Trillions

A few years ago, someone was trying to impress on people the difference in a million dollars and a billion by stacking up things or measuring around the earth or to the moon and back. I forget the details but I have not heard them comparing a trillion with anything.

People got in trouble by borrowing more than they could pay back.
Banks got in trouble by making bad investments.
Wall Street got in trouble by borrowing against what was already borrowed.
Now the government is borrowing to bail out the whole bunch.

Maybe that is not exactly how it all happened. I do think when some of the rich folks saw that the game was about up and the bubble was going to burst that they squirrelled away what money there was in the country until all the dust clears.

It is not a free market system when the government is in charge of it. They should catch the crooks who abuse the system but it is not governments place to be the Board of Directors of the nation's businesses with the president as Chairman of the Board instead of the leader of the free world. The people, if anyone, who should be managing the money are those who can at least keep a ledger and know where the money is going, going, gone. It does no good if the government hands out money and some executive hides it away in a distant bank account until the storm is over.