What's the dirtiest word in financial policy?
My vote goes to "bailout." The term evokes giveaways to the most undeserving of fat cats, people who accept "responsibility" for financial crises as long as that doesn't involve punishment.
Bailouts exemplify the long dishonorable principle of privatizing profits and socializing losses — that is, we're going to mulct the consumer for every cent of black ink but stick it to the taxpayer when our own mistakes put us in a hole.
