Bailout Cost Plummets: Good News?

[Crabtownboy]

The price goes up ... the price goes down and politicians spin it all around.

It seems the bailouts taxpayers ponied up to save the financial system are going to cost a lot less than we thought.

All told, the cumulative bailout tab should come in at $89 billion, according to the Treasury. This includes everything from TARP (the $700 billion bank bailout), injections into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Federal Housing Administration loan guarantees, and the Federal Reserve buying up wads of debt to prop up credit markets.

The new estimate is down from estimates of more than $250 billion just a year ago. Some are even speculating TARP itself will turn a net profit. Others are really sticking their necks out, suggesting AIG (NYSE: AIG), long TARP's biggest money sink, could repay everything it owes in full within a year.

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...lummets-good-news.aspx?source=ihpsitth0000001