Today the Fed is funneling funds to Bear, Stearns, a failing Wall Street investment banker. There is no reason why the firm should not have been let fail. Its customers and lenders were abandoning it in a vote of no confidence. Why shouldn’t failures fail? The firm’s stock fell sharply and it will probably fail or be absorbed anyway. If Bear could not pay its borrowings to others, should they not suffer and feel the pangs of their errors? If Bear had to liquidate securities, should they not find a price at which investors are willing to hold them? Let the bankruptcies roll! Why is Bear favored and not others? How can a financial system in which risk plays a key role be insulated against downside risks when they come to pass? Only by shifting them to taxpayers. Main Street’s distrust of Wall Street is due for a resurgence now that the open and corrupt alliance between the Fed and its Wall Street favorites is coming out into the open. The spectacle of one bailout after another is disgusting and dismaying. The Fed is doing everything it can to prolong the financial difficulties and heighten their impact.