Post No. 45: CEO America by Guest Author "Mark Twain"

CEO America

© 2008, The Institute for Applied Common Sense

Shortly after the election of George W. Bush to the presidency, someone commented that for the first time in American history, we might see a president who would run the country like a corporate CEO.

Few of us appreciated, at the time, the prescience of that statement.

We are now at a tipping point.

We have two, very, very good guys... individuals who make their own party finance people squirm and sit up nights worrying about their own futures... running for president... and, ladies and gentlemen, the game has changed.

When Congress gets done, we, the American taxpayers, will be on the hook for about $1 trillion, to guarantee that the derivatives, sub prime mortgage bundles, and a host of other questionable financial vehicles, we were repeatedly told we were "not sophisticated enough to understand."

(Tell me if I am alone; however, I know very few regular, working class people, who would have tried to pull this B.S. off, at least not in good conscience.)

What this means is that neither candidate will get to do any spending on behalf of his financial backers.

There is not enough difference between these two guys, with respect to the leadership qualities which really matter, to overload a mosquito in flight.

We are forty something days away from an election that will decide the future of our country... and we are being inundated with paid for advertisements debating the meaning of putting lipstick on a pig.Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.

What is more interesting is how the talking heads and spokespeople who engage in this ridiculous banter generate more in annual income than the average American family.

The first question I want to hear answered in the upcoming debates is: "Where would you put your opponent in your cabinet?"

And the second is, "Who would you put in charge of the economy?"

In 1975, car sales fell 50% below 1974 levels.

Sure the Arabs had something to do with it...but the bigger problem was our own federal government's "Seat Belt Interlock Law."

A law that fixed no problem I know of... and I fear without some serious discussion of what has got us into this financial hole, we will see another such idiotic piece of legislation promoted to the public as the solution to the rape Congress is currently debating.

Of course, I could always be wrong... but I am part of the emergency medical staff the local politicians are bragging about... and as best I can tell, they have no intention of paying me for my services... but I’ve got a few creditors out there who want some serious bucks from me... and want them right now... for services rendered to me and my family which were far more pressing and necessary than padding the wallets of some greedy business types.

Go figure....

Yeah, you business types may consider me unsophisticated, but I’m mad at hell… and, for good reason.

© 2008, The Institute for Applied Common Sense

Post 41e: A Little Comic Relief in a Serious World

Taken from the September 11, 2008 Electronic Edition of the New York Times:

Quotation of the Day

"Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, they'd start speaking Spanish." Rep. Charles B. Rangel, on his difficulties in getting detailed financial statements from a resort in the Dominican Republic that rented his villa, which has resulted in a misconduct probe.