Gonzo Gazillions

As I heard about Ben Bernanke getting reappointed to be our chief money guru, I got this sudden flash of insight into the mysteries of money. I mean, he is big news because of the recent financial fiasco, and who could forget the gazillion dollar bailouts?

Just back in 2008, huge banks, brokerages and insurance companies said that they were in dire financial shape and needed gazillions of dollars from the government (us)to keep them from going out of business. Gee, how did that happen? How did they come to be in such bad shape?

We were told that the economy would collapse if we did not give them gazillions of dollars. Once again, the fear factor was invoked to make us do something that a lot of us sensed was wrong.

It looks like all that money just lost itself. Our economy was said to be teetering on the verge of another Great Depression, but apparently, there was no fraud anywhere to be found. Shit happens, right?

So here we are, a year and a half later, and the greedy perps who run the banks, brokerages and insurance companies are still giving themselves bazillions in bonuses as if they were doing a great job and deserve to be rewarded.

Has anyone else wondered why no one has been arrested, indicted or sentenced to jail for any of this?

Now we cannot count Bernie Madoff, because he was just running his own personal scam and did not get gazillions from the government.

There is only one possible conclusion. Bad deals just happened and nobody was responsible. All the bad deals that almost ruined our economy just did themselves. Nobody did anything criminal. No fraud. No theft. No embezzlement. I guess all that money just decided to go for a hike in the mountains or a swim at the beach and went missing.

Amazing, isn't it?