You won't believe where that $700-billion bailout figure came from | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

"You know where that very important $700-billion figure came from?

Here's a quote from that Forbes story:

'It's not based on any particular data point,' a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. 'We just wanted to choose a really large number.'

They made it up to be sufficiently ginormous to frighten everyone into rapid action.

And it worked."