Mike,

>>Everyone seems to remember the original TARP expenditure of $700 billion. Although it has been reported in the news, people seem much less likely to know that the final cost after repayments is now estimated at under $50 billion. History will judge the so-called bailout kindly.

Depending who you ask it's down to less than $25b, which is pretty much what I said in UT back in 2008 when others were hysterical about massive burden on their grandkids... so I'm just having a bit of fun. ;-) That's not the only cost to consider, though: there are millions of kids or grandkids whose inheritance went into property that either lost most of its value or wasn't ever built when the sector collapsed. Not all of it was speculative, either.

If you want to know about a definite burden on grandkids, try Medicare. Only socializing care for the elderly and allowing insurers to cream profits from young healthy people without making any provision for the predictable needs of the elderly, is unsustainable and is going to cause a real crisis.