That’s 470 Million Trips to Cancun
What you could buy with the $700 billion bailing out Wall Street
Click on the video above to see Rhett riff on the $700 billion economic rescue plan.
The bad economic news just keeps coming: jobs are disappearing, the market’s in free fall, and banks are on the verge of nervous breakdowns. Last week, after a bitter debate, Congress and the president enacted what is meant to be a rescue plan for America’s economy, a promise that the government will buy up the now-toxic mortgage-backed securities on the books of troubled financial institutions.
Speaking yesterday at an office supply company outside of Washington, President Bush urged Americans to give the plan time to work. "We have been through tough times before," he said, "and we’re going to come through this again."
Whether or not they believe the plan will work, most Americans are aghast at the $700 billion price tag (a mere $250 billion will be made available immediately). But how much money is that really? Well, it’s enough to fund the National Institutes of Health 24,000 times over or to pay for about 360 years of Massachusetts’ landmark health insurance initiative (including federal contributions). It could also send every man, woman, and child in North America on a rockin’ Spring Break excursion for five nights of all-expenses paid fun in sunny Cancun. In the video above, Rhett helps bring the big bucks down to earth.
Brendan Gauthier (COM’11) contributed to this piece.
Alan Wong can be reached at alanwong@bu.edu. Chris Berdik can be reached at cberdik@bu.edu. Brendan Gauthier can be reached at btgauth@bu.edu.
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