When John McCain gave Americans some straight talk and said the economy wasn’t his strong point he was roundly chastised. How can a guy stand to be the leader of the free world and not understand the economy?

Is it clear yet to everyone that even all of the guys who say they know about the economy don’t know jack? Instead of Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulsen running the economy we could have had Ben Stiller and Pat Paulsen setting policy and things couldn’t be much worse.  One thing I am sure there is plenty of blame to go around. Wall Street greed, loose oversight, liberal lawmakers insisting loans be given to those unable to afford them, conservative lawmakers unwilling to stand up to them and bad karma can all bend over and take a few whacks on the backside from the public and the media.

Here is the thing I don’t get, approximately five percent of mortgage loans are going into default and the housing market is only a part of our economy and yet we seem to be teetering on the brink of a worldwide economic collapse. Nineteen out of twenty folks are still paying their bills and the fan is flinging manure everywhere?  I don’t buy it, no pun intended. If the big bad global economy is so bad that a relative handful of overreaching American dreamers and greedy speculators can bring it to its knees than maybe it’s time to let the dust fly and the chips fall where they may.

As a true conservative and laissez-faire capitalist I am not in favor of bailouts. Let’s start standing by what we say we believe as right wing nut jobs and let the market settle things. AIG fails, so be it! Lehman Brothers goes south, that’s too bad. When you loan or borrow money there is risk. When you invest there is risk. You want to avoid risk then pay rent all your life and put your money in an insured CD, take your two and a half percent and shut your yap. I don’t think it’s the government’s job to make sure we are all ok. I lost a fortune in the tech collapse and nobody came down from D.C. and made me whole again. Where is the difference? Because you invested in a house and I invested in jellydonuts.com (It seemed like a good idea at the time, I mean who doesn’t like jelly donuts?) you get your money back and I go suck on rocks.

The other problem is this, where do we stop bailing? The airlines, the automakers, the investment bankers and God knows who else already have their hands out. Who’s next? The WNBA isn’t doing too well so maybe we can bail them out.  Air America has had some financial trouble perhaps they could get a government loan.  And if there is no end to bailouts then I have some bad investments I made the last time I was in Vegas I need to talk to my Congressman about.