Charitable as the thought might be, Washington simply doesn’t have deep enough pockets to bail out every deadbeat. Did you really think it would stop at a mere trillion for the banks?

It’s becoming clear that subprime lending wasn’t limited to the housing market. Companies in the auto-loan business are battling hard to keep their heads above water. Andrew Snyder says small firms like AmeriCredit (NYSE:ACF), United PanAm (NASDAQ:UPFC) and Consumer Portfolio Services (NASDAQ:CPSS) will struggle to survive.