Remember THAT gem? The FIRST bill that W signed into law? The law that made individuals FULLY LIABLE for their credit card debt if and when they declared bankruptcy? (see here:
http://www.irmi.com/Expert/Articles/2001/Klinger11.aspx)
Seems to me that these various government bailouts of AIG et al have the effect of forgiving the "unsecured debt" of these corporations, the very same kind of "unsecured debt" that USED to be forgiven for bankrupt individuals before the 2001 law took that forgiveness away, saddling individuals with the full debt of their credit cards, even as they lost their homes and their other creditors had to settle for pennies on the dollar.
What say you, Bernancke? What say you, Congress? bush? If you're going to forgive/purchase the unsecured debt of these corporations, shouldn't you extend the same courtesy to individual tax payers?