U.S. Government has put itself on the hook for $5 Trillion

"For all the fury over Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion emergency economic relief fund, it seems downright puny when compared to the running total of the government's response to the credit crisis.

According to CreditSights, a research firm in New York and London, the U.S. government has put itself on the hook for some $5 trillion, so far, in an attempt to arrest a collapse of the financial system." Elizabeth Myer - Forbes Magazine

Entire article can be read here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27686586/