How big is the bailout?

$7.8T and counting. Via Barry Ritholz: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/78-trillion-bailout/

How does that compare to other very large US expenditures? (Via Barry Ritholz again: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/big-bailouts-bigger-bucks/)

Plan	$ Cost (billions)	$ Inflation Adjusted Cost (billions)
Marshall Plan	12.7	115.3
Louisiana Purchase	15	217
Race to the Moon	36.4	237
1980's S&L Crisis	153	256
Korean War	54	454
The New Deal	32	500
Invasion of Iraq	551	597
Vietnam War	111	698
NASA	416.7	851.2
World War II	288	3.6 Trillion

COMBINED TOTAL: $7.52T, or $0.28T less than the bailout so far.

Happy Birthday Kelly Arey!

And enjoy the wine below!

Chris and Lisa

Our NEW favorite white wine

Macon Chaintre.

It is superb. Lately the Picpoul du Pinet was less and less interesting and this Macon is stunningly better. It has become the white wine we look forward to!

Domaine Pascal Berthier, 2007 vintage.

Best bought at Arrow Wine (www.arrowine.com).

We recently had Kelly and Jason, and Djeneba and Mema as charming dinner guests, and it went very well with the salmon and hollandaise sauce.

Enjoy!

Inauguration

Lisa and I are figuring out just how many people we might be able to put up here. It will be nutty.

The work was more than worth it!

So Barack Obama is President-elect.

My spirits lift. I smile at the thought. All the canvassing, and phone banking, and driving people to and from polls was well worth it.

I remember my dejection in 2000 (in the U.K.) and 2004 (in the Flying Scotsman bar in DC with Bala and Jane). Part of my energy and determination to do more was born in those days.

So now, as well as building the nation back up here in America, comes hopefully a rebuilding, or better a re-foundation of healthy alternatives to the elected view.

Maybe best of all is the sense that there might be more talking about politics, more figuring out of what people really think is good policy, more debate, more study, more science, more thinking.

Even though I awoke exhausted I feel energized now, and it's not just the joy of a really good cup of tea.

Happy Birthday Lisa Squire Harnett

Best Wishes from us in McLean :)