The science behind the $700 billion bank bailout number

The current administration and all of its departments have shown to have little ability to forecast reality whether it is the Iraq resistance, the time to rebuild, or the dollar amount to occupy two countries in the Middle East.

The Iraq War at first was supposed to be paid for with oil. Then maybe it would cost $50 billion. Then Bush got mad at that number. Then he backed off and administration officials hypothesized $50 to $100 billion.

The real number appears to be $1 to $3 trillion.

And now they are forecasting bank failures and how much the government will be able to retrieve in mortgage payments, foreclosure sales, and just how many more banks and lending institutions will fail. How much will this cost?

A Treasury spokeswoman told reporters Tuesday some of the amazing science used to coming up with the $700 billion number:

Some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”

From Forbes on the Bank Bailout