The bailout is ballooning. Imagine that. Some estimates now put the total bill at over 8 trillion dollars.Those of you who thought that the money was going to the poor folks holding bad mortgages need to think again.According to Mike Sunnucks writing for the Sacramento Business Journal:The $8.5 trillion includes the $700 billion bank and Wall Street bailout; federal takeovers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, individualized bailouts for Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG); and various cash infusions into financial and lending markets by the Fed. The $700 billion includes federal equity buys into Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and other financial institutions.Bloomberg has a much more conservative number. They see the bailout as a measly $7.76 trillion:The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt...(Read Full Post)