One of the notions that has been proposed is that the bad mortgages are on houses that
will eventually appreciate in value and be sold at a profit for the benefit of the taxpayers.

That's an assumption however. It could be that this could take many years of suffering by
those being evicted and the houses do depreciate whereas the land value might appreciate in years. That's still a crap shoot.

The Bailout should have been exclusively to capitalize the banks and re-negotiate the bad loans to keep people in their homes. It should have had a provision to force CEO's to give back the money they stole to the taxpayers.

The interesting development will be when the stock market tanks and Wall Street is de-horned, the credit freezes up and people will have to restyle a workable form of
business to suit the new financial environment that the next Depression will bring.