In other words, "everyone pays the price when investment banks go under, but only their billionaire owners reap the benefits when they're profitable."

Oklahomans, in particular, should remember well the huge collapse of banks between 1982 and 1989 started by the collapse of Penn Square Bank, which nearly brought about the failure of Continental Illinois bank. This was rather concurrent with the giant S&L bailout, which involved Sen. McCain, if memory serves.

And now, as The Agonist reports, the Bush administration has forced Bear Stearns into the hands of JPMorganChase and then used it as a pretext to open the public treasury to investment banks:

A lot of the New Deal regulations governing investment and commercial banks were dismantled when the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was approved by Congress and signed by President Clinton. This allowed each side to undertake the business of the other, but the fundamental distinction regarding lender of last resort privileges was maintained. Now it is gone in a breathtaking act of executive power that was disguised as a response to the desperate situation at Bear Stearns. We might say instead that Bear Stearns was sacrificed to provide the remaining investment banks with something they always desired—parity with commercial banks with none of the burdens or responsibilities.

Read the entire article, especially if you remember Oklahoma banking crises of the past, like Penn Square, or that little thing called "The Great Depression."