I don't think that we should even consider bailing out Wall Street. If I default on my credit I'm done. If I file for bankruptcy I'm done. If I don't pay my mortgage I'm done.
Why should it be any different for Wall Street.
Here is my plan. Anyone who is having trouble making their mortgage payments should have the interest rates rolled back to what they were on Jan 2007. If they could make the payments then they should be able to make the payments now.
$700 billion dollars should be made available, not to Wall Street, but to Main Street. Enough of the trickle down economics, I say let's go with a trickle up economics. Let the money flow up through the banks and lending institutions and into Wall Street. If Wall Street firms fail so be it.
Immediately stop the 'credit default swaps' that got us into this mess. Spreading the risk seems like a good idea but package and re-packaging these subprime/risky loans looks more like a Ponzi scheme to me.
Let the FBI go after any fraud because common sense seems to indicate that this is Enron all over again but on a grander scale.
This is probably very simplistic but trickle down economics accompanied with deregulation hasn't been working and reversing the flow of money (trickle up) may be the way to go. I'm just sick of managing my finances in a responsible way and seeing Wall Street (with help from the Bush administration) screw the pooch and get away with it.