The question Francois a Paris and I are debating is whether it is politically possible in the US to bail out the banks and not the poor bloody mortgagees....

While there were quite a few poor folks who were victims of fraud, let's not pretend as though this mess was a product of Wall Street simply preying on poor people.  Many, if not most, of the homebuyers were middle- and upper-middle-class households operating under the belief that they could make a whole bunch of money flipping houses indefinitely, unaware that, yes, house prices can and will fall.

I'm not in favor of bailing out non-mission-critical financial institutions, nor am I in favor of bailing out those who are essentially gambling addicts with incomes much higher than my own.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.