Big Bank Bailout

"If the Fed hadn't acted this morning and Bear did default on its obligations, then that could have triggered a very widespread panic and potentially a collapse of the financial system."
- JAMES L. MELCHER, president of Balestra Capital, a hedge fund based in New
York.

That is the quotation of the day from The New York Times sent to all those signed up for e-mail headlines.

Now here is another quote: “In a trading firm, trust is everything,” said Richard Sylla, a financial historian at New York University. “The person at the other end of the phone or the trading screen has to believe that you will make good on any deal that you make.”

Yeah, we can trust all Wall Street trading firms. We can trust them to be greedy and take risks, then we can trust them to want to be rescued from their self-caused misfortune.