The current outlay by the US government in response the the financial *situation* has now surpassed the value of the Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, Race to the Moon, Korean War, New Deal, Vietnam and Iraq Wars and more – COMBINED.  ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION.

These numbers are from Bianco Research, via Barry Ritholtz

Bloomberg calculates the total amount the taxpayer is on the hook for [currently] is $7.76 trillion, or $24,000 for every man woman and child in the country. (Data breakdown is here)

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

As a caveat; I don’t think the full amount of the current outlay is necessarily comparable, as in some cases it has been used for stock buys and other things which could provide returns with interest at some point in the future.  But still, we bought half the continental US for an order of magnitude less than we’ve spent trying to save our banking system.

I mentioned the Big Picture Blog in an earlier post, and when I went to see what they had posted lately, found a wonderful set of photos of Dubai.  Dubai is such a surreal place, I just hope it doesn’t end up looking like this in 50 years.

Skyscrapers intersperced with the original urban fabric

According to an article just published by Drake Bennett over at Boston.com (home of the lovely big picture blog), the effects of a contemporary depression would be strikingly different from the effects of the most recent one.

We are separated from the 1930s by decades of profound economic, technological, and political change, and a modern landscape of scarcity would reflect that.

… In a deep and sustained downturn, home prices would likely sink further and not rise, dimming the appeal of homeownership, a large part of suburbia’s draw. Renting an apartment – perhaps in a city, where commuting costs are lower – might be more tempting. And although city crime might increase, the sense of safety that attracted city-dwellers to the suburbs might suffer, too, in a downturn. Many suburban areas have already seen upticks in crime in recent years, which would only get worse as tax-poor towns spent less money on policing and public services.

In other words, the radical urbanization of the American landscape that architecture and urban planners have spent countless year trying to synthesize could emerge as an unavoidable consequence of economic implosion.  But it’s not all good news.