Bail Me Out Please

I am curious where I can apply for a government bail out? Is there an application that I can get?

I understand the qualifications.

I must have a really big company run by oh so smart people who made multi-million dollar compensation packages because they were so smart. These same "oh so smart" people have made very bad decisions. But don't worry we will reward them with substantial bonuses. These geniuses gave hundreds billions of dollars in mortgages to people who did not could not normally qualify, then borrowed more money to give more sub prime mortgages, and by sub prime we mean less than qualified mortgages, then sell that questionable paper to other very highly paid people.

This brilliant banking team then bought insurance from a company that had no idea what they were insuring (AIG) who borrowed money to provide more insurance, then the brilliant banking team borrowed more money to give more sub prime loans (read: unqualifed borrowers). It was okay they kept their quality rating because they were rating was being rated by companies the government gave a monopoly to rate the banks with no understanding that they were going where no man had gone before.

Or maybe I could run an automotive manufacturing company producing cars that no one wanted. I could do this for twenty plus years as my foreign competition produced better quality cars that were more fuel efficient. Then, when it became a "crisis" that I could not produce the fuel efficient, quality car that people wanted, I could ask Congress for a $50 Billion loan so I could do it right ... maybe.

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. When you makes a mistake you try to change the circumstances so you don't do it again.

When we bail out these companies, which of course we will do because they are "too big to fail" what will be different? Will we require new management instead of leaving in place the same people who made the decisions which got them into this position? Will we require the executives to limit their total compensation to only 100 times more than the lowest paid employee instead of the 250 they currently do? Will we require them to actually not take risks with our money? Will require the regulators to actually do their job? Will we require our elected officials, read Congress, to actually do their job?

What will be different when we give them $700 Billion or $50 Billion?