The US government's accountability office issued a report earlier this year summing up the costs of the 2007-08 financial crisis. Estimates of US output losses range from a few trillion dollars to over $10 trillion, depending on assumptions. Other costs include losses in household wealth, costs of long term unemployment, and budget crunches at all levels of state and local governments. In the Wall Street Journal Rex Nutting uses this analysis to put the total numbers in perspective:
“The 2008 financial crisis cost the U.S. economy more than $22 trillion, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office. That’s more than three times as much as the $5.9 trillion in profit earned by the financial sector between 1947 and 2012, and it’s slightly more than the $21.5 billion in value added by the financial sector between 1947 and 2012”
