CNBC’s shilling for the investment industry financial was shameless and despicable. So I have no problem with anyone calling them on it.

But all this talk of the unfairness of bailing banks vs homeowners is a case of “never mind the man behind the curtain”. Clearly most people are fooled by it, but where did most of the money go that is being lost today? Trillions are being lost, and maybe worldwide tens of trillions ultimately. Who gained those trillions? Professionals living off the flow of borrowed money into the housing industry benefited – senior private bankers, middle level private bankers, and junior employees of private banks; mortgage brokers, real estate agents, rating agencies; employees of the GSEs, their leadership, their lobbyists, and the politicians who protect the GSEs….

Is that all of the people who benefited? Well, no. The people who benefited the most are those who bought real estate before the boom. These are, by definition, the hundred million or more people who live next door. 90% of the value that is being lost today was gained in the first place by people who bought before the boom, not by the middlemen. How many people do you know who downsized during the bubble, and plan to use the gains to live comfortably in their retirement? Or refinanced above the 1995 value of their home, and used the money to enjoy big plasma TVs, or new cars, or swimming pools? These are the people who walked away with the bulk of the value that is being lost today. If they pissed it away unwisely, that is less reason to give them sympathy or bailouts, not more.

But it’s a lot more popular to preach that homeowners deserve a bailout. Stewart is funny, but his actual message is nothing more than cheap pandering populism.