…Bush is the great American nationalizer of financial industry! Freddie and Fannie took about $30 billion from US tax payers, but it’s slip, slip, slide, and CRASH! Next going down will be Lehman Brothers…. and the world economy, too. What a bad monkey George is!
Not My Tribe
the myth of middle ground
$30 billion? Where does this number come from?
$30 billion is a rough approximation, though back in July the New York Times used $25 billion as their rather rosy estimate. Actually, the Bear Stearns bailout is costing at least $25 billion and most financial commentators seem to think that Fannie and Freddie will cost more than that bailout did.
See the NYT estimate here… http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/business/economy/23treasury.html
Actually everybody seems rather hesitant to put a firm figure on any estimates lest they miss the ball park altogether and that comes back later to make them look bad.