Not as currently proposed, which (as of this evening) gives the Treasury Secretary the authority to dole out $700 billion with no oversight and specifically prohibits review by Congress or the Courts.

As a somewhat laissez-faire capitalist, most of me says let the bastards fail, they did it to themselves. On the other hand, I think of the investors in those companies.

What we have to remember is that there is no "corporation" that can be hurt by this, because corporation is a legal construct. There's no Jabba the Hutt-like creature out there that's going to be the one hurt. Corporations are owned by their stockholders and they're the ones who take the hit. I know the common perception is that most stock is owned by bald guys who wear tuxedos and smoke cigars while chortling about how they ripped off the dumb masses (say it three times fast), but the reality is that most stock in the US is in mutual funds and most mutual fund shares belong to individual, middle-class investors. It's the IRA and 401K of the school teacher, the fireman, the small-business owner -- that's who takes the hit here.

I have no sympathy for the homeowners who bought too much house or stupid mort-gages; nor any for the corporate executives who drove their companies into the ground -- but, damn, the guy who plugs 3% into his 401K should have a reasonable expectation that any loss won't be because it was effectively stolen.