$8.5 Trillion

We pay a lot of people a lot of money to prevent things like this. Lots of economists, lots of politicians, lots of talking heads. Fat lot of good they do us. Maybe they all should be fired.

From Economic rescue could cost $8.5 trillion by Jim Puzzanghera:

Reporting from Washington -- With its decision last week to pump an additional $1 trillion into the financial crisis, the government eliminated any doubt that the nation is on a wartime footing in the battle to shore up the economy. The strategy now -- and in the coming Obama administration -- is essentially the win-at-any-cost approach previously adopted only to wage a major war.

And that means no hesitation in pledging to spend previously almost unimaginable sums of money and running up federal budget deficits on a scale not seen since World War II.