From what I understand, there was no guarantee that it would work anyways Lise. That is a lot of taxpayers $$ to gamble with. A lot of analysts figure it would have only helped the players on Wall Street too, and not regular Joe American.
It never made sense to me anyways, the world has been in too much debt, getting in way over their heads. Then using one type of credit to pay off another, then asking the government for another massive debt to bail out another debt? It has to end somewhere.
Let the free market reign, or fall.
I think the safest place to keep your money these days is in recreational property, and the rest in a vault in your own house.