Here’s a stunning number for you: Thanks to the credit mess, the combined profits of all major banks in recent years has vanished.

Since the middle of 2007, the country’s nine biggest banks have written down assets worth $323 billion.

Now analysts believe they’ll need to raise another $275 billion, on top of the taxpayers’ largesse.

It’s so bad — and still getting worse — that most big banks now admit that they won’t be loaning out any of that $700 billion in bailout money soon, reports The New York Times.

“We will have the opportunity to redeploy that,” Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain told analysts, talking about the government help.

“But at least for the next quarter, it’s just going to be a cushion.”

President George W. Bush is talking up the $700 billion package, trying to assure consumers and businesses that the action was necessary.

"People look at the crisis and say, 'Oh, it's only Wall Street,' " said Bush, addressing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week.

"I don't think so. In fact, I know that if we had not acted, it would have affected the American people directly."

"If the government had not acted, the hole in our financial system would have gotten larger," Bush said.