Politico's not that great at covering financial crises (nor should they be. Woo specialization!), but their congressional sources are pretty good. And what they're hearing out of last night Bernanke/Paulson pow-wow with congressional leaders is that averting a global financial collapse could cost up to $1 trillion. Caveats: That's many multiples higher than any other estimate I've seen, and there's no specificity of time frame ($1 trillion over the next year is very different than $1 trillion over the next 10 years). It's a scary amount though. Also, South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint told The LA Times, "What is missing from it and from the recent string of bailouts is a commitment to return to a free enterprise economy. ... What we need now is not what could be nearly a trillion dollars in new taxpayer bailouts but pro-growth policies that allow our markets to correct and start growing again.” As Brad DeLong says, it's time for the market fundamentalists to sit down and shut up for a little while. And frankly, it's for their own good. This sort of thing is embarrassing.
