I think the thing that scares me the most is that there is getting to be no penalty for failing anymore. If somebody fails, they should fail. They shouldn't get bailed out. If there's no penalty for failing, that means there's no reward for not failing. See where I'm going?

>The words "slippery slope" may sound inappropriate here, but that's exactly it. If the Fed and the bankers were strong and big enough to blackmail the gov't into bailing them out (by money they'll borrow from the same branch they are bailing out), it's hard to say "OK, done, we won't bail out anyone else". Once you get into a position where you're extending favors to one category, before you're done with half of that category, there are dozen of others outside your doors applying makeup to look exactly the same, and practicing in front of the mirror how to shout "injustice! why them, but not me?".
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>The first 700 billion was the virginity lost (well, not really - remember all the bailouts before that). After that... it's not even a matter of running out of ink in the mint. It's when company's totals exceed 15 significant digits (the IEEE 8 byte float limitation - actually it's 15.5).