You know LG, the irony here is that you, like most people, have little (if any) experience with Wall Street, structured finance, securitized debt products, SIVs, CDOs, CDSs, swaps, etc, yet you feel completely justified in yelling "greedy SOBs!" at the Wall Street guys who do. My guess is that if you were offered the $5-$10 million (or more) annual salary & bonus some of those guys get you'd act the exact same way as they did.
As gun owners we get awfully upset when someone who has never owned or fired a gun, and who's entire knowledge of guns comes from TV and the movies, tells us we need more gun control, or what kind of gun control would work best in this country. Yet when it comes to financial system, a lot of people who don't understand the basics of the markets, and only get their info from the 11pm news think they know best. Thats not meant as a slam on you, but if you don't truly understand the how's and why's behind whats moving the market, you can't come up with realistic solutions. "Let the market sort itself out" is not fear mongering or a realistic solution; its a page from the Robert Mugabe School of Economics (you do know who Robert Mugabe is?). For example, you just mentioned getting a slice of the government dole. Can you tell me where the majority of the AIG money went? Can you explain the basic terms of the deal struck by Paulson with AIG? Do you know the interest rates on that bridge loan? I can. In another post I believe you (indirectly) cited subprime loans as a factor in this mess. Can you talk about the implementation of the Community Reinvestment Act under Gramm Leach Bailey and how that deregulation jeopardized the solvency of the FDIC?
Again, this isn't meant as a flame, but populist sloganeering doesn't make for realistic or prudent economic or fiscal policy.