How much more are we taxpayer's going to give to the cause?

Well, Obama has seen his office and Mrs. O has seen her house. I must admit that every time I hear the phrase "President-elect Barack Obama" or just plain "President Barack Obama" or "President Obama", a warm tingling runs through me, I still want to jump for joy, I am still so excited...and as we soak up every detail of the transition like our lives depend on it; they do to a certain extent.

Now that the greatest reality show on earth is over and to make matters better, the best person won, the grim reality of the economy takes center stage once again. Last November when the fundamentals started to show deep cracks, there was hope that things would turn around this year, maybe, somehow, but the truth is the economy just keeps getting worse and to impress upon ourselves the sheer magnitude of this downward spiral it is literally sucking the taxpayer's $2,000,000,000,000 investment into the vortex. An investment for which we have no accountability whatsoever and where the bankers and financiers are still getting their trophy bonuses.

Lest we forget the most openly self-gratuitous bunch, AIG executives, spending close to $500,000 at a true 5 star resort (I also went to this resort courtesy of another pre-Chapter 11 company 4 months before it went bust during the 2001 tech bubble) after getting their first round of $85,000,000,000 worth of taxpayer funds. Well wriggle your nose like Samantha, that amount is up to, ta-da $150,000,000,000.

If AIG pulls themselves out of this one then I am a monkey's uncle since we, the taxpayer, have not seen any accounting. So what is the total amount of insured credit swap derivatives we are holding? Ahem, we are the majority share-holder, are we not, especially since the original deal has been repealed and replaced with Warren Buffett-like favorable terms where we get our preferred shares this time around. The truth is the total is too monumental and AIG is wishing; hoping to hang on for another year until things turn around in 2010. Well, join the club, so is GM and everybody else. How much more are we taxpayer's going to give to the cause?

President FDR Obama is expected to do some serious doling; the part that the Republicans fear. Well, now that the Republicans have spent us into bankruptcy, the Democrats will have to practice restraint now or else they are the bad people. Already we have saddled our new President with so much hope that we may have already made his task too great. Can one man save the economy? That question will be answered in season two of the greatest show. Thank goodness for the show.