1.10.08

Mortgages

There are just over 305 million people in the United States. A $700 billion bailout distributed equally would provide about $2,295 per person.

In 2005 just under 100 million individuals who filed tax returns owed taxes to the IRS. A $700 billion bailout distributed equally to taxpayers would provide right at $7,000 each.

In 2005 there were 48,394,000 mortgages in the United States. Rounding up to 50 million mortgages, a $700 billion bailout would provide about $14,000.00 per mortgage.

In 2007, approximately 1,300,000 mortgages were subjected to some form of foreclosure activity. If we more than doubled that up to, say, 3 million mortgages at risk of foreclosure, a $700 billion bailout would provide about $233,000 per mortgage at risk of foreclosure.

But the thing is, it's not really a bailout, it's just a very risky investment... buying up credit instruments that can no longer be secured by the private companies that agreed to secure them because... well, because they assumed that nothing bad would happen and if it did the taxpayers would have their back.

And so we do.

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