James Surowiecki explains the whole mess with Bear Stearns. I can explain it even quicker: The way business works in this country now is that a company like that can take any sort of wild, reckless risk with the money they hold because they know that if everything tanks, the federal government will bail them out and make good on their losses. And of course, either way, if they succeed or fail, the senior execs will take many millions of dollars home with them.