The giant bank bailouts were not a con job against the taxpayers. They were a long series of old-school cons adapted by regulators and the financial industry to give banks a license to steal from us. The dollar amount of upward wealth distribution caused by the bailouts is difficult for most people to fathom and nearly impossible to measure, just as Wall Street wants it.

For detailed information, read the Rolling Stone article,  “Wall Street’s Bailout Hustle – Goldman Sachs and other big banks aren’t just pocketing the trillions we gave them to rescue the economy – they’re re-creating the conditions for another crash”
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32255149/wall_streets_bailout_hustle/1