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Bear Stearns was not bailed out. Bear Stearns' creditors (that would be, ultimately, us as the investors through pensions, 401k plans, and individual direct investments) were bailed out, and bailed out in about the least bailout way is possible.
Not one person at Bear Stearns woke up last week saying "hallelujah, the government sure saved our cookies: thank you taxpayers." If Bear Stearns had been allowed to go bankrupt I think we would very quickly have seen the man in the street lamenting how awful it was that such a thing had been allowed to happen.
I would have preferred that the JP Morgan had been brokered in such a way that the Fed didn't assume any risk but then on the other hand the only reason a deal could be brokered at all was that the market closes on the weekend. In other words, there wasn't really any time for trying to finesse the situation.
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