November 30, 2008 (LPAC)--The bailout/thievery commitments that the financial oligarchs have so far managed to get the U.S. government to go along with, now total something on the order of $8.5 trillion, according to Bloomberg News. To get some idea of what that adds up to, in doing research for his ``Bailout Nation'' book, Barry Ritholz calculated, using inflation adjusted figures, that it is greater than the cost of the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, the race to the Moon, the S&L Crisis, the Korean War, the New Deal, the invasion of Iraq, the Vietnam War, and NASA--combined. Combined, those total just under $4 trillion.

The only American historical event that comes anywhere near the bailout commitments was World War II, at $3.6 trillion. Still less than half of the current thievery.