This past Saturday I referred to $700 billion, the amount of money the Bush Administration wishes to allocate to bail out the bad debts of the current financial crisis, as "a quantity that most of us can barely (if at all) comprehend." Just how much is $700 billion? BBC News reporter Steve Schifferes has now provided us with one way to approach the answer to that question.

Mike Shedlock has released an open letter to U.S. Congress on the bailout plan that Treasury's Paulson has proposed. United States is going through a very difficult financial crisis, but Shedlock in his blog Mish's Global Economic Analysis questions the present bailout plan.

On Saturday, the Bush administration asked Congress for the authority to purchase $700 billion in bad mortgage assets in hopes of containing the ongoing financial crisis --- currently assailing Wall Street and financial firms, and affecting markets worldwide.

There is a fundamental problem with the whole "let Wall Street fail" meme. Here's why a bailout of some sort is unfortunately necessary - the fundamental issue is that it isn't Wall Street's money that's at risk; it's yours - and what should be done in the future.

With the Federal Government extending a $300 billion "helping hand" to financial giants Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and now AIG, one can't help but wonder why everyday taxpayers can't get a piece of the pie. 

Last night the Federal Reserve announced yet another bailout, this time of AIG. The Fed has agreed to a two-year, $85 billion loan to AIG in exchange for a nearly 80% stake in the company.