Questions from a Bailout Eyewitness

It has become almost unpatriotic to question the many and munificent bank rescues of 2008 and beyond. If you have the temerity to do so, youâ??re likely to hear that the bailouts were the only thing standing between us and financial obliteration. You will also be told that, four years on, many of the bailouts have made money.

Itâ??s hard to argue against this narrative, not knowing what would have happened had cooler heads prevailed. But Sheila C. Bair, former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is well positioned to question the dogma of the bailout brigade.