Our calculations at the European Central Bank and throughout the European System of Central Banks tell us that, in total, some 27 % of gross domestic product, in terms of risk to the taxpayer, had to be mobilised on both sides of the Atlantic in order to avoid the worst.
Fortunately, of course, this risk was not converted into losses in the majority of cases, and many such cases have yielded profits; nonetheless, without this risk-taking we would have been facing a terrible disaster. The central banks as well as all the governments of the developed and the emerging countries have been very determined.