the $1.8 trillion bailout
The infamous Wall Street bailouts now total $1.8 trillion, making them a deeper money pit than Bush's Iraq debacle. Check out this nice graph of US bailouts (h/t: Lindsay Beyerstein at Majikthise) from 1970 to the present:
The enormous magenta circle represents the 1989 S&L bailout, and the four to its right are all Bush-era bailouts:
• Airline Industry, 2001 ($18.6 billion)
• Bear Stearns, 2008 ($30 billion)
• Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac, 2008 ($200 billion)
• AIG, 2008 ($85 billion)
There appears to be additional turbulence ahead, so please keep your seatbelts fastened and your trays in their fully upright position.