It's your money too

It is a sad state of affairs when "We the people" feel that our questions, recriminations, hesitancies and outrages are nothing more than rhetorical opinion. When our portfolios and retirement accounts, our mortgages and mutual funds are no longer regarded as assets and liabilities belonging to households, but as third tier derivatives, credit-default swaps and other financial ballyhoo, surely it is not unexpected that the average joe should feel cheated.

It is obvious that in our global age of interconnectedness, financial systems around the world are also interconnected. That the epicenter of these financial systems remains Wall Street after 150 years does not necessarily mean that Americans are the only ones who have something to lose should the old boys' network of institutions collapse. Not only are simple securities purchased by individuals all over the world, many nations have substantial stakes in these institutions - either through equity positions, or because if the institutions fail, the buyers of their national bonds also disappear.

The last six months of the Bush presidency have seen a series of unprecedented maneuvers in the financial sector. My age precludes me from a clear memory of the S&L crisis, but this crisis, also precipitated by a republican drive to deregulation, did not result in such a stratified beneficiary pool. Today, we see that the inhabitants of "main street", as you and I have been called by the presidential candidates, are mentioned as lip-service, but nothing more. The result of too many years of lobbyest control over Capitol Hill is that the immediate fate of the large banks and insurers takes precedent over the long term reality that such a large increase in our national deficit will bring. Ours is a reactionary government, passing the Sarbanes-Oxley act after Enron collapsed, and now likely passing a bill to "regulate" the financial industry that pressed for deregulation through 3 recent Republican presidencies. A financial bailout by the US government, purchasing the bad debt that the banks and other institutions failed to do their due diligence upon, will saddle US taxpayers with greater economic hardship. More money will have to be borrowed from abroad, and another slippery slope gets greased.

The bottom line is this: Americans are not the only ones suffering under the grossly shortsighted and profit grubbing decisions of mortgage companies, banks, and the people who sit around thinking of ways to get around federal financial regulations. So why are Americans the only ones paying for the bailout?