Report: Wall St. collapse cost U.S. $12.8t

YEREVAN, September 13. /ARKA/. The Wall Street collapse in 2008 and the ensuing financial crisis has cost the nation an estimated $12.8 trillion, according to a study released Wednesday by Better Markets, a Washington advocacy group that lobbies for financial reform and tighter regulations on Wall Street, Washington Post reports referring to Better markets’ report. 

The financial downturn’s huge price tag, which Better Markets attempts to calculate by adding the estimated $7.6 trillion in lost gross domestic product from 2008 to 2018 and the estimated $5.2 trillion in government bailouts and incentives, doesn’t even include the more-difficult-to-quantify damage to the nation’s psyche, Dennis Kelleher, the group’s president and CEO said.

“There’s a loss of belief in the American dream,” Mr. Kelleher told reporters in Washington, D.C. “That’s how bad things are.”

The study was released just days before the four-year anniversary of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street implosion that triggered the financial meltdown.

The $12.8 trillion figure, which the group calls a conservative estimate, attempts to quantify the costs of long-term unemployment, lost household wealth, foreclosures, government bailouts, emergency spending measures, and the other actions.

“The worst economy since the Great Depression touches every corner of our country, yet this is the first time anyone has tried to put a total value on the cost of the crisis and the implications of that cost for taxpayers, the country, and financial reform,” Mr. Kelleher said. -0-