Washington's $5 Trillion Tab

Washington's $5 Trillion Tab

Fighting the financial crisis has put the U.S. on the hook for some $5 trillion a report says. So far.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.