Legal Commentary

$7.7 trillion...

That's "half the value of everything produced in the nation last year."

The money that?s been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It?s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.... It could pay off more than half the country?s mortgages....

In his Nov. 18 testimony, Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee that the central bank wouldn?t lose money.

?We take collateral, we haircut it, it is a short-term loan, it is very safe, we have never lost a penny in these various lending programs,? he said.

A haircut refers to the practice of lending less money than the collateral?s current market value.

Full post as published by Althouse on November 25, 2008 (boomark / email).