$7, 700,000,000,000

Bloomberg does the math on what the U.S. federal government has committed so far for various bailout/rescue efforts:

The U.S. government is prepared to lend more than $7.4 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers, or half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, to rescue the financial system since the credit markets seized up 15 months ago. [...]

The money that’s been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It’s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. It could pay off more than half the country’s mortgages.

UPDATE: Bloomberg now saying the correct figure is $7.7 trillion.