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In reply to the discussion: Sanders Releases Explosive Bailout List [View all]econoclast
(543 posts)Apologize to Ron Paul ...
But seriously , I was curious to see just how the real data was tortured into aggregating to 4 trillion dollars
Found it in footnote of the original GAO report... To wit
If an institution borrowed 10 billion overnight, but each day, for thirty days, rolled over that 10 billion dollar loan it shows up in the aggregate "aggregate borrowing" 300 billion dollars. If that same institution borrowed the same 10 billion dollars for the same 30 days but did the initial loan as a 30 day term loan instead, that loan shows up as "aggregate borrowing" of only 10 billion dollars.
Cute!
This 4 trillion dollar figure is one of those "gee whizzz" numbers that has little bearing on what happened in reality, but is designed to elicit a particular response from the reader.
Like saying I have a 150,000 dollar mortgage. I refinanced it twice to get lower rates
According to this logic I borrowed 450,000 dollars.