Wall Street appeared to approve of President Obama’s nominating Ben S. Bernanke to a second term.

The Federal Reserve Board announced yesterday that it would provide as much as $37.8 million to American International Group.

While two former CEOs of American International Group took a beating from Congress yesterday, a third called in sick.

Racing against the clock, JPMorgan Chase agreed to buy once-mighty Bear Stearns for just $2 a share Sunday, “in a fire sale deal clearly aimed at stemming broader panic” in the global markets, according Tom Petruno of The Los Angeles Times.

Troubled Washington Mutual, the nation’s largest savings and loan, has seen its stock price nearly double from its lows over the past month. Takeover speculation has certainly helped, as have the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cuts.

But don’t discount the importance of the message chairman and CEO Kerry Killinger sent when he decided not to take a 2007 bonus that he had earned. Executives at other companies caught in the real estate mess — Countywide Financial and D.R. Horton, for example — have not set the same example of accountability.