How much is 700 billion?

[TangoWhiskey]

Based on Google's answer to "US Population", $700 billion is over $2300 for every man, woman, and child in America. That's a LOT of money.

 

[bbchien]

Yes it is.

It's beyond Charlie Schumer's imagination. It represents 5% of the GDP of the US. The problem is, you are trying to stop a run on the bank. If the feds end up doing Charlie Schumer's 150 Bil deal not 700, it'll represent 1%.

Anybody in finance knows that a reserve of 1% is not going to stop any run on any bank.

It's too much money. BUT, Sec'y Paulsen doesn't have to use it all. If they go with 20% of the amount, they'll just lose the 150B and things will collapse anyway.

Be very, very afraid. Charlie Schumer is an idiot. Why don't we have ANYBODY on the banking committee who has any training in finance?!!! Warren Buffett for Senate!

 

[gprellwitz]

Got this from a pilot friend of mine.

The Birk Economic Recovery PLan

Hi Pals,
The Birk Economic Recovery PLan

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
- Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
- Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
- Put away money for college – it’ll be there
- Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
- Buy a new car – create jobs
- Invest in the market – capital drives growth
- Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves
- Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( “vote buy” ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG – liquidate it.

Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here’s my rationale.We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.

Sure it’s a crazy idea that can “never work.”

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spellEconomic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Kindest personal regards,

Birk

T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic


PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it’s either good for a laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!

==============
[Okay, if you do the math using $700B and 200M adults it comes out to $2,450 per person after taxes (or $297.50 for the AIG figure used). Hardly an earth-shattering sum. But what's a few orders of magnitude in Washington. I mean, pretty soon you might be talking Real Money! Maybe it's designed to show our accptance of figures without verification (BTW, the current population according to the US census is 305,247,834), or to prove that our mathematics education is ****-poor.]

 

[flyersfan31]

Be very, very afraid. Charlie Schumer is an idiot. Why don't we have ANYBODY on the banking committee who has any training in finance?!!! Warren Buffett for Senate!

NO KIDDING. Jackasses like Schumer and Barney Frank are DIRECTLY responsible for this mess. These guys are finance experts like I'm a biotechnology expert. Or not.

 

[kevin47881]

Based on Google's answer to "US Population", $700 billion is over $2300 for every man, woman, and child in America. That's a LOT of money.

Which is exactly why I sent an e-mail to both senators and my congressman requesting they vote "no" on the $700B deal.

 

[KennyFlys]

Did anyone see Bush's short speech tonight?

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Got this from a pilot friend of mine.

This SOUNDS good, but before you send it on, there's a math error in it. To get $425,000 per adult, they divided $85B by 200 THOUSAND, not 200 MILLION. That is $425 per adult, not $425,000.

 

[gprellwitz]

This SOUNDS good, but before you send it on, there's a math error in it. To get $425,000 per adult, they divided $85B by 200 THOUSAND, not 200 MILLION. That is $425 per adult, not $425,000.

Ummmm..... Duh! Didn't you read my comment at the end?

 

[sba55]

NO KIDDING. Jackasses like Schumer and Barney Frank are DIRECTLY responsible for this mess. These guys are finance experts like I'm a biotechnology expert. Or not.

I've worked for the Senate. Obviously, senators are usually not experts. Neither are governors, presidents, or any other elected official.

As a politician, it's your job to use common sense to surround yourself with experts and listen to them. You cannot possibly be an expert on economics if you haven't had a lot of training. Good politicians know who to listen to, and they admit that they're _not_ experts.

All that aside, a large number of factors are responsible for this mess. Instead of blaming Schumer, you could just as well blame the collapse of the IT bubble. Had that not happened, then we probably wouldn't be in this mess right now, either.

If you try to sustain a relatively free market, you run the risk of that market collapsing. There is a solution to this, but I on't think anybody would like it. It's the same trade-off that you see everywhere else - you can trade financial freedom for financial security, but you will sacrifice opportunity in the process. It's impossible to have both....

-Felix

 

[SkyHog]

Based on Google's answer to "US Population", $700 billion is over $2300 for every man, woman, and child in America. That's a LOT of money.

According to some emails, 700 billion == 700 Trillian. That's how crazy the bailout is! It changed math

 

[mikea]

According to some emails, 700 billion == 700 Trillian. That's how crazy the bailout is! It changed math

Andy Rooney once did a commentary on the national debt on 60 Minutes with all of the numbers on a chalk board.

As in, "We spend 50 billion dollars on defense..." and he points to "50,000,000,000,000" and it was the same with all of the rest of the numbers.

I dunno if anybody else caught it but they never ran a correction.

 

[Ghery]

Andy Rooney once did a commentary on thenational debt on 60 minutes with all of the numbers on a chalk board.

As in, "We spend 50 billion dollars on defense..." and he points to "50,000,000,000,000" and it was the same with all of the rest of the numbers.

I dunno if anybody else caught it but they never ran a correction.

That was on See BS. Not a chance they even knew it was wrong in the first place.