Of the $500 billion that America required for the Resolution Trust Corporation (equivalent to $1¼ trillion today), $400 billion was returned from asset sales, for a net cost of $100 billion, one-tenth the worst-case private forecasts of $1 trillion. The final tab on the toxic mortgage bailout and other assets is likely to be a larger percentage of a larger amount, but still far less than the face value of the loans, because the underlying assets will in many cases retain considerable value.