WOW, WHAT A SHAME!

I just read that Washington Mutual Chief Executive Alan Fishman could walk away with more than $18 million in salary, bonuses and severance after less than three weeks on the job, according to the terms of his employment agreement.

I'm speecheless.

This month of September will be forever remembered as The Nightmare Month, the month when we were savagely awakened by the fact that our country’s financial system is totally in shambles. Day after day President Bush, Secretary Paulson and Fed’d Chairman Bernake have chilled our spirit with poignant explanations into the apparent motives for the downfall of our credit markets but without yielding insights as to the true nature of the problem.

Seldom have we been so directly and dramatically in touch with the flaws of our financial system and how negatively we have been affected by such flaws. I, for one, cannot imagine how the Federal Reserve or the Treasury Department did not know in what financial conditions the failed commercial and investments banks, and other companies, were in before they ultimately collapsed. Listening to Bush, Paulson and Bernake I get the impression that they have been linked too closely to the “smart boys” of Wall Street and still associating themselves with them.

My immense distrust for politicians and even greater distrust for the Wall Street sharks is a good enough reason for me to oppose any blanket or semi-blanket approval of the bail out proposal. In fact, I would prefer no bail out package at all if in any way it will furnish the dishonest CEOs of Wall Street with another opportunity to deceive.

HZ