Our Half Socialist Country

The Republicans have brought us half-socialism. What they have done is they let their rich friends and campaign donors take the profits. But when their companies fail or get into trouble, they stick us with the costs.

Well, enough with that noise. The Golden Rule of Economics still applies here: If we are going to have to pay for something, then we get to have a seat at the table. If we, the American taxpayers, have to bail out these financial imbeciles and their massive Ponzi scheme, all based on worthless securities, then we get to regulate them. Letting these greedy fucks regulate themselves under a delusional idea that the "market will set things right" has not worked. It has proven to make as much sense as letting a bunch of teenagers have an unsupervised party with the liquor sitting out in plain view.

And we had better get some people into Washington who understand that. We cannot walk away from this current financial crisis with the naive belief that the bankers and brokers and investment people will always do the right thing, for this crisis has shown that in many cases, they were little more than bunko artists in $2,000 suits. They lined their own pockets and bought apartments that cost many millions of dollars. Yet, you can see the wreckage they are leaving behind, from the collapse in the housing market to the cratering of state budgets across the country.

While it might even be nice to take the tumbrels into Manhattan and set up a guillotine at Battery Park, what we really need is meaningful regulation of this industry of greedy fucks.