Why not just give everyone $38,709 instead?

[jonquest]

I was just thinking about how much money has been spent on bailouts and stimulus and this really put it in perspective for me on what's going on here.

I took the roughly $9 trillion the Fed gave out to undisclosed banks, the $1 trillion dollar stimulus package, and the $2.1 in bailouts and added them up. Then I divided by the population of the United States. This gave me an estimate of $38,709 per person in the United States. So we can give out bailouts and spend on stimulus that much money, but we can't abolish the income tax? Can someone make sense of this?

jonquest Reviewed by jonquest on 03-29-2009. Why not just give everyone $38,709 instead? I was just thinking about how much money has been spent on bailouts and stimulus and this really put it in perspective for me on what's going on here. I took the roughly $9 trillion the Fed gave out to undisclosed banks, the $1 trillion dollar stimulus package, and the $2.1 in bailouts and added them up. Then I divided by the population of the United States. This gave me an estimate of $38,709 per person in the United States. So we can give out bailouts and spend on stimulus that much money, Rating: 5

[GoldenBoy812]

Those numbers reported ($9 trillion in guarantees) are not, repeat, are not dollars pumped into the system.

The Feds balance sheet is somewhere in the $2 trillion range (and most of that is not in the economy), with a larger intake of assets occurring in the near future as Washington gears for the stimulus package. The reason all the stimulus money is phased out over 10 years is due to the fact that the treasury cannot obtain the funds (Debt financing) unless it is spread out over several years.

There is no incentive (true incentive) that would allow investors to give that type of money to the federal government given the current rate of return on long term (not even considering short term) treasuries.

[jonquest]

though the banks aren't lending the trillions (luckily). the intent was for them to do so.

anyways, the point i was trying to make was a real economic stimulus would just be cutting spending and getting rid of the income tax.

[JaggedEdge]

Those numbers reported ($9 trillion in guarantees) are not, repeat, are not dollars pumped into the system.

The Feds balance sheet is somewhere in the $2 trillion range (and most of that is not in the economy), with a larger intake of assets occurring in the near future as Washington gears for the stimulus package. The reason all the stimulus money is phased out over 10 years is due to the fact that the treasury cannot obtain the funds (Debt financing) unless it is spread out over several years.

There is no incentive (true incentive) that would allow investors to give that type of money to the federal government given the current rate of return on long term (not even considering short term) treasuries.

From what I understand, the rest of the $9 trillion came from the new budget and the printing of a bunch more money.

[GoldenBoy812]

No, the super number is in regards to leverage insurance. In the last 18 months, somewhere along the lines of $15-$30 trillion in US wealth has evaporated (depending on the stock market).

We have not felt the effects of full scale quantitative easing (long term treasury purchases by the Fed in an environment with a 0-.25% federal funds rate).

Once gold hits technical levels such as $1200, $1500, and $2000, you can be sure prices are soon to follow.

[pwn3dy0]

The government is stealing from the people to give to their friends (bankers). It's a takeover, not a bailout. They don't give two shits about the american people, at all, don't fool yourself. Why in the world would they give every citizen 38K? Sadly, they wouldn't and will not.

Even though i'd be against that, it's much better than the foreign bankers just looting our country