I recently re-watched Ken Burns’ DVD series, “The War,” which is a great documentary of World War II. I picked up on something significant since the last time I watched it.
It said that the U.S. spent $300 billion in fighting, and winning, World War II. It indicated that, in today’s dollars, that would be equivalent to $3 trillion.
How does that compare to all of the government stimulus programs for COVID-19? Well, so far, with the first three rounds of stimulus, Congress has spent $3.8 trillion, and they’re about to spend an additional $1.8 trillion on round four. Counting what the Federal Reserve has spent, that’s more than $12 trillion. That’s right: In four months, we have spent four times what World War II cost us in four years (in today’s dollars).