"bailout of Wall Street"

That's not actually true. Government doesn't care about Wall Street - this shit happens literally at least once every 5 years.

--Well, I think it is debatable. It is the Wall Street firms that have no liquid capital to operate. And it would be the government bailing them out so they could in turn function again in the market. But yes, the bailout isn't there to help Wall Street but to rather help everyone from households, regional banks, corporations, small businesses, and investments, and I agree with that (not that I agree that this is the best way to do it).--

"Bankruptcy does not mean the company disappears; it is just owned by someone new (as has occurred with several airlines)."

That's a dumb, naive viewpoint. That makes the assumption that the financial industry is working - on the other hand if you look at what happened last time the banking industry outright failed it wasn't just a matter of rebranding branches. The other bit that made me think this was a naive and dumbed down analysis was neglecting to mention that the assets are performant. The market is not a fair market - that is to say something may pay out at a substantial premium to what you can buy it for. The premium is a risk premium - when you're the government and you're buying in you've essentially mitigated that risk. In other words, unlike some random investment group, the government of the United State has a fair degree of control over whether or not those properties are a good buy or not.

--Bankruptcy blows, generally. And yes, I can agree with what you wrote in the above paragraph.--