Critics had slammed the Federal Reserve for putting up $30 billion (in the form of a loan) in order to "facilitate" J.P. Morgan Chase's purchase of Bear Stearns Cos. when J.P. Morgan decided to buy Bear at $2 a share at the beginning of last week.

The argument, as many suggested, was that wasn't a bailout because a $2 valuation on Bear was essentially, well, nothing, and therefore the Fed wasn't doing anybody any favors. But the calculus changes now that Bear is going to be purchased by J.P. Morgan at $10 a share.

It has been an interesting ten days of trading.

That may well be much less than what some would value Bear at, but still, it's more than last week, and the only additional risk J.P. Morgan is taking on is that out of that $30 billion portfolio the Fed is assuming control of (using BlackRock Financial Management as the manager), the first $1 billion in losses are on J.P. Morgan's shoulders.

The Fed, however, is on the hook for the rest of the portfolio's losses -- and by extension, some say, U.S. taxpayers, if the Fed ends up losing money. "If the Fed takes $30 billion collateralized by illiquid assets from Bear and those assets end up being written down, how much of a hit can the Fed take on its books before it actually costs the taxpayers real money?" asks Peter Cohan, of consultancy Peter Cohan & Associates.