Barry Ritholz (go buy his book) presents this terrific chart:

[The graphic shows] the total costs to the taxpayer of all the monies spent, lent, consumed, borrowed, printed, guaranteed, assumed or otherwise committed. ... It includes the total outlay for all the bailouts to date. In just about one short year (March 2008-March 2009), the bailouts managed to spend far in excess of nearly every major one time expenditure of the USA, including WW1&2 (omitted from graphic), the moon shot, the New Deal, total NASA budgets (omitted from graphic), Iraq, Viet Nam and Korean wars — COMBINED.

206 years versus 12 months. Total cost: ~$15 trillion and counting . . .

Note that Obama and the FKDP own about half of the left-hand side; since the collapse of Lehman brothers in September 2008, they have held the whip hand on policy. The "inherited the problem" talking point -- sad successor to "wait 'til he does something" -- doesn't cut it.

So, whenever you hear Obama or the FKDP saying "we can't afford" single payer health care, or "we can't afford" to make sure your grandmother doesn't get sick from the catfood and then die in her own shit, or "we can't afford" to prevent Katrina on the Pacific as California slides off into the ocean, or "we can't afford" SUPERTRAINS for fuck's sake, the left hand side shows what Our Betters can afford, and what, and who, they spent the money on. The right hand side shows the kinds of programs we could be spending all that money on instead. That's opportunity costs.

Now, I expect very little from our famously free press, but you might have thought that you'd have been seeing highly educational charts like this, with its easy to understand talking points, all over the "progressive" blogosphere for months, since where the bailout money went and cui bono will structure every single policy choice "progressives" advocate or make, without exception, for decades: It's political economy in action!

But n-o-o-o-o-o-o-o. FAIL. Epic FAIL. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL.

Look! Over there! Sarah Palin!