"They got the elevator, we got the shaft"

I've become fairly knowledgeable about the financial deregulation of the 1990's (although I'll stop well short of calling myself an expert) and the door it opened up for the "blow-and-go"....actually more like "smoke-and-mirrors"....first decade of the 21'st Century.  As we're now painfully aware, all that gee-wizz "financial engineering" that brought Wall Street (used generically to include the big banks, hedge funds, insurers, brokerages, etc) immense wealth actually produced little of real value.  Many respected scholars and actual insiders to what was going on told us years ago that we were on a very slippery slope, but they were drowned out by the lobby for those raking in BILLIONS of dollars in commissions and bonuses.  Those were heady days, and we didn't want to hear any bad news.  Things turned out just like that old song said they would:  "They got the elevator, we got the shaft."


Now here we are in 2012, an election year.  Mitt Romney appears to be on a roll and will likely be the Republican nominee for President.  He was one of those who profited mightily from those deregulated times, and so are his current financial backers.  They really want to see him elected as they have visions of returning to the good 'ol days (for them at least).  They assume he'll call off those who are clamoring for re-regulation, and based on what he's said so far in his campaigning, he will.


I'm no fan of Barack Obama, or more specifically, I'm no fan of the Obama administration.  IMO, he has surrounded himself with advisers who are doing him and the American people a disservice.  They are individually brilliant, but collectively inept.  "What is" and "what could have been" are, sadly, two very different things.


So what will our likely choices be this November?  More of what we have now (how depressing is that?) or a replay of what we had before (YIKES!).  Some choice, huh?


S