An economist on Yahoo Finance just now provided a rare bit of clarity, breaking through the fog generated by both “sides”.

Semi-quoting:

In 2008 FDIC backstopped all transaction accounts, in other words shadow banking. This was deeply unpopular, so Congress took away FDIC’s authority to backstop shadows. What happened last week was not an exception to this law. The backstopping happened after these banks were already switched into receivership, and is really just part of normal bankruptcy proceedings. Try to distribute the remaining assets to the creditors who deserve them.

End semiquote.

In normal bankruptcy the customers deserve to get their money back, but shareholders and investors of the bank as a corporation do not deserve refunds. They expected to risk a loss. Customers did not expect to risk a loss, so the FDIC borrowed from the central bank to give them an ‘advance’ before the lengthy process of selling or recovering the assets.

Later thought: The fog around 2008 was denser than the current fog. I tried for years to penetrate it, tried to figure out what really happened. The standard account didn’t even ATTEMPT to explain. Bush said he had to do it, and that’s all we heard. Nobody offered a better counterstory. We have more alternative economics media now, and even the mainstream and the government are ATTEMPTING to provide reasons and explanations.