Chart of the Day
| Tue Sep. 23, 2008 2:50 PM PDT
CHART OF THE DAY....Via Propublica, here's a history of government bailouts starting with the Penn Central bailout of 1970. All adjusted for inflation, of course. Click the link for all the gory details.
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Comments
Submitted by Carl Nyberg (not verified) on Tue Sep. 23, 2008 3:08 PM PDT.
SoupCatcher's observation hit me too.
There's only one big bailout not on W's watch. And that was on Bush 41's watch.
I apologize for the unrelated post, but this chart reminds me of a chart I want to see on an unrelated topic. Since you are the Chart King, maybe you can make it happen.
I would like to see a visual comparison of existing world oil reserves vs. those that may be available offshore US and ANWR.
I would also like to see a comparison of cost/energy output ratio of various options for new electric power (new coal plant/new nuclear plan/wind/solar).
When we get back to talking about energy solutions, maybe you can help.
Thanks.
Submitted by Carl Nyberg (not verified) on Tue Sep. 23, 2008 3:11 PM PDT.
And the Carter administration did better than Nixon, Ford and Reagan too.
What we see in the graph is that Republicans are great at "creative destruction." By the by, and off topic, one senator said Greenspan had called the $700,000,000 "chicken feed" compared to the size of the toxic waste pile that TARP will have to detox.
Perhaps more accurately, the Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie/Freddie, and Wall Street bailouts should all be combined since they are all part of the same crisis. This would make the current fiasco more on the order of a Mr. Creosote-sized disaster.
Also, does anyone really think that the $700 billion proposal is anything more than the first payment to the extortionists?
I'm not sure these numbers represent actual cost to the taxpayers. Some are loans or loan guarantees. I would like to know how much money it cost us after all the loans were repaid (or not).
It would be nice to think that the Govt. kept track of these things and they were easily available, but that is probably naive.
Circle graphs are terrible. People (and by people I mean "me") have a tough time judging differences in area from circle sizes. For instance, a circle with radius 4 is less than half the area of a circle radius 6.
Bar graphs are the answer, it's so much easier (by which I mean "so much easier for me") to judge relative magnitudes that way.
By my math, and an eyeball measure, looks like this $700B NOW!NOW!NOW! is more than twice as large an outlay as the S&L disaster.
