I guess we're all Irishmen these days. People often don't believe me when I inform them about how much money the Fed/Treasury has used to backstop the global financial system since the onset of the financial crisis. It's a staggering number, and sometimes to even type it causes me second thoughts. Just the other night, as I was talking to a friend about this, he looked at me like I had two heads, one of which covered in tin foil.
When you point people to the General Accounting Office website and to the audit of the Fed/Treasury, eyes begin to glaze over. Bad enough that the report is long and tedious, but then you have to wade through the appendices to tally up the all the money lent/spent/guaranteed since 2008. How much, you ask? Try $28 Trillion. It's almost unbelievable. Yet it's true.
Keeping this in mind, you can imagine my delight to see former Rep Alan Grayson talking about this very thing on Monday evening. Via Mike Norman Economics, here's Mr. Grayson:
