TARP = TRAP

The economic situation may be akin to a 500-year flood that our country has yet to experience. Frankly, our economic problems could make the Great Depression of the 1930s look like a "summer walk in the park."

Loss of purchasing power can be expected to seriously impact anyone who has savings that can be tapped by the government through inflation. I count $1,086 B total for the following federal stimulus and bail-out programs in 2008:

• Early 2008 economic stimulus program - $160 B
• New economic stimulus program proposed by Democrats who control the Senate and House of Representatives - $56 B
• Bail-out of Bear Stearns in the form of money supply inflation - $30 B
• Bail-out of AIG in the form of money supply inflation - $85 B
• Bail-out of Wall Street - Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP, otherwise known as (T-R-A-P) $700 B
• Emergency funding by the Fed to central banks of Australia, Sweden, Denmark and Norway to lend to their local banks - $30 B added to an existing $247 B lifeline (announced on p 2 of "Financial Times" Sept 25, 2008)
• Package of low-cost loans to US carmakers $25 B (expected within 2 days)

If you read nothing else today, please read the New York Times article on TARP by Andrew Ross Sorkin, "A Bailout Above the Law."