>That's just a slogan. We've discussed it before: government has strong obligations relating to society and the economy. It is their job to try to fix the mess caused by greedy capitalists before it costs you your American dream. Of course it costs $ but what else is govt to do? Are you advocating allowing banks to fail?

That, too, is just a slogan. Yes, I am advocating that whoever screwed up should fail. That's capitalism. Propping the worst with the money of others is also the worst kind of socialism (the kind I never liked); it creates bottomless pits.

> If so, it won't just be one or two banks... control and financing is so incestuous now that the whole house of cards is at risk.

So let the whole house fall. Who can say that it wasn't built on nonexistent money? On some imaginary psychological value which can evaporate or grow, depending on about 1KB of information.

>In which case tell me why it is better for millions of kids to see their parents lose jobs then watch as the car, furniture and then house is seized to satisfy foreclosing bankers and creditors?

But why would this have to affect these people? If the whole system is so sensitive to its banking, and the banking gets gangrenous, are you saying it can't be surgically removed, only shot with the patient? Then there's something seriously wrong with the whole system. If it turns out to be that the banks were making more money than the assets of the nation grew, then that's a takeover by interest, and the parasite has suffocated the host.

All the more reason to go back to the times of 200+ years ago when the banks weren't allowed into the US, with a good reason.

> Why is that better than facing the possibility of what you call "debt" but which is actually printing of money that government tries but is not obligated to avoid? IMHO they've done an excellent job so far in minimizing taxpayer liability. Lets all just hope and pray for an early recovery so that Joe Taxpayer doesn't get left with the whole burden.

The funny thing is that Joe Taxpayer never pays that. He pays only the interest on that. Everything else is paid in the future. Well, just like the "free beer tomorrow" is always tomorrow, the payment in the future is always in the future.