>>Had they done what your are suggesting, the markets wouldn’t have reacted the way they did, the companies would have gone bankrupt under government mismanagement, the economy would have continued to crater, and not $1 of the money would have been recovered.

Nah. Keep the management, they run the business not owners. In fact give them raises and bonuses. It's not like managers had other employment options.

But either way, they did get a lifesaving bailout, regardless of the merits or whether US got their money back