More on the bailout

It seems like one of the rallying cries of the bailout, on both sides of the aisle, is that "stockholders and bondholders should lose everything." I understand the idea that sophisticated investors, and particularly the directors and officers of bailed-out companies, should take a major hit if the public is going to be cleaning up after their mistakes. I have to wonder, though, if that doesn't wind leaving some innocent folks holding the bag. I'm talking about the lower-level employees of the bailed-out companies, the ones who weren't involved in the screw-ups, yet still received much of their compensation in stock- much of which is so restricted that it's hard for these folks to diversify their savings. I realize that these folks' problems are a ways down the line of priority here, but to the extent the bailout deal involves punitive measures to ease the moral hazard problem, we should keep in mind that there are going to be a lot of secretaries, analysts and others who are going to get hit as well.