Too Many Fingers in the Pie

I was sent a beautiful and astonishing graphical representation of the cost of the bailout of the American economy yesterday – one that made my jaw tap my laptop’s keys and type out an expressive gasp of consternation when I saw it.

The pie chart in question, below, was posted on the voltagecreative.com blog and is an aesthetically-pleasing version of statistics drawn up by the economist Barry Ritholtz.

Whilst one can question the way the dollar prices were adjusted for inflation, there is no denying that this statistic shows explicitly just how much the American economy has been propped up on hope in the last 30 years, and the enormity of the task facing Barack Obama.