If politicians raised a healing hand and commanded the winds of Hurricane Ike away from the Galveston shores, we would… well, obviously re-elect them, because now we accept nothing less in every financial storm.

George Soros is famous for making a billion dollars by shorting the British pound.  What he really did was bet against the Bank of England's attempt to prop up a collapsing currency.  It fact, it is one of his speculative axioms to always bet against such central bank arrogance.

In the clear recognition that the American public has no tolerance for any economic inconvenience, the Federal Reserve attempted to prop up the stock market by dropping the Federal Funds rate to 1%.  While this had no effect on dot.com stock valuations, the resulting credit and real asset bubble was, until the last few years, vigorously denied.  This "non-bubble" was applauded by every politician as the ultimate free lunch:  Wall Street ingenuity providing the "little guy" with the highest percentage of home ownership.  Fannie and Freddie (the most highly regulated companies in the world) dropped their underwriting standards to become the nucleous of the bubble, in spite of Moody's repeated warnings that reserves were wholly inadequate.  Alan Greenspan not only denying there was a bubble, but actually encouraged variable rate mortgages.

Many friend and acquaintances, often at the recommendation of their financial advisor, poured everything into real estate, included retirement accounts, because real estate never goes down – maybe just stays flat for a few years.  I have middle-class friends with $8,000-9,000 per month mortgages.  When I tried to talk them out of it, they mocked me.  And the Bush administration once wanted to permit the individual the pseudo-responsibility to invest their own Social Security earnings.

Now, of course, someone must hang.  The hypocrisy is breathtaking.  Wall Street chieftains at the center of the storm, with their personal net worth on the line, did not fully comprehend the market dynamics, and yet our presidential saviors, speaking with a certainty and moral indignation that underscores their utter naivete, are either a community leader who would be unemployable if not running for the presidency, or a man living off his wife's trust fund, and not sure how many homes he has.  Holy mother of god.  News pundits complain that the little guy was never warned, although when David Einhorn, a hedge fund manager, sounded the Lehman alarm six months ago, the SEC investigated him.

It is impossible to watch current events and not conclude that we've become a nation of silly people.  Tell me I'm special.  Tell me I'm pretty.  Give me a warm glass of milk and a bedtime story.  One with a happy ending.