The National Debt & the So Called Bailout by - SaltCay Enterprises Inc.

As we come to the close of yet another fine year under the leadership George W. Bush, I can’t help but remember the days when I bitched about William J. Clinton.  Do you remember when the National Debt was much lower, jobs were relatively plentiful and we had a surplus?  I don’t blame GWB exclusively for all the problems in this country, just most of them! George W. Bush’s presidency is to republicans is as Jimmy Carter is to democrats.

What’s a surplus? That’s when you have more than you spend and the “extra” is put away for a rainy day but you’re soon to be ex-lover spends it on a new lover. If you had a surplus (in theory) you could invest it (in infrastructure) or put it in a savings account and earn a fixed interest rate (Social Security) and someday spend it on increasing your families (country’s) standard of living.

When Enron and WorldCom went belly up there was no bailout. No, no, no, there was only a brief time to get the hell out. And don’t forget the rolling blackouts California experienced as a result of de-funked energy contracts written by Enron or the vaporized retirement savings experienced by the employees of WorldCom and the enormous losses investors absorbed as a result of fraud.  Investors were barely appeased and comforted with the thought that they could reduce their taxes with the losses by $3000 a year. How many years does it take to write of $100,000 of stock losses?

Californians took it on the chin and the employees of WorldCom found new jobs and started all over again. No bail out or CHANGE IN THE LAWS to protect us. Instead we have further deregulation and even more ingenious ways to defraud the American public. That’s ok; you can defraud us all you want because our representatives have our backs. We can help the rich through our tax dollars. It just doesn’t make any sense unless you buy into the conspiracy  theory that this is all happening to keep Americans working all the way to our deaths and on the cheap.

The SEC Act of 1934 was put in place to keep us from times like this. These times should have been avoided, but the powers that be sought to allow deregulation causing a wealth transfer from the middle class to the wealthiest of us all.   The “up tick rule” was a relief valve for stocks in distress to avoid being short sold to the floor. The abolishment of this rule created an environment ill suited for the general investor. Even the sold call staple stocks were and are still being rocked without an up tick rule. The result before the economic crisis was the devaluation of savings of the common investor. Were did that money go?

Speculation - We had it in the housing and commercial real estate markets and it was further bolstered with sub-prime mortgages and hybrid adjustable rate mortgages.  At least in these markets you had to take possession of the asset and now it can be revalued as someone else’s toxic asset. Or should I say the banks toxic asset.

The speculation that I feared most was the speculation in the commodities markets. The only way to fix this is to require the purchaser of a commodity contract to take delivery of the resource. You could have forced the exit of so many illegitimate and inflated investments and stabilize oil, corn, rice and wheat. Forget for a moment what it cost you to fill up your car. How do you explain to someone in Mexico or Bangladesh that the staples that feed their families were priced higher in New York so they have to do with less because they can’t pay more? No wonder the world hates us.   What has happened to common sense? Was it replaced by insatiable greed? What can we do as consumers to stop the insanity?

The British not long ago described a Billion with the phrase “one hundred million, million”. Not a very economical way of utilizing the language. I’m often confused now by the way Trillion is thrown around. So thanks to my Father, I offer up the coining of a new phrase to describe the almost unconceivable amount the number “one trillion” represents. Only second to the vastness of space and the way sun light transverse space can I compare the description of what our country spends.

Wikipedia – Defines the distance light travels in one year. “Light travels at a speed of 299,792,458 meters per second, or at approximately 186,282 miles per second, in a vacuum. A light year is defined as the distance a particle of light would travel in a year at this speed… the distance light would travel in a year is approximately 5,874,589,152,000 miles. As noted above, a light year is used as a more convenient measure of astronomical distances.”

I offer up the phrase “Light Buck” The more convenient measure to describe the amount of money the United States spends to fill the vacuum created by greed, corruption and stupidity. Please help me get this phrase into the wild of American English. I will use the new phrase in a sentence; our government is spending our dollars at light buck speed to fund a bailout and the national debt. 

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