>> In fact, "the government and taxpayers made a $23 billion profit from the AIG bailout."

The results do not justify the process. Would small business owners be offered the same loans that were unjustifiable based on assets:liabilities? I can answer that for you right now as someone who has cash in the bank to cover a six figure loan but can't get one due to a 690ish credit score: No, they won't.

That we made a profit on (some of the) bailouts doesn't matter. The same process would never be offered to 99.999% of the other citizens of this country.

You could argue about exposure and banks that failed would have had larger impact on ordinary people than the 99.999%. But I generally agree with your comment.

You don't remember the 99.999% being offered unjustifiable mortgages? That was a big part of the financial crisis.

Er, the banks were bailed out of those terrible decisions. Individual homeowners were left to hold the bag.

If you wanted to bail out the home speculators individually, the analogous approach would be to buy their houses at below the prices the speculators had paid, essentially a short sale.

Remember TARP bought the assets for close to their realized value, so the loss was already priced in.

Well in the UK at least the taxpayers were hurt by nearly a decade of austerity measures, selling off of national assets and a gutting of the welfare state.

All as a result of yet another financial crisis caused by irresponsible and greedy financial institutions.

The government of China bails out industries all the time. However, they do it with money they print up on an as needed basis that doesn't incur debt to the government or require future payments for this debt by the taxpayer. This means that bailouts have no effects on the taxpayer in China while they burden the American taxpayer for years to come.

This isn’t completely true. The government makes the banks lend money to the SOEs with the implicit backing of the people. Much of china’s private sector debt is actually public sector debt in that way. When the loans go bad, they have to recapitalize the banks, which is when the printing presses are used.

I'm a supporter of the bailouts.

But I think that those responsible for the financial crisis should have been charged and done prison time.

> How are taxpayers hurt in the process?

Tax rates went up. (At least, where I am. Don't know about the US)

> the government and taxpayers made a $23 billion profit

How much of this did taxpayers actually get (in terms of, for example, decreased tax rates, or anything else that directly benefits the taxpayer)?