Bear, Sterns und Drang

File this in the Annals of Capitalism:

In a highly unusual maneuver, Fed officials said they would secure the loan by effectively taking over the huge Bear Stearns portfolio and exercising control over all major decisions in order to minimize the central bank’s own risk.

Gretchen Morgenson asks, "What are the consequences of a world in which regulators rescue even the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed helped create the titanic credit mess we are in?"

Congenital bear Bill Fleckenstein answers, "We are Bailout Nation.”