Nothing can seemingly be more stupid than this...

Remember Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? No matter what your politics are, these two quasi-private-government entities (don't know what that means? Gov't people try to run a private company but all their loses get secured by us dopes, the US taxpayer) were at the center of the housing bubble that burst in 2007-2008 and created the debacle in assets underwritten by thin air that brought down the financial system. Investors, financial companies, and banks found out that their collateralized debt actually had no collatoral-bad news.

So, in order to spank them for their bad behavior, we have handed them a whole book of blank checks. So, when they can't service the debts they owe, they just write another check on US Sam (whoops that's us!).

So, the idiots who helped to create the mess get the chance to re-create it. Of course they'll give you big technical sounding explanations for this like "trying to correctly and carefully re-inflate the bubble to sustainable proportions". Don't believe it, they no more know how to do that than you or I do.

Richly Rewarding Abject Failure

The Senate Finance Committee approved Ben Bernanke's nomination for a second term to head the Federal Reserve.

Interesting that someone who participated in the greatest National Financial Debacle since the Great Depression is being richly rewarded for his efforts with a another chance to head the great unregulated Federal Reserve.

How richly rewarded? Annual salary at the Fed will be ~$200,000 in his next term.