Hootad Binky

Yes, and for the first time the US owes unprecedented amounts of money to countries like China and India.

I think it's safe to say that the US economy has been mismanaged; it has to have been when you hear Conservative and Republican pundits lauding taxpayer bail-outs and clamouring for more governmental oversight of financial markets!

They lobbied for lax governmental control in the Reagan era and then later lined up for the inevitable Savings and Loan bailouts; they get laws changed with Clinton and Bush and now they're getting a taxpayer-backed bailout from the Fed (with more in the pipeline, no doubt).

They are always the first to be paid, they always get exactly what they want, and they're willing to talk out of both sides of their mouth when there's easy money to be had, underwritten by the taxpayer of course.

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Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. -Oscar Wilde