I think what is missing here is a recognition of necessary versus sufficient condition. I don't think cheap energy is a sufficient condition, I am not even sure it is a necessary condition, but it could be.
Well that's the populist picture for sure. It is not clear how politicians worked there way into your four and a half year-old statement, however corporations were saved because they could come up with enough collateral to get a loan from the tax payer. In the end, it cost the taxpayer nothing, and the taxpayers' jobs were saved -- I'd hardly call that a screwing! Undoing the mess was win-win all the way around. The Treasury and the Fed together did a magnificent job of preventing a full on depression. Nevertheless we shall not forget that the Fed was the culprit that committed the crime in the first place by shirking its fiduciary duty to regulate. It was an interesting experiment, but an ill advised one, because we already new that self-regulation will not achieve the desired end. Now perhaps we can lay Ayn Rand in her grave where she belongs. R.I.P. In fairness to you, you could not have known four and a half years ago how things would work out, but you should have been able to guess that letting large numbers of major corporations and financial institutions fail all at once wasn't going to be good for the labor class.