Bailout Plan Appears Even More Sweeping than Proposed

First, let's note that under his proposed plan, Paulson can buy non-American, non-mortgage assets, which sounds an awful lot like some of this money will go to benefit UBS, where Phil "Mr. Congeniality" Gramm, sits on the board of directors......Funny that, huh?

Furthermore, the $700 billion quoted is low. The real reckoning of the cost of the plan is $1.8 Trillion:

• The $700 billion of this plan
• $50 billion from the Exchange Stabilization Fund
• The Fed discount window loans.
• $10+ billion of Treasury purchases of mortgage backed securities (MBS)
• $144 billion in MBS purchases by Fannie and Freddie.
• $85 billion loaned to AIG
• $87 billion in repayments to JPMorgan Chase for loans to Lehman Brothers
• $200 billion for Fannie and Freddie from the Treasury
• $300 billion from the FHA to refinance bad mortgages
• $4 billion to communities to buy and resell abandoned homes.
• $29 billion to JPMorgan Chase's to pay them off for taking over Bear Stearns
• $200 billion made available through the Fed's Term Auction Facility

Someone is getting a haircut, and it ain't Wall Street executives.