What a Mess, Dubya

Let’s face it.  Taking poison intentionally or becoming part of a high voltage electrical circuit aren’t generally considered

good ideas.  However, when you’re battling cancer or have an issue with your heart not beating, they’re good alternatives to have.

That’s where we are with our economy, folks.  It’s no time for timid measures.

George Bush & Co. left us, not with the surpluses of Bill Clinton’s administration, but a combination of deficits and job losses not seen since the 1930s.

Somehow, I don’t see going back to the days of the hometown bank in this age of global finance.  That’s one way to come in last.  And can you imagine all the fun of policing them, no matter what kind of agency (agencies) are eventually designed to perform that task?

In my mind, the threshold level is, “Can we afford for it to fail?” and can it survive a real world-based stress test.  Derivatives, swaps, all that crap… good bye.  Anything that’s small enough to evaporate without causing major ripples in the greater economy should be fine, and the fewer, the better.  If you can’t define it in three paragraphs and if it isn’t transparent, it shouldn’t be eligible to be sliced up and packaged into insurable investments.  Let the junk fiends who’ve got more money than sense invest in them: not the taxpayers.

May the Higher Power of your choice shine his light on the path through this Valley of the Shadow of Debt.