Geithner says bailout will cost less than $25B

The hidden cost of currency devaluation, an aspect rarely considered in headline commenatry, will make the final cost far more expensive than any officially recognized number. The price of gold was roughly $750 at the time of bailout. Today, it's approaching $1,400 and heading higher. In other words, the financial bailout represented borrowing on the expensive while repaying on the cheap. From this vantage point, political success at least in terms of final dollar costs was ensured at the onset regardless of the economic results.

The eventual cost to taxpayers for the government's $700 billion financial bailout will be less than the $25 billion price tag put on it in the latest estimate, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday.

The Congressional Budget Office's most recent estimate is that taxpayers will lose $25 billion on the rescue of automakers, banks and other financial institutions undertaken at the peak of the crisis in the fall of 2008.

Source: finance.yahoo.com