Vince Farrell says that whether it’s a bailout depends on your point of view, and that in fact the bailout could be much more profitable to taxpayers than a number of the failures have been to their shareholders and managements:

I don’t think Bear Stearns stockholders feel bailed out. Fannie and Freddie were placed into a conservatorship, Lehman was allowed to fail, AIG was aided, but on truly punitive terms and 80% of the equity will be in taxpayers hands. Washington Mutual failed last night at no cost to the government. JPMorgan got a good deal, but the common equity holders, preferred holders, and debt holders are wiped out. Paulson and Bernanke are running a tight ship. They are willing to take this task on and should be given the “privilege” based on their stewardship thus far.

Bill Gross, Pimco bond maven extraordinaire, was quoted in The New York Times that he thinks at a price of 60 or 65 cents on the dollar, the government could earn a 12-13% return on its purchase of damaged mortgage CDOs if the rescue plan were to go ahead. And Andy Kessler, a former hedge fund manager, wrote in an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal saying the rescue plan could wind up turning a profit of more than $1 trillion to the Treasury.

Meanwhile, Farrell’s colleague, the ever excitable Jim Cramer, said: “we learned about what caused the Great Depression and how it seemed so easy to stop, but they wouldn’t do the right thing…Now I see how it happened. Well-meaning people urging us to take our time as the largest thrift goes under, the largest insurance company goes under, the largest broker succumbs to a takeover and the largest industrial company explains why it can still have a good credit rating.” Clearly Mr. Cramer is not feeling bailed out.

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