could it have been spent in more useful ways that it was?

Could it have been used in ways better than committing it to backstopping bogus debt, trading cash for trash, stowing financial embarrasments in "facilities" such as Maiden Lane I,II and III and propping up the very institutions that are sucking the life out of the US economy? Gee, dunno. Hard question. Just how will those "investments" compare to building a high voltage transmission grid to enable wind power to be profitably deployed in front of the front range of the Rockies or electrifying our rail infrastructure and turning it into a high speed infrastructure, etc., etc.?

Yet now we have deficit hawks telling us we cannot make the infrastructure investments or pay for health care reform because of all of the debt we have recently taken on. I recall a diary I wrote on Opportunity Cost. But of course you knew the answer when you asked the question. How can we compare self-liquidating debts to good money sent after bad money?

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."