There's a paradox playing out in Washington the last few days. The Auto Executives came back and handed in their essays for why we should give them more money. Wall Street however, never even got any homework, they just created junk derivatives, loan sharked consumers and yes made some bad loans. No problem huh Congress, just give them another 700 billion with no over sight to do what ever they want with it. Oh wait, this was to get credit flowing again at the top to help the economy from falling into a big black hole. Well I want to thank them thus far because it's done wonders, they're still hoarding credit, small business line of credit is still shrinking and their interest rate for borrowing is still going up regardless of their good credit. It's also doing wonders for the auto industry restricting credit and it's helping city bank with their 20 billion to make industry purchases. Is it any wonder that all auto maker sales were down last month? All is well on Wall Street now that we've replenished their coffers. But hey what about Main Street.

Clearly the strength of the economy is consumer demand. And, I'm glad they're trying to cut loose the credit market so all of these growing laid off workers can run out and buy Christmas presents, cars and homes. There's something seriously wrong here. The foundation of any economy is employment and the continued growth of small business. So what has our 700 billion dollar investment bought us? As far as I can see the same people who have helped crash our 401K's have just been rewarded for doing so? Thank you Wall Street, I can't wait to do away with Social Security and turn trillions over to you to play with while I work the rest of my life.

So now it seems both the Democrats and Republicans are floundering around like loose carp on a peer trying to figure out what to do with these auto makers? Sure let's let them go down to further boost the economy creating millions of new unemployed (the auto industry & supporting industries), ridding ourselves more of our largest disappearing manufacturing base and sending this economy to never, never land. Did they make mistakes, you bet. Do we drive American cars, hell no. But can we afford to watch these companies tank, hell no.

Can you imagine these companies going into bankruptcy? That will create a rush to buy their cars or better yet, have people run like hell away from them. China has been waiting in the wings to enter the market, might as well have them come in and what the heck, buy all three of them. They're flush with cash. After all, WalMart with its overflow of Chinese imports are the only ones doing great right now.

I think the problem is that Americans are sick of companies holding out their hands for failure. They see mind boggling numbers thrown around while many sit there trying to figure out how to pay their mortgages, health Care Insurance, college for their kids and for many, the basic necessities. Well guess what Main Street, nothing is coming your way for relief right now.

The economy works from the bottom up not top down. But it's how America does things it seems. Things on the bottom are getting pretty lonely. It doesn't matter what happens to the credit markets, if jobs disappear and consumer confidence goes south, we continue to sink. While banks hoard credit, foreclosures increase creating even more bad credit the spiral will continue. We are far from seeing the bottom.

So the hell with all of those auto workers who helped build the middle class. After all, they're the reason they've failed not those seven figure CEO's who run them like sixth graders. There's something wrong here too, American cars are relatively cheaper then imports, but their market shares over the years continued to shrink. I sincerely believe that it would be devestating to lose our auto industry. Consequently, we need to do something. Lets get something worked out with them and more importantly, let's see these once great American Icons return to prominence by making changes needed to compete. To me it's a no brainer.
Otherwise this economy is going off a huge cliff.

The Auto