What about us?

Check out the news:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the central bank moved to assist troubled investment bank Bear Stearns to protect the U.S. economy against severe consequences.

Bernanke is the top witness at a congressional hearing Thursday to examine whether the Fed was justified in providing $30 billion to facilitate the sale of Bear Stearns Cos. to JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Bernanke says that given the exceptional pressures on the U.S. economy, the fallout if Bear Stearns had been allowed to fail could have been severe and far-reaching.

Okay, so I guess they needed to save this bank from drowning. Or better yet, protect the profit-making machine first, then save everything else some other time. I'm struggling with this because of the "severe consequences" statement.

What are the severe consequences? What qualifies as severe consequences?

You would think after Katrina, the storms in Tennessee, and all the public school closings would qualify as something severe. There are so many things happening in our society. Think about all of the homes being foreclosed due to overpriced loans, people going bankrupt because they can't pay their student loans and rent, health care falling out, and factories and airlines shutting down. Are those issues considered severe?

Big Ben Bernanke, please be real and keep it real. It wasn't our nation that was in danger, it was you and babysitters' club's vacation accounts that would have suffered "severe consequences".