You’re right, they aren’t. They are being used as meat shields for the banks failure. They are used as collateral damage because it is absolutely unfathomable that a bank use deposits to hedge against interest rate sensitive bets.

Yet here we are. Another round of bailouts that this time are rationalized as “not a bailout” because the bag holders, through no fault of their own, depositors, are the ones left holding the bag. A bank run was produced and in the name of financial and systemic risk avoidance, the free market finds itself, yet again, in need of a not-a-bailout backstop.

Other commenters stating that “the banks will pay, not the tax payers” need to get their heads out of the sand.