All these government bailouts and rescue packages are double-edged swords, if you ask experts.

On one hand, it is hard to argue that they won't be a short-term fix.

But it seems like for each expert I talk to, and for each bailout we come across, a theme emerges that worries them: what the bailout means in the next crisis.

Gary Painter, a public policy expert at USC, pointed it out last time I spoke to him.

Indeed. In the short-run, for instance, restructuring homeowners' loans could help lift many homeowners out of the doldrums.

But what about the next time? He worried about a new bubble (poised to pop)  that can expand as people buying homes in the next upturn won't worry as much about the risk of dwindling property value because the government will jump in to save the borrower from defaulting on a loan.

Others are worried that such actions only create more debt -- part of what got us in to this mess in the first place.

Are we in a vicious cycle here?