i'd rather have hillary than obama as an opponent in november b/c i feel she'll be easier to defeat! at the expense of coming across as racist, obama will take blacks simply b/c he is. at the expense of sounding sexist, he'll take women b/c he looks and talks good and they (young white women especially) think black men are "all that and a bag".. one needs only to look how they father their children! white females do so love the under-dog and especially the bad boys! in the race for leader of America he has the perfect one-two punch!! he will hold the muslim community b/c he is one of them as well (which is somewhat disturbing) so, if he wins i'm buying my first gun, not to cause harm to him and his, but b/c i think i'll need it to defend myself and mine before his term is over! it'll be out with the old-world order and in with the new.. world order. by any means necessary will take on a prominant and radical, not to mention a more personal and imediate, meaning.

Michelle: You are right on point in todays column. Speculative investing downside, such as the subp rime market, should not be put on t he shoulders of the responsible taxpayer, nor his children.

Borrowing and lending once required discipline. When banks left states' control and nationalized, states' usury laws were deemed prohibitive and caps that restricted lending rates (usually around 18%) were abandoned. Lenders can now assume huge credit risks by charging risky borrowers obscene rates. Borrowers no longer learn how to manage credit through small balances, but dive deep into high interest debt with no ability to pay anything but the interest. The debt vortex deepens as reciprocal late fees doom debtors to bankruptcy, so Congress cut off that avenue with "reform". The debtors had no exit other than to default on their mortgages. All this is due to undisciplined borrowers feeding greedy undisciplined lenders. Congress needs to restore usury restrictions nationally at a rate of 18%.