> The market is upheld as the first and truest arbiter of just rewards. Those
> who succeed fabulously through entrepreneurial fair play deserve their multi-millions.
> Those who ultimately fail because they tried to game the market -- which in its infinite
> wisdom will in the end expose the fraudulent -- and now must ignominously rely on public
> subsidy (unlike SUCCESSFUL capitalists, of course), don't deserve theirs
Yup. As if the "justified" bonuses of the boom years weren't built on leverage ratios that made an eventual collapse and public bailout practically inevitable. And of course the debt was being priced with the implied expectation that govt bailouts would be available if/when necessary. Think of how much money ordinary debtors would have saved if Mastercard had set their interest rates with an implicit "Geithner put" in mind. If they'd plowed the money into the stock market and gotten out in time they'd all be rich!
SA