The forward-thinking financial firms need to make major personnel cuts and business realignments to restructure for the future. Not taking the bailout funds will make this easier.
The bailout funds will go to the institutions that are on the verge of going out of business and have nothing to lose with the strings that are attached.
I’ve got no problem with banks refusing bailouts when they make sense. But CEOs have raked in the pay as their banks went south. They need to look at what matters for their bank and for the larger economy and screw their severance.