Back in November 2008 ABC News warned that government bailout of the financial system would cost about $7.5 trillion, "the most expensive single expenditure in American history." The bailout "will cost more than the total combined costs in today's dollars of the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the entire historical budget of NASA, including the moon landing, according to data compiled by Bianco Research," reported ABC News.

But despite a lot of angst, it hasn't turned out that way. The net cost to taxpayers is likely to be $89 billion. That's less than 1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), notes The Banker. For comparison, the savings-and-loan crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s totaled about 3.2 percent of GDP. In the U.K. and other countries, the costs of financial bailouts also proved to be less than originally expected.

The Banker calculates that returns on TARP investments already repaid in full have been high on a non-annualized basis. The top 15 by total proceeds have yielded an average return of 10.2 percent. Individually, the highest is Discover Financial Services, which yielded a non-annualized return of 19.6 percent, followed by Comerica at 15 percent and Goldman Sachs at 14.2 percent. 

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