Bear market or market for Bears?

So patriotic American employees of the Federal Reserve worked through the weekend to engineer a buyout of banker Bear Stearns that sees stockholders net a small payout, employees on the way to the dole queue and the taxpayer holding the bag as guarantor for some of the banks "not liquid" (aka dodgy) assets. I am sure that there will be golden parachutes all around at the top of the Bear Stearns food chain with senior management and directors getting payouts despite their failures. Perhaps the worst aspect of this bailout is the fact that Bear Stearns' policies and business practices are, at least in part, responsible for the current state of affairs in the US economy and the worldwide banking sector. Why won't they just let the market decide?