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["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

It is the moral hazard issue.  Say you had a kid that got busted selling
marijuana.  The kid cries and you mortgage your future, hire the best lawyer
to gets the kid off.  You tell the kid "I did this once but never again."
Now the kid gets busted for selling cocaine, cries again, you mortgage your
future some more, hire a better lawyer, the kids gets off, you tell the kid
"never again."  What is the kid to think when busted for selling Heroin and
starts to cry?

The same with banks.  We deregulated the S&Ls, they ran out and got
themselves in trouble, we bailed them out for several billion dollars of
borrowed money.  We bailed out a couple of other institutions to now when we
have the biggest bail out ever.  What have the intuitions learned?  Just
this, push for deregulation, use the new minimal regulations and supervision
to innovate many new products, then when it all falls apart start crying for
a bailout.  

As long as you can put yourself in the position that others think will bring
them down, you can screw up all you want and cry for help when needed.

Don Bowen  KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html