I agree that the bail out in whatever form it arrives will not be a cure. It may make things less painful on teh way down though. the way things were in the financial world last week you, the US and probably most of Europe faced financial armageddon. No more interbank lending and I doubt there would have been any lending to anybody at all. That would bled over to commercial lending of all kinds and you would have seen the entire money market stop working as banks protected themselves by keeping their cash for their own use.

Some form of confidence is required in the banking system, and this bailout may help restore some. Without it, things would be a lot more painful a lot quicker.

it's all well and good to say that a painful lesson is needed, but that painful lesson is going to mean an awful lot of people out of work. And ultimately, not just bankers on Wall Street. Companies all over that depend on a working money market would fold. All walks of life would suddenly be affected, not just the bankers.