Sleeping with the Fishes
The Last Economic Bubble

Not since Abe Vigoda uttered the line “Tom can ya help me out” regarding his betrayal of Michael Corleone in the Godfather has such a particular thud been heard in conjunction with the “family business.” Of course Sal Tessio (Vigoda) got a one way ride, and ended up sleeping with the fishes. In America today “the family, also known as Congress, has worked over the automobile manufacturers pretty good! They dared to come to D.C. with their hands out. However, given that the same yahoos in Congress ponied up a record $700 Billion just a month or so earlier, is it any wonder that the auto titans thought they’d give it a try? On top of that they came to grovel after flying in on corporate jets.

Remember when the Treasury Secretary began the financial panic? His dire prediction which came out of nowhere was sort of the antonym of the gold rush. The looming crisis was a revelation that the economic sky was about to fall. Had these financial genius’ not allowed Lehman Brothers’ investment firm to fold, the whole house of cards might still be standing. “Unnatural-selection”, sort of the opposite of Darwinism, has led us down the not so rosy economic path. So quick did the economic wind change that it seemed we were on a financial laundry shoot strait toward hell. Once again high ranking members of the Bush administration have shown that “ineptness” is the definition of “expert” in Washington D.C. Iraq, Katrina, and now Wall Street have each been colossal blunders in their individual aftermaths.

The latest bubble in finance is the “bailout bubble!” Everyone gets in line and gets extra money that the Federal Reserve has printed. It is the 21st century version of the bread line. Only this “bread” is the anachronistic 1970’s version; money. This system means that all of the bad debt will eventually go away. Interest rates will skyrocket, and inflation may soar, but we are not gonna let the free markets handle themselves. This is exactly the wrong tact to take preemptively. It will likely not solve the problem but exacerbate it. People might feel warm and fuzzy that their government seems to be taking action, but when the price is realized no one will be smiling. When the time comes for recovery after a natural market correction will there be any money left? Save it for then fellas we’re gonna need it.

How much irony is there when fat-cat Senators and Congressmen with their own Chauffer driven limousines and “special arrangements” for air flight get to grill those evil corporate mavens? The same pussycats who reached in our back pocket to “find” the funds necessary to bail-out Wall Street executives and firms to the tune of $700 Billion sat strait faced as they squawked about a measly $25 Billion for car manufacturers. These evil auto execs were told how many hoops they’d have to jump through just to be considered for bridge loans.

The friends of Treasury Secretary Paulson however, got their money post haste with little or no guarantees other than “we’ll pay it back” agreements. Then they didn’t use it for the intended purpose. They sat on it, padded their own supply, and let the consumers, who actually paid for it, suffer all the more, by still not lending to their brother and sister banks. $350 Billion is gone and with a new spend-happy administration on the horizon the only thing that is going to get bigger is our national debt. Never mind though, just get in line. Everyone is going to get a little something from “the family”. Let’s hope it’s not a just a one way ride that in the end has us sleeping with the fishes.