See that large purple rectangle in the top row on the right that's the total estimated cost of the Iraq War?
Imagine 200 of those and you have the size of the financial exposure from derivatives. 600 trillion as of last year.
That is why the bonuses for Goldman Sachs came in at around 23 billion. They are frantically selling these things from one firm to another around the world, all in an effort to create sales commissions and bonuses.
There is nothing behind them should they fail. They don't add anything of value to society. They just make a small group of people rich, and as long as nobody calls them on the bets, the casino can chug along as it has one year after Henry Paulson pulled TARP off.
Meanwhile that box signifying the cost of feeding and clothing every child in the world looks pretty small, doesn't it?
Sadly, however, our entire apparatus of government is now set up to serve the Henry Paulsons of the world and his dumb ass son Merritt, while all these cheaper, more noble possibilities go wanting.
The saddest part of what's going to happen to us, is that we deserve it.

And don't forget about General Motor's peak market value ($60 billion), Enron's ($70 billion), MCI's ($180 billion), and AIG's ($240 billion). Easy come easy go.

That's just about the coolest graphic I've seen this year.

Thanks for finding this... amazing

Although the WSJ is not as colorful, this graphic helps put $307bill in perspective, speaking nationally:
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/10/05/tracking-bank-failures-regulators-seize-warren-bank/

That enormous shadow darkening the Great NW represents, of course, the Sheila Bair-assisted, same-day-service snatch of WaMu for Obama's best Wall St bud, JPM's Jamie Dimon.

Actually, this version of the WSJ graphic mentioned above offers some color is so much more interactive:
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/info-Failed_Banks-sort.html