purchases of asset-backed securities … plus trillions more for other sweeping guarantees.
Grand total: Over $9 trillion … and counting!
But based on the overall net results to date, every single one is an outright, unambiguous, proven failure:
The economy was not stimulated...
The housing bust was not avoided...
Public confidence was not restored; it has been sinking nearly nonstop…
The credit crunch was not contained...
The danger of a global debt collapse was not reduced; it has actually gotten far worse... In other words, a global debt collapse is even more likely today than it was before the U.S. government began its massive interventions.
The finances of the nation's banks were not shored up...
