'Stimulus' tab: $12.8 trillion and climbing

WASHINGTON – The federal government and the Federal Reserve have committed $12.8 trillion in spending so far to bailouts and "stimulus" packages – an amount nearly equal to the value of everything produced in the U.S. in 2008.

That's the report from Bloomberg News about efforts to reduce the economic drag of a debt-based recession – the worst financial crisis to hit the U.S. since the Great Depression.

The numbers are growing so fast, it's tough for most Americans to grasp.

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Dana Johnson, chief economist for Comerica Bank in Dallas, says: "The comparison to GDP serves the useful purpose of underscoring how extraordinary the efforts have been to stabilize the credit markets."

The tally works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation. The nation's gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion in 2008.

The combined commitment has increased by 73 percent since November, when Bloomberg first estimated the funding, loans and guarantees at $7.4 trillion.

Federal Reserve officials project the economy will keep shrinking until at least mid-year, which would mark the longest U.S. recession since the Great Depression.

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