NOTE: Image below is $15,000 Cash . . . pretty nice, huh?

If someone came into your home and held you at gunpoint and forced you to fork over $15 thousand dollars in cash (provided, of course, you kept such a large amount at home), you’d call the cops as soon as you could, wouldn’t you? In fact, if you had a gun at home, you might even try and shoot the bastards before they could get away with your money.

But what happens when it is the U.S. government that is about to break into your house and make off with that much money? Whom do you call? Batman?

And yet, that is exactly how much money, thus far, the current round of government bailouts of big financial institutions is costing American households.

When you add up the $700 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money the government wants to spend to buy up all that bad debt out there, with the money already pledged to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG and to help broker the Bear Stearns/JPMorgan Chase deal, “A $700 billion fund would push the total pledged to combat the crisis to $1.8 trillion, or $15,000 per U.S. household, says a Reuters analysis.

No Help For The Rest Of Us

While the big boys will apparently get their burdens lifted, so far, there is nothing in the proposed plan for those who are about to foreclose on their home, or can’t find a job, or can’t afford health insurance or can’t afford gas for the car or heat for the home or food for the table.

In fact, this past Friday, even after the bailout was announced to a stunned world, the average rate on a 30 year, fixed rate mortgage actually went up to 6.11 percent from 6.07 just the day before, says the Associated Press. We are clearly not out of the woods yet!

Would the alternative be worse? Maybe. Maybe not. But I can tell you this: This entire bailout is happening so fast , in such a crisis atmosphere, red lights should be blinking and alarm bells sounding from sea to shining sea.

Photo Credit: Neville’s Financial Blog

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Tags: bailout, banking, banks, Economy, financial crisis, Henry Paulson, investment bank