Federal Bailouts, Rescues, Cash Injections Total USD $8.5 Trillion

Federal bailouts, equity buys into banks and investment houses, liquidity infusions by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, loan guarantees and economic stimulus checks now total $8.5 trillion, according to various estimates.

That equates to about 60 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, which will come in around $14 trillion, according to economists.

The $8.5 trillion total in bailouts is nearly twice the size of annual GDP in Japan and accounts for more than the annual GDP of every national economy except the U.S., European Union and China, according to federal data.

The $8.5 trillion includes the $700 billion bank and Wall Street bailout; federal takeovers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; individualized bailouts for Citigroup and American International Group; and various cash infusions into financial and lending markets by the Fed. The $700 billion includes federal equity buys into Bank of America Corp., JP Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other financial institutions.

It's official: the U.S. economy has been in a recession for all of 2008, said the National Bureau of Economic Research. Surprise, anyone?