Here's Why We Bailed out Wall Street

 While it is still very much a populist rule of thumb on the 'Left' and 'Right' that our respective major political parties threw Joe and Jill Sixpack under the bus with the 'Wall Street Bailout' there is continued evidence to disprove that (chronicled in this clip from the Wall Street Journal below). As the most liberal pundits use the bailouts as evidence not to trust and support the Democrats, the political leaders on the far right use the same evidence to push for more conservative small government Republican leaders. God save us from both! As this story shows, the bailed out banks are paying a great deal of their debt to society for their malfeasance. While it's true that most of this large settlement goes to major investors, a good bit goes to help the bottom line of Freddie and Fannie and in any case, the long run effect will be to help make it easier for Joe and Jill to get a loan! 
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Wall Street Journal-
Bank of America Settlement Throws in Kitchen Sink   
Bank of America announced this morning its $8.5 billion settlement with unhappy investors that bought now-fizzled mortgage securities from the bank. But wait, there’s more!
Bank of America also tossed in another $6.4 billion in other mortgage related charges. Mostly, that’s to seriously write down the value of its consumer real estate business. Plus, BofA said it will record a $5.5 billion provision for liabilities related to mortgage-related claims, mostly related to claims from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (But wait, we thought BofA already paid off gripes from those government entities?)
Oh, and were you looking forward to second quarter earnings next month? Yeah, forget about it. BofA said because of the billions upon billions of dollars thrown into the mortgage security black hole, the bank expects to post a loss of $8.6 billion to $9.1 billion.
One small silver lining: At least the $2.6 billion impairment charge for its consumer real-estate business won’t reduce Tier 1 and tangible equity capital ratios beloved of regulators.
And in the bizarro world of Wall Street, all this mess is considered good news, because BofA is putting behind it one of its biggest headaches and stock drags. Bank of America shares are 4.8% higher in pre-market trading.