The Brian Sullivan Blog
  • November 24, 2008 08:30 AM EST by Brian Sullivan

    $24,000 For Every Man, Woman & Child in America

    Fascinating - and somewhat sad - story on Bloomberg.com today.   My former colleague Mark Pittman has done the math on government bailout pledges so far.    How does $7.4 trillion dollars sound?  That's more than half the total output of the entire country and comes to more than $24,000 for every man, woman and child in this country.

    Here's his conclusion:

    The money that’s been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It’s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. It could pay off more than half the country’s mortgages.

    Read the whole article here.

7ftHare

Treasury should have told all the citizens to buy Citi at $2 knowing they'd bail it out. Hey, is THAT inside information ? Is the Treasury ? capable of being hit with Inside information ? I mean, sheesh, here they have TARP and here they clearly meet with this companies for re-organization... If Treasury expects to buy stocks in companies ? Who they have intimate contact with ? Hey, if someone is taking YOUR hard earned money and BURNING IT ? At what point do you stop giving it to them ? Makes ya wonder. I think the US consumer can follow Al Pacino - "We're f'd up and we're not going to take it anymore and let the IRS know their concerns on who's paying for citi.

November 24, 2008 at 11:28 am

401K retiree

"It’s time everyone read the Declaration of Independence, the start cleaning “House”!! Both of them!! " Great Idea! Many have no idea what you are speaking of. A sad state of affairs. Even if we read it, how in the he!! do we get our government to heed it and the Constitution? We are generally a nation of people with a "what's in it for me" attitude. I, for one, have lost all confidence and respect for the administrators of government. Inept, crooked politicians feeding on our tax dollars paid to benefit ourselves and others are in charge and I cannot see how we'll ever be rid of them. Have you ever noticed how many enter federal politics "poor" but all exit rich?

November 24, 2008 at 11:28 am

Patrick Norton

You have to understand that $24,000.00 is the daily expenses of some Americans with private jets and it would not even cover a corporate party's meal ticket. The slave classes of America do not seem to understand that one dress for their $5,000.00 call girl costs a lot of money. Take Ms. Clinton's jewelry for instance, that emerald necklace had to be a tax write off at over $200g. It is hard enough to keep employees working for minimum wage, just think of those truck drivers who pound down the highways with 80,000lbs of freight for 18 to 20 hours a day falsifying their log books for pennies a mile. The slave classes would not be able to enjoy the steak dinner and only deserve hamburger helper. O'bummer already made it clear what he thinks in San Francisco. Just look at the unemployment extention; 7 weeks nationwide, but 13 weeks for California and R.I. Please, you are interupting my nap.

November 24, 2008 at 11:22 am

Bill H.

This is a crazy statistic. Nice to see that my great great grandchildren will probably be paying this mess off. When they put the numbers like this, though, you're talking about close to $100K for a family of 4. Basically, the family could pay off all their credit cards, take a bite out of their mortgage, and maybe do some investing. Wouldn't this be a heck of a lot more productive to the economy than throwing it at corporations who failed Capitalism 101 and can't manage the money? Not that I'm in favor of a $7TN stimulus, but if we were going to throw that kind of money around anyway, I'm thinking "We the People" would rather see it ourselves. Besides, wouldn't this take care of the "bad debt" crippling these companies' balance sheets? I'm against all this bailout fever, but what's worse is how badly it's being handled. To DC, "Think, and Surprise Us All."

November 24, 2008 at 11:21 am

Mike Grant

Even if all the efforts some how prop the economy up, we will have a worthless dollar for many years. To much of the population has learned they can vote themselves largess from the mint, it is without a doubt the demise of our republic as envisioned.

November 24, 2008 at 11:10 am

lou dog

What the #@#$&*! is going on???? Fed Bank Takeover of U.S. policymaking! The problem is we are the "last level" of the Ponzi scheme these banks cooked up Lack of consumer purchasing power is the real problem. Everyone is "debted up", no real BK protections available, and our national treasure being used to bailout private companies.And you say WHO is a socialist? So far we have lost...Eminent Domain protections,Privacy protections, 4th Amendment protections, 1st Amendment protections, Habeus Corpus, Posse Comitatus, separation of church and state and now this??? Maybe all the whack jobs that prognosticate the Amero weren't so crazy.

November 24, 2008 at 11:01 am

Mark

The biggest problem here is that the typical American way of "I want an immediate fix" has been figured into the equation where there is no instant fix. We have overspent as an overall economy for years, and the markets are trying to correct themselves. We are attempting to maintain an overinflated economic bubble that the economy cannot sustain without massive infusions by our Government. (without which the larger corporations will certainly fail as we see here) The time has come to pay the piper, and nobody wants the party to come to an end. I believe many of these same statements were made when the "roaring 20's" came to an end. (VERBATIM)

November 24, 2008 at 10:53 am

Keith

Is it not funny how when a bank coughs the government throws money at them. Yet the car companies are told this is all their own fault. The car companies CEO's are ripped left and right yet the financal companies are allowed to just skate by with no blame. We must end all bailouts and let the chips fall where they may. Then put the blame where it should be on each company that has to close their doors. If not then I want my $24,000.

November 24, 2008 at 10:32 am

Jim Forbes

It's time everyone read the Declaration of Independence, the start cleaning "House"!! Both of them!!

November 24, 2008 at 10:07 am

Dale

What Country do I Live in. I thought it was the United States, but I guess not. Can the smart people step forward and please fix this problem. Not just keep throwing money we don't have at it. Its like being chased by a Hungery Lion and throwing carrots at it.

November 24, 2008 at 9:41 am

freddie the freeloader

Where's mine? My bailout!? It's the bailout, stupid! It's the stupid bailout! Look out! Here comes BHO/FDR the third! Didn't the Clintons try to co-opt this nomiker too? Ya can't make this stuff up, folks! ;-)

November 24, 2008 at 9:15 am

about this blog

  • Brian Sullivan joined FOX Business Network (FBN) in April 2008 as an anchor. He co-anchors the 10am-12pm ET hours of the FOX Business block. Prior to joining FBN, Sullivan served as an anchor for Bloomberg Television where he hosted the programs Morning Call and In Focus.

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