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Well … what happened? Pelosi, Frank, Reid, and yes, McCain, Bush, and let us not forget, Obama and that crowd of old hippies in Congress… aw, you know... the experts on finance, the folks who want to nationalize the nations financial markets… YEAH, that bunch… assured us the nation and the world had been saved by the 700 billion, no, wait, that's 800 billion, no, wait, it's 850 billion… and climbing "rescue". Remember. Well, it was SO long ago. Why, that was way back last … week… last Friday to be exact.

Monday, the US Stock market reacted as if a Black Hole had opened in the floor beneath the exchange and sucked all the money down it.

So now the "Cover Your A**" maneuvers begin, big time, in Washington, DC.

Hey, I'm just an ole country boy, down here in the swamps of the Southeastern US, and I will survive no matter what the economy does, or doesn't do, as the case may be. Reminds me of the old country tune: "Country Boys will Survive". There'll be no jumping out of skyscraper windows down here. Heck, you'd have to drive 150 miles to find a building tall enough to jump off with the expectation of anything worse than a sprained ankle, anyway!

But, the big boys are circling the wagons and preparing to defend the positions they took last week on rescuing the nation's economy. All the while, they are looking for a scapegoat when all they have to do is look in the nearest mirror. As we reminded readers last week, it was the federal government that caused all this, to begin with, and now they have doused the fire with gasoline, with their near trillion dollar bailout, and as many of us warned, the fire has only gotten worse. And, to the chagrin of our socialist brethren in Europe, and even Asia, it has spread to them.

Sometimes doing nothing is exactly the right thing to do! Unfortunately the government doesn't see it that way.

The immediate excuse for this debacle is that the "Bailout" is not working fast enough. The claim is that companies are not able to get the money they need to finance acquisitions or for normal day-to-day operating expenses. Look, I took my business training at a School of Business at a noted university here in the state and they taught us about "reserves" and things like "working capital", you know, good business practices. Heck, I've still got my textbooks on it. Seems to me a heck of a lot of the folks in the leading corporations and banking institutions must have missed those classes.

This mess, this debacle, this … OK, I can't think of a word that describes the situation the financial markets are in today (at least, a word that I care to use in public.) But, take a good look. THIS is what a capitalist country gets when it allows a socialist-leaning government; such as we have in the US today, to get involved with the money markets, the financial markets, and/or the stock markets.

Just so you know … this is not going to get a whole lot better anytime soon. Even though I do not have the confidence in our economic system that I once did, I am still confident in the ability of my fellow Americans and I know we can, and we will, pull out of this mess. Of course, we may have to run a few people out of Washington first. If nothing else good comes of this financial disaster, that, alone, would be a very good thing, indeed.

J. D. Longstreet

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