I think they have to be bailed out.

I read the book "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" which is a biography about a successful investor. Part of the book is about the 1929 crash, and to really over-simplify it, what happened is credit dried up and things crashed. I think TPTB learned from that and are trying to keep things liquid by buying out and bailing out the failing companies of today. I imagine they are trying to slowly deflate the bubble, rather than pop it.

The real **** will hit the fan if the new PTB on Jan 1st start to raise interest rates to protect the dollar.