By Richard Mahler
As a child, my parents used to
remind me that money does not grow on trees. But, according to the
newly elected 111th Congress of the United States, there is not only a
tree behind the White House but also an orchard behind the capital
building.
Apparently, we can afford four more years of the
same. Or is it that President Obama wants to show us how much we can't
afford in four more years? Either way, we as the American public are
standing silent as our government is slowly slipping away from U.S. In
the fall, Congress pressured the president to act due to the impending
“recession” to come. Thus, President Bush declared that $700 billion
(the bail-out) would be used to acquire damaged bank assets to help
ease the credit markets. Yet, when given the authority to do so
Secretary of Treasury, Henry Paulson somehow changed his mind saying
that the reason for the economic hardships was due to bank troubles.
Three hundred and fifty billion dollars later, not one in is better
shape than before. On Sept. 15, 2008, Bank of America announced its
intentions to purchase Merrill Lynch & Co Inc. in an all-stock deal
worth approximately $50 billion, about 86 percent of the Bank of
America stock price at close.
It was Shakespeare’s Juliet who’d ask "What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet", not Plato, Smith and Marx would’ve thought otherwise. For in nature a rose is a rose, a