Spiraling Out of Control

Last week it was Lehman Brothers acting a mess and now it's insurance giant AIG. So far today, the Dow plummeted 300 points, which is an improvement from the 700 point drop it experienced on Friday. I guess. Talk about a lesser of two evils.

All this laissez-faire economics is bull. We all know that corporate interests and ne'er do well lobbyists have a huge influence on our government and vice versa. This is a big problem and, as the saying goes, the chickens have come home to roost. As usual, look who gets left holding the bag.

Neither Obama nor McCain are identifying really specific remedies for this economic meltdown also known as a recession. I think it's because neither one wants to get caught up in prescribing a solution that a year from now folks will be like "Well, he promised not to raise taxes and look at him now!"

This is the thing. I'm as pained as the next person when I see the taxes taken out of my check, especially when I'm not sure what my hard earned money is being spent on. However, we need taxes to pay for things. And, perhaps most importantly, we need government officials who are wise and prudent (though not "prudent" like George H.W. Bush) who can ameliorate (some)things immediately and also have a clear and realistic picture for what to do in the future--instead of turning a surplus into a deficit and turning our economy into a hot monkey mess like some people have done. I won't name any names.