Taking Stock by Malcolm Berko

Dear Mr. Berko: I understand that you are uncomfortable with the Obama administration's handling of this financial crisis. What changes would you recommend to put our economy back on track? This is not a trick question rather other readers and I would appreciate your point of view. Are you in the Rush Limbaugh camp? Do you agree with Rush, who wants President Barack Obama's policies to fail? — G.G., Oklahoma City

Dear G.G.: Please understand that Rush Limbaugh is neither an economist nor a financial impresario. He's a fantastic entertainer who would probably win every vote on "American Idol." And I don't believe, for even a minute, that Rush wants Obama's policies to fail. Rush is not vindictive and he doesn't wish economic failure on 310 million Americans. His job is to sell advertising for the radio stations that broadcast his program and he's doing yeoman's work.

There are simple solutions to most complicated problems concerning government policies. However, the solutions are complicated by thousands of sniveling lobbyists who deluge billions of dollars of bribe money on members of Congress to favor the smirking fat cats who employ them. It was L. William Seidman, former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., who said: "Lobbyists are the poison of America's middle class." Because we're prohibited from shooting lobbyists, I suggest that the administration demand each lobbyist wear a Nazi armband and a red swastika on his lapel.

Solving our economic problems is made even more complicated because Democrats and Republicans practice politics like the Hatfields and McCoys. Just imagine what we could accomplish if Congress banished political parties.

One TRILLION dollars, a whole number followed by 12 zeros, has been bequeathed by the administration to purchase "toxic" assets from our financial institutions. That's wrong! A second $1 TRILLION of largess was bestowed upon the banks, insurance companies, and the auto and brokerage industry so they can meet their financial obligations. That's wrong! Every penny, peso and pound of this $2 trillion (more TRILLIONS to come later) is euchred from the pockets of every American taxpayer.

Most of those TRILLIONS (giveaway dollars) belong to Americans who lost homes to foreclosure due to unprincipled lenders and to Americans who don't have money for health insurance because of fraud, greed and waste in our medical system.

This money is usurped from Americans who can't make credit card payments due to unscrupulous bank practices and from Americans who purchased Detroit's cars that implode three years later.

Finally, this money belongs to Americans who lost TRILLIONS in their retirement accounts due to the criminal activities and marauding greed of Merrill Lynch, Goldman Saks, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. This money doesn't belong to Bank of America, GM, Merrill Lynch, AIG or Countrywide Mortgage. It's our money, and there's not a single snippet of personal responsibility attached to its taking by corporate America. History books will refer to this event as the "slickest train robbery in the history of the world."

It's so easy to spend money when it doesn't belong to you. Everybody complains about the solutions but few offer a better solution. Well here is a better solution.

Congress goofed big time handing out $1 billion checks like cheese samples on toothpicks at Costco! I'd insist that the executives of companies receiving bailout bucks personally sign an enforceable IOU for their pro-rata share of the largess. They too should be on the hook. I would insist that members of the respective corporate boards sign identical IOUs. Then I would get rid of Treasury Secretary Timmy "The Giveaway Kid" Geithner, a Brooklyn boy who got his doctorate from Dartmouth, one of those amnesia-inducing Ivy League schools. I would replace him with Thomas M. Hoenig, a Midwest lad born in Fort Madison, Iowa. Hoenig earned his doctorate at Iowa State University. He's a financial conservative and president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, the second largest in the United States next to the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.

If this were done, I believe the Dow Jones industrial averages would be making new highs today.

Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 1416, Boca Raton, FL 33429 or e-mail him at malber@comcast.net. To find out more about Malcolm Berko and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

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