This is yet another example of why we should let all of these bastards rot on the vine and go penniless, without any direct or indirect help. Not until the taxpayers get their profit from stepping up to save Wall Street. I don’t care if $2.5 BILLION is a fraction of what they would have received had the miracle of miracles (their pyramid scheme worked) succeeded. Again, there is no reason why we should trust Wall Street insider and former Goldman Sachs executive Hank Paulson. No reason at all. What this latest story does is show us that no, bailouts somehow always end up reinforcing bad behavior. As Noriel Roubini says, it’s a matter of “privatizing profits and socializing losses.”

Wall Street invested hundreds of millions over years, lobbying Republicans and Washington for a supposed “free market” economy. They got what they wanted, so let them live with the goddamn results of it. None of them ought to profit one penny – not one – from this mess. If anyone deserves to profit, it ought to be the American public, who is getting shafted here. Before one more damned penny is given out to Wall Street, let the US get it’s money and then some. Let them all live on government wages for a while before they start shopping at Tiffany again. They’ve already been paid more than enough.