MIT商院：how much the 2008 bailouts really cost

 

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/heres-how-much-2008-bailouts-really-cost

 

Accurately assessing the costs and benefits of government bailouts will enable future policymakers to make better choices.

 

Inventory of 2009 bailouts

Lucas’s analysis of the direct costs and direct beneficiaries of the major U.S. government bailouts includes:

• The Troubled Asset Relief Program, in which the government purchased equity and warrants in distressed banks as well as in General Motors and AIG.
• Government capital infusions into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (to this day still under government conservatorship).
• Government losses arising from ongoing and expanded federal loan and loan guarantee programs, including on mortgage guarantees of the Federal Housing Administration, and on federal student loans.
• Increased FDIC coverage (which temporarily increased the cap on insured deposits to $250,000 and created a program that gave unlimited coverage of transaction accounts to banks).
• Federal Reserve emergency actions designed to provide more liquidity to the market.

 

 

Measuring the cost of bailouts

Read the paper [PDF]