Fwd: Where $700B bailout figure came from (they picked a number)

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>Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:26:36 -0700 (PDT)

>Loretta Weston <afveditor

>Where $700B bailout figure came from

>

>

>Folks, you gotta share this with everyone you know ! ~Loretta

>

>

>

><http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/09/bailout-plan.html>You

>won't believe where that $700-billion bailout figure came from

>

>

>

>Here's something that

><http://topics.latimes.com/politics/people/john-mccain>John McCain

>and <http://topics.latimes.com/politics/people/barack-obama>Barack

>Obama and

><http://topics.latimes.com/politics/people/sarah-palin>Sarah Palin

>and even longtime Washingtonian

><http://topics.latimes.com/politics/people/joe-biden>Joe Biden

>probably don't know. Not to mention

><http://topics.latimes.com/politics/people/bob-barr>Bob Barr,

><http://topics.latimes.com/politics/people/ralph-nader>Ralph Nader

>and <http://topics.latimes.com/politics/people/ron-paul>Ron Paul,

>who usually knows everything.

>

>It's a fascinating footnote to the economic and political bailout

>debate that's kept so many people from more properly focusing on the

>pennant races and the Colts' problems in the last week.

>(Incidentally, do you think we'd have had this big fight if

><http://topics.latimes.com/politics/people/george-w-bush>President

>Bush had called it a " rescue " plan instead?)

>

>Our buddy from two lifetimes ago, Carl Lavin over at Forbes.com,

>points out a fascinating paragraph buried in a story on his website

>late last week by Brian Wingfield and Josh Zumbrun.

>

>You know, this $700-billion figure that exploded into everyday

>political parlance almost as fast

><http://topics.latimes.com/politics/people/sarah-palin>as Sarah?

>

>The $700-billion " cost " of resolving the financial crisis and

>restoring confidence and liquidity in the credit markets starting

>this morning?

>

>The $700-billion figure that Senate Democratic Majority Leader

><http://topics.latimes.com/politics/people/harry-reid>Harry Reid

>first said he could really use

><http://topics.latimes.com/politics/people/john-mccain>McCain's help

>with, but then the Arizonan took him up on it and Reid suddenly said

>the Republican would only get in the way and anyway, Reid said, he

>already had a done deal, except he didn't and the Nevadan ended up

>being the embarrassed one?

>

>The $700-billion figure that dominated

><http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/09/mccain-obama-de.html>the

>first part of the first presidential debate of the 2008 general

>election season between McCain and Obama?

>

>The $700-billion figure that won't really end up being anywhere near

>the actual cost because no one knows what all those mortgaged

>properties are really worth now anyway? Which is the whole problem

>in the first place because the institutions holding that paper don't

>know the value of what they're holding either, which is why everyone

>suddenly got so frightened?

>

>That $700-billion figure that won't really last because eventually

>the feds will sell off what they're buying and might even make a

>profit in the end as they did with the Chrysler bailout warrants years ago?

>

>You know where that very important $700-billion figure came from?

>

>Here's a quote from

><http://www.forbes.com/businessinthebeltway/2008/09/23/bailout-paulson-congress\

-biz-beltway-cx_jz_bw_0923bailout.html>that

>Forbes story:

>

> " It's not based on any particular data point, " a Treasury

>spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. " We just wanted to choose a

>really large number. "

>

>They made it up to be sufficiently ginormous to frighten everyone

>into rapid action.

>

>And it worked.

>

>--Andrew Malcolm

>

>Have immediate alerts on all Ticket items flashed directly to your

>cell by <http://twitter.com/latimestot>clicking here and registering

>with Twitter.

>

>Photo credit: U.S. Treasury Department

>Posted by Andrew Malcolm on September 29, 2008 in

><http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/congress/index.html>Congress

>,

><http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/economy/index.html>Economy

>,

><http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/house_of_representatives/index.html\

>House

>of Representatives ,

><http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/media/index.html>Media ,

><http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/political_history/index.html>Politi\

cal

>History ,

><http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/presidential_campaign/index.html>Pr\

esidential

>Campaign ,

><http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/senate/index.html>Senate

>,

><http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/silliness/index.html>Silliness

>|

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>won't believe where that $700-billion bailout figure came from:

>Comments

>

>If this weren't so serious, this fact would be hysterically funny.

>In light of the situation, it is frightening. It like we are lambs

>being led toward slaughter and Democrats are so complicit they think

>they are SAVING us from ourselves. They forget in the end they too

>will be consummed by it all. God help us...

>

>Posted by: Liberty Girl |

><http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/09/bailout-plan.html#comment-1\

32654189>September

>29, 2008 at 03:44 AM

>http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/09/bailout-plan.html

>

>