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Given the speed at which the federal government is throwing money at the financial crisis, the average taxpayer, never mind member of Congress, might not be faulted for losing track.

CNBC, however, has been paying very close attention and keeping a running tally of actual spending as well as the commitments involved.

Three-point eight trillion dollars. That's $3,800,000.000.000. More than what was spent on WW II, if adjusted for inflation, based on our computations from a variety of estimates and sources*.

Slideshow
Biggest Budget Items In US History

Not only is it a astronomical amount of money, its' a complicated cocktail of budgeted dollars, actual spending, guarantees, loans, swaps and other market mechanisms by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and other offices of government taken over roughly the last year, based on government data and new releases. Strictly speaking, not every cent is directed a result of what's called the financial crisis, but it arguably related to it.

Some 70-percent of the sum falls under the Federal Reserve's umbrella, while another 18 percent is the under the Treasury Asset Relief Program, TARP, as defined under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, signed into law in early October. (The TARP alone is bigger than virtually any other US government endeavor dating back to the Louisiana Purchase. See slideshow.)

Financial Crisis Balance Sheet
Government Entity Sum in Billions of Dollars
Federal Reserve

(TAF) Term Auction Facility 900

Discount Window Lending
Commercial Banks 108
Investment Banks 102
Loans to buy ABCP 108
AIG 122
Bear Stearns 29.5
(TSLF) Term Securities Lending Facility 225
Swap Lines 519
(MMIFF) Money Market Investor Funding Facility 540

(TARP) Treasury Asset Relief Program 700

Other:
Automakers 25
(FHA) Federal Housing Administration 300
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac 150

Total 3828.5
Note: Figures as of Oct. 23rd 2008

*References includ US National Archive, US Dept of Defense, US Bureau of Reclamation, Library of Congress, NASA, Panama Canal Authority, FDIC, Brittanica, WSJ, Time, CNN.com, and a number of other websites.

(Editor's Note: CNBC's Steve Liesman and Sabrina Korber have been keeping a runny tally of the government's efforts, while Sean Entwistle, Yolaiki Gonzalez, Giovanny Moreano and Ariel Nelson researched and computed the data for the comparisons with other major historical events in the slideshow.)