Regulators messed up? What regulators? The problem with the AIG "bail out" is that it's not a bail out at all. It's just a 2 year bridge, so that it becomes someone else's problem. Bernanke, Paulson, and the rest of them won't be around then to care. In 2 years, when they definitely won't be able to pay back their loan (how many bankrupt companies can you name that could pay back an $85 bln loan @ 11.5% interest in 2 years??), We will give AIG another one. And then again 2 years after that. And so it goes... Financial collapse due to sheer greed and ineptitude should not be bailed out. What lesson is being learned here? Truly free markets are not sustainable, and NEVER have been. Greed always takes over, and leads to poor decison-making and, without fail, financial collapse, which in turn leads us back to more regulation and government oversight. Why not just keep the regulation the whole effing time? Greedy politicians who get big bucks from big business to get rid of all those pesky regulators. That's why. In our lifetimes, I doubt this cycle will change.