My economics knowledge is too shoddy to comment knowledgeably on the news of Bear Stearns’ bailout by the N.Y. Fed and J.P. Morgan. My overinflated slavic sense of spite, however, makes me froth at thoughts like these:

I also wonder what Bear employees were paid in bonuses last year (I assume the checks went out in late December or January) and whether cutting that number by 50% would have saved Bear’s hide.

While I certainly don’t welcome economic catastrophe, I sure would like to see a handful of boastful high-flying financiers violently kicked to the curb every so often. Whatever else it’s doing, the Fed is keeping me from savoring a small bit of social justice.