As usual, Main Street screwed while Wall Street laughs all the way to the off-shore account

Financial Crisis Cost U.S. $12.8 Trillion Or More

Mark Gongloff, HuffPost, Posted: 09/12/2012 5:09 pm

The 2008 financial crisis cost the U.S. economy at least $12.8 trillion, a new study found -- and that's a "very conservative number," according to the authors.

The study, timed to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, is a direct counter to the banking industry's relentless warnings of the potential costs of new financial regulations.

The cost of letting the banks wreck the global economy again is far, far higher.

The crisis-cost estimate, generated by Better Markets, a non-profit group lobbying for financial reform, is only a measure of actual and potential lost economic growth due to the crisis. It does not include many other costs, including the costs of extraordinary government steps taken to avoid "a second Great Depression." It does not include unquantifiable costs like the "human suffering that accompanies unemployment, foreclosure, homelessness and related damage," the authors noted.

The study also does not include figures related to any damage done to American productivity by long-lasting, widespread unemployment, which is eroding the ability of Americans to earn money and posing a threat to future economic growth.

(More here.)