How did we get into this mess in the mortgage banking industry? And how will we get out now?
 
Even to an average investor like me it is clear that the debacle on Wall Street is not just a little kink in the circulation of the nation's money supply. Clearly the Fed and Bush Administration have recklessly disregarded their duty to operate our government as a guardian of its citizens' rights. An illegal war in Iraq and the billions George Bush is spending now can only add to this serious domestic financial crisis. John McCain, who knows little of economic policy, will further erode the stability of the markets with his Bush-like policies if he is elected on November 4.
 
Those who consider themselves to be no-tax, Grover Norquist-like free-market conservatives will righteously retort some sound bites of supply-side Reaganonomics to make their arguments, but they are hollow and unsubstantiated by our own market experts.
 
Just one example for the sake of conversation comes from this week's edition of Barron's, a publication noted for its very conservative point of view on fiscal matters.
Stephanie Pomboy, the founder of the economic consulting firm MacroMavens, who has been right repeatedly in forecasting the severity and duration of the housing and credit crises said, "Once again, we can't resist pointing out that had Paulson (Secretary of the Treasury) and his bailout crew used their powers for 'good' from the get-go, they could have saved a lot of time, energy and, most importantly, money. Had they simply established a fund to buy up the surplus housing inventory, presently valued at just over $1 trillion, they could have stitched up this wound for less than they've spent layering Band-Aid after Band-Aid on top of it."
 
These crazy shifts by the Bush Administration between radical free market laissez fairism and heavy-handed government intervention make it very apparent Republican officials in Washington, D.C. can't exercise the necessary professional detachment needed to fix this crisis in the U.S. economy. To illustrate that point, just note the behavior of the foreign markets in Russia and China on Friday of this week.
 
The waste, greed and wretched excess going on in the corporate world has been rewarded by both federal bailouts and golden parachute deals to departing incompetent executives. The reckless government borrowing to finance wars and now bailouts has added to an estimated $53 trillion in government obligations. We have dug a hole we may never get out of.
 
On the state level, despite last-minute wrangling Friday, we still have an irresponsible budget which also relies on borrowing. While workers are now off the hook to pay an extra 10 percent upfront in taxes, we are left with a shaky lottery financing scheme which will need to be approved by the voters next year.
 
The tyranny of the Republican minority and the 2/3 vote requirement in the State Legislature has left us with little choice but to borrow our way through to the next year or make deep cuts to education and services for the poor.
 
These rigid, no-compromise minority Republican ideologues in the state need to go, along with the failed economic policies of the Bush administration.