In the Ozarks of Missouri,my grandparents never got to retire, nor did I ever hear them discuss it. The dream of sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair with their dog at their feet was always a serene unrealized thought. Because of their hard-scrabbled living on a small farm, they never had enough money to retire. From sun-up to sundown they collected the eggs, milked the cows, worked for neighbors for 50 cents a day. washed their laundry by hand on a washboard, cooked, and did numerous other chores that occupied their time but brought little cash to show for that strenuous effort to survive.There was no retirement for them.

Today we have a better life, one in which we can dream and plan for retirement and actually realize it. Even in these threatening economic days of impending financial disaster, that dream is still with us. However, the challenge of our monetary system precipitates intelligent thinking about when, where and how to retire.

In wrapping up a career and settling into retirement, there are some issues to confront. Before retirement we can ask “now what?” As we confront the challenges of retirement we have more options that our grandparents. We have options such as downsizing, starting a new “second” career,” moving to the sun belt or some other area of choice, going back to school, giving a portion of our time as a community volunteer, or spending more time and resources on grandchildren.

Retirement is the optimum time to make decisions on the number and subjects of a will or trust, and certainly to think about our demise — be that in 10, 20 or 30 years, if we are lucky. Retirement presents us with challenges.

Our decision on when, where, and how to fully retire in the next five years will hinge on how to afford this longed for lifestyle.The stability of sources of income for retirement is more serious than it has ever been since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The tumbling stock market is trashing my investments. The balance and value on my portfolio is steadily going downhill, a 25% decline in value since January. I am thankful though, in the midst of this crisis, that none of my investment companies have gone bankrupt.  For me, less in value of investments is better than a total zero. I am following St. Paul’s advice: “be ye thankful.”

Our choice of  options for a retirement lifestyle will also hinge on the falling value of our homes. Whether it’s true or false, we are given the impression that the decline of the value and worth of our personal property is less than the median decline for the rest of the nation. It’s certain that home values are continuing to fall in many areas. We hope the fall is less in our community.

Another expense that can drain our savings for retirement will be the cost of medical care. In retirement this cost can quickly accelerate. One reliable study found that “65-year-old males generally need to save $196,000 to cover their health care premiums during retirement; for females, who live longer, it’s $224,000.”

For a successful retirement, first count the cost. The answer to “what now” as you contemplate retirement, is influenced by one’s personal assets, investments, pensions and income. The solution to this challenge may be to keep working or change the retirement date. In retirement, especially in the confusion and uncertainty of these days, life will not be easy.  However, a healthy and mature attitude can give us strength to confront the various challenges enveloping the thought of retirement.

Like many Americans, I’ve been following the financial roller coaster ride that is Wall Street and the American financial system, though I may have been following it longer than most. Years, in fact.

In recent weeks I’ve corresponded with a New England friend who, after years of fiscal nonchalance and escalating debt decided to straighten up and become fiscally responsible. It took him five years or so to pay down all his debt, establish a fiscal net worth in savings and investments — and keep it that way. He’s the first to admit “it’s not easy.”

The first rule of thumb, he says, is pay down your debt. The second rule of thumb is “if you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it.” It doesn’t get more straightforward than that, unless you live in a culture like ours in which you are primed to consume beyond your means. Keep up with the Joneses until you both sink. It’s been the American way for some time now.

Today I read numerous stories of average Americans being hit by stock market losses, foreclosure notices, and credit card companies that are suddenly jacking up the interest rates on even their best customers…in one case, the credit rate jumped from 7% to 26% overnight. Insanity. Especially if those credit cards have been funding an overextended lifestyle.

Like many Americans, I am feed up with executives with multimillion/paychecks and even more in the “severance” packages or golden parachutes and the corporate windfall profits that seem to be built on the back of our consumerism.

Unlike many Americans, I also have developed little patience for those who play the “keep up…” game and overshoot their means by virtue of those little plastic credit cards. Unlike many Americans, I have little patience with those who can’t take the time to figure what a mortgage will really cost before they sign on the bottom line with black ink destined to turn red.  Playing Devil’s advocate, a friend today said “many people are not aware or savvy enough” to understand the (mortgage) process; some lenders have prodded them into signing things they don’t understand, or persuaded them to go for more than they can afford. If you don’t understand a contract, whether it is for a camera, a big screen TV, a car or a house, ask someone who knows (that includes consumer organizations). Read the fine print. Ask for details. Be specific. How much will it really cost? My mother would have said “If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.”

Some of my friends laugh at me because I “pay cash.” I have a system that works, and it starts with the essentials of housing, utilities, and food; internet access is important (school), cable TV is not. Anyway, anything I want to see I can view online, including TV shows and movies, which makes cable irrelevant. I use the local library as an alternate resource. When the essentials are covered, I can then do two things: (1) set some money aside and (2) maybe, maybe, treat myself to a movie, a lunch, or something. I have a “wish list” of things I’d like to have, and when I have the money saved, I get them. Time has an interesting way of reshaping that wish list; often when it comes time to buy, the priorities have changed. And that’s okay. Either way, I am not going into debt. The only true wild card is that of medical care/emergency.

The refrain of the past few weeks in America begins with the words “recession” and the really scary word, “depression”; it has also included terms like “thrifty” and “conservative.” At the core of solutions to fiscal crisis, both the latter words are apt. It is not necessary to keep up with the Joneses. It is not necessary to have the latest X-Box. It is not necessary to buy every new movie on DVD. (Main Street may not like it but it is survival of the fiscally fit.) It will not kill you to eat at home and eat leftovers from time to time (in fact, it will probably be better for you if you prepare healthy food at home). It will not kill you to plan your travel in a way that uses the least amount of gas. It will not kill you to add a sweater and, as the cold weather approaches, turn the thermostat down a degree or two or three, put an extra blanket on the bed. It will not kill your children if you spend less than $500 apiece on them for Christmas.

I know that the main idea of the experts is too pump more money into the economy to remain solvent, to money fluid and flowing, to keep business alive. It is a fine walk that is shuffling around the world; foreign markets are not immune. I also know that as consumers, and American economic survivors, it is essential to become frugal, and rethink many aspects of our lives. All things move in cycles over varying periods of time. Relief will not be easy, and will require hard and probably painful decisions.

We have been lax in minding our personal business, extravagant in meeting excessive “wants,” and deserving of chastisement for failing to teach our children and their children the value of thrift, of wisdom of savings, the reward of  “earning” something rather than impulsively paying with plastic and promissory notes.

It is a lesson that starts at home, long before it works its way to Main Street and on to Wall Street.  As a country, we’ve earned a failing grade in economics. As we move through this pick-up-stick economic game all we can do is survive and learn from it, redevelop old-fashioned skills.

My mother also said something about “the school of hard knocks.” Translation: experience is great teacher. Translation: Don’t spend what you haven’t got or can’t afford.

While Wall Street and the Bush Administration try to blackmail Congress into a $700 billion bailout for corporations that have shown zero concern about the plight of the American people through the last decade, I have been working on a comprehensive alternative. Today, I am releasing a plan for economic recovery that will provide not only economic stimulus, but also fairness for everyday people on every “Main Street” in America. The plan  detailed will also be available on the campaign website www.kucinich.us.

Of course, this is a plan that has not only economic implications, but also moral and spiritual implications as well. The social, economic, and political divisions in our nation must be healed.  We can make a new beginning, seizing this moment of crisis and transforming it into a moment of rebirth for our nation.Kucinich’s Main Street Recovery Plan

1. Health Care for All: Insurance companies make money not providing health care.  As the co-author of HR 676, a universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care system, Medicare for All, I understand millions of Americans want health care that is accessible and affordable. Medicare for All will help businesses large and small, create jobs as well as save the jobs of thousands of people including those of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who are currently leaving medicine because it is run by the insurance companies. $1 in every 3 dollars of the $2.4 trillion spent annually in America for health care goes to the insurance companies. If we take that money ($800 billion in unproductive wasteful spending) and put it directly into care, we will have enough money to cover everyone. We are already paying for Medicare for all, but not receiving it. HR 676 changes that!

2. Prescription Drug Benefit for Seniors: HR 6800 is the MEDS Act, which provides a fully paid prescription drug benefit, under Medicare, for all seniors. I wrote this bill to help alleviate the economic pressure that comes from the high cost of prescription drugs. We can pay for it by letting the government negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies as well as by permitting re-importation.

3. Stop the Oil Companies’ Price Gouging: As you know, I was the first one to step up to challenge of the corrupt price gouging and market speculation of the oil companies by proposing  a windfall profits tax, on oil and natural gas companies, with revenues put into tax credits for the purchase of fuel-efficient American-made cars. However, it may be that nationalization is the only way to put an end to the oil companies’ sharp practices.

4. Protecting the American Homestead: As Chairman of the Domestic Policy Oversight Subcommittee, I am working to protect your basic right to have a roof over your head, whether as an owner or renter. I have investigated and helped to expose the manipulation of mortgage markets, and I am crafting a new federal policy so that neighborhoods with the highest number of foreclosures get the most help.

5. Jobs for All: Congressman LaTourette and I have co-authored the bi-partisan New Deal-type jobs program, HR 3400, “Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure.” It will create millions of good-paying new jobs rebuilding our roads, bridges, water systems and sewer systems.

6. American Manufacturing Policy: I am drafting the American Manufacturing Policy Act, which for the first time, will state that the maintenance of U.S. steel, automotive, and aerospace industries are vital to our national economic security and must be maintained through  integrated public-private cooperation, new trade policies, and investment.

7. Works Green Administration: I am also drafting plans for a green New Deal  jobs program, in which the government creates millions of jobs by incentivizing the design, engineering, manufacturing, distribution and maintenance of millions of wind and solar micro-technologies for millions of homes and businesses, dramatically lowering energy costs and reducing our dependence on oil.

8. Fair Trade: The U.S. has lost millions of good-paying jobs, and more jobs have been out-sourced. As you know, I have helped to lead the way in opposition to trade giveaways. I strongly urge repeal of NAFTA.  We must include workers’ rights, human rights and environmental quality principles in all trade pacts. We must also protect the Great Lakes’ water resources from the reach of multi-national corporations.

9. Education for All: I know families need help with the rising cost of day care. That is why I introduced HR 4060, a universal pre-kindergarten program to ensure that all children ages 3-5 have access to full-day, quality day care.

10. Protecting Pensions:  I am working to change bankruptcy laws so pensioners’ claims will be first, ahead of banks, and that corporate executives who misuse workers’ pension funds are subject to criminal penalties. I want to fully fund the Pension Benefit Guarantee Board.

11. Social Security: From my first moments in Congress, I have exposed Wall Street’s efforts to privatize Social Security and attacked it in the Democratic Caucus when it was being proposed. Can you imagine where seniors would be today if Social Security had been turned over to the stock market? Social Security is solid through 2032 without any changes.

12.  Protect Bank Deposits: I will work to make sure the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has sufficient funds to provide for insurance of deposits up to $200,000 at all banks and savings and loans. This is an urgent matter since so many banks are said to be vulnerable.

13. Protect Investors: Bring back strong regulation to Wall Street. As Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, I challenged the Wall Street hedge fund speculators as a threat to small investors. I intend to keep active watch over the machinations on Wall Street.

14. Strength through Peace: You’ll remember when I led the effort against the ill-conceived Iraq war, which has now cost more than 4,100 US soldiers’ lives, cost U.S. taxpayers between $3 trillion and $5 trillion, and resulted in the deaths of more than a million Iraqis.  We must bring our troops home and end the war. We must engage in diplomacy. We must reduce the military budget, and we must stop outrageous cost overruns by the likes of Halliburton.

15. Safety in America: I am proud of my work for peace. In July 2001, I introduced a bill, which today is HR 808, that for the first time creates a comprehensive plan to deal with the issues of violence in American society, particularly domestic violence, spousal abuse, child abuse, gang violence, gun violence, racial violence, and violence against gays by establishing a Cabinet-level Department of Peace and Restorative Justice. This proposal has sparked a national movement and when implemented will save tax payers millions of dollars.

16. Monetary Policy: It is long past the time that we looked at the implications of our debt based monetary system, the privatization of money created by the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, the banks fractional reserve system and our debt-based economic system. Unless we have dramatic reform of monetary policy, the entire economic system will continue to accelerate wealth upwards. I am currently working on drafting legislation for an ‘American Monetary Act’ to address these and other issues in order to protect the economic well-being of America.

Click here to view the embedded video.

President Bush to address nation at 8 p.m. CST.

McCain’s decision is a complete about-face from his prior statements  that the United States economy is “fundamentally sound.” This is John McCain’s statement, released at 3 p.m. today.:

Sen. John McCain

America this week faces an historic crisis in our financial system. We must pass legislation to address this crisis. If we do not, credit will dry up, with devastating consequences for our economy. People will no longer be able to buy homes and their life savings will be at stake. Businesses will not have enough money to pay their employees. If we do not act, ever corner of our country will be impacted. We cannot allow this to happen.

Last Friday, I laid out my proposal and I have since discussed my priorities and concerns with the bill the Administration has put forward. Senator Obama has expressed his priorities and concerns.This morning, I met with a group of economic advisers to talk about the proposal on the table and the steps that we should take going forward.I have also spoken with members of Congress to hear their perspective.It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the Administration’ proposal. I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time.

Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.

I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.

We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved.I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night’s debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.

I am confident that before the markets open on Monday we can achieve consensus on legislation that will stabilize our financial markets, protect taxpayers and homeowners, and earn the confidence of the American people. All we must do to achieve this is temporarily set politics aside, and I am committed to doing so.

Following September 11th, our national leaders came together at a time of crisis. We must show that kind of patriotism now. Americans across our country lament the fact that partisan divisions in Washington have prevented us from addressing our national challenges. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country.

In response to McCain’s decision, Senator Obama said he did not feel the debate should be postponed, adding that
“It’s my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person will be the next president. It is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once. It’s more important than ever to present ourselves to the American people.”

With the proposed $700 billion bail-out mired in debate abnd controversy, President Bush will address the nation tonight at 9 a.m EST.

For the past twenty years, beginning with the Reagan administration, economic war has been waged on you, the middle class. The champions of the “free market” demanded that all fetters, all regulations, be removed from the market. It was claimed that regulations were bad, that they prevented the market from operating “efficiently”, that the “freer” the market, the more we would all benefit.

Along with deregulation, those pushing the “free market” concept also demonized “taxation”, claiming that the less you are taxed, the better — that you should be allowed to “keep your money”. Several things were seldom discussed in relation to “tax reduction”. First, the majority of the “tax relief” went to the wealthiest in our society. They saved hundreds of thousands compared hundreds of dollars for those in the middle class. Secondly, the spending did not decrease. Rather than “tax and spend” as they accused the Democrats of doing, the Republicans (champions of the “free market”) simply borrowed and spent. But the spending was not for things of benefit to the middle class. Instead of health care and education, we were given endless war, from which the corporations who had bought the government profited immensely. While our sons and daughters fought and died, Halliburton made billions.

But woe to any who pointed this out. They were accused of waging “class war”. While the moneyed interests waged vicious and constant “class war” against the middle class, they feigned outrage that any would question their intentions. Meanwhile, the middle class saw its wages and standard of living erode. The banks and lending institutions tightened the noose around the necks of the middle class, making it harder for the “little guy” to claim bankruptcy, jacking up credit card interest to usurious levels, killing any legislation that might possibly benefit anyone other than a multi-millionaire. Middle class Americans fell deeper into debt, relying increasingly on credit cards to bridge income shortfalls, the dream of a better future for their children evaporating before their eyes.

During all the time of increased immiseration of the middle class, the wealthy and the multinational corporations were raking in the profits. The income gap between the rich and the poor widened as the “uberwealthy” sucked up more and more of the social wealth. But all good things must come to an end. The “creative” financial instruments designed by Wall Street to suck any remaining wealth from the middle class finally collapsed like the house of cards they were. Wall Street, in a panic, turned to the government it had spent good money for, and demanded a bail out.

So this is where we now stand. Those of you who question the preceding analysis, consider the fact that it is demanded that the taxpayers foot the 600 billion bill for the bailout with no oversight at all. The message delivered by that demand is this, “Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class, you have been punked”.

“It is extremely difficult for most of us to get our minds around what this extraordinary amount of money means.  We hear every day about spending cuts to infrastructure and social services. Now the current Administration is proposing to spend more than what is currently allocated for the U.S. War in Iraq on this Wall Street bailout.  It is critically important that we urge our elected representatives to take a close and careful look at the trade offs involved in their decisions.”

~~ Jo Comerford, Executive Director of National Priorities Project.

A healthy and productive economy requires substantial investment in affordable housing, health care, education and renewable energy. Taxpayers in the United States who will be required to pay $700 billion for the Wall Street bailout should also know that for the same amount of money, they could secure the following:

• 51.6 million people with health care for four years OR
• 181.2 million homes with renewable electricity for four years OR
• 2.9 million elementary school teachers for four years OR
• 27 million four-year scholarships for university students

$700 billion is more than what is currently allocated for the U.S. war in Iraq. This amount would allow us to repair all of our nations 77,000 deteriorated bridges and still have $519 billion to spend; or it would allow us to rebuild all of our nations 33,000 deteriorating schools and still have $664 billion to spend. For more analysis and trade-offs at the State and Congressional District level, please visit National Priorities Project’s Trade-offs page online (www.nationalpriorities.org/tradeoffs).

Submitted by: Jillian Hanson, Communications Director, and Jo Comerford, Executive Director of The National Priorities Project (NPP), a 501(c)(3) research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent.  Located in Northampton, MA, since 1983, NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the national, state, congressional district and local levels.  For more information, go to http://nationalpriorities.org.

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is Enemy Action.” — Auric Goldfinger, Ian Fleming’s James Bond

In 1982, the same year John McCain entered the Senate, a bill was put forward that would substantially deregulate the Savings and Loan industry. The Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act was an initiative of the Reagan administration, and was largely authored by lobbyists for the S&L industry — including John McCain’s warm-up speaker at the convention, Fred Thompson. The official description of the bill was “An act to revitalize the housing industry by strengthening the financial stability of home mortgage lending institutions and ensuring the availability of home mortgage loans.” Considering where things stand in 2008, that may sound dubious. It should.

Seven years later, the S&L industry was collapsing. What was the cause? Garn-St. Germain handed the S&Ls a greatly expanded range of capabilities, allowing them to go head to head with full service banks, but it didn’t give them the bank’s regulations. Left to operate in an anarchistic gray area, S&Ls chased profits, indulged in amazing extravagances, and cranked out enough cheap mortgages to fuel a real estate boom. They also experimented with lots of complex, creative — and risky — investments, even though they didn’t have the economic models to really determine the worth of the things they were buying. The result was a mountain of bad debts and worthless “assets.”  Does any of that sound eerily (or nauseatingly) familiar?

It wasn’t a foregone conclusion. In 1985, three years after the deregulation of the S&Ls, the chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board saw that the situation was already looking shaky, with the potential to become much worse. He instituted a rule to limit the amounts and types of investments S&Ls could carry on their books in an effort to head off disaster. However, many savings and loans — among them Lincoln Savings & Loan Association of Irvine, CA, which was headed by a fellow named Charles Keating — promptly ignored these rules.

Alan Greenspan

Now enters a familiar cast of characters. First to pop up was the universally beloved Fed-chief-to-be, Alan Greenspan. Greenspan argued against the loan board’s new rules, and persuaded Reagan to appoint one of Keating’s pals to the board to blunt the requirements. A quintet of senators, among them John McCain, began having meetings with both the management at Lincoln and the regulators at the loan board.  Alan Greenspan also helped out with a letter to the regulators, asking that Lincoln be exempt from the new rules. With their help of Greenspan and their pet senators, Lincoln was able to stay in business an additional two years, at the end of which they failed — taking the life savings of 21,000, mostly elderly, investors with them.

How involved was John McCain? McCain and Keating had known each other since 1981 and had become fast friends. Of all the “Keating Five,” it was McCain who moved into the life of the Lincoln S&L chief. The two men vacationed together multiple times, with the whole McCain clan (babysitter included) heading out for Keating’s private Caribbean property on Keating’s private jet. McCain didn’t think to actually report these trips, or pay for them, until the investigators were breathing down his neck. And McCain took his payment in the form of more than just vacations. Keating and other members of Lincoln’s parent company padded McCain’s pockets with $112,000 in campaign contributions.

In John McCain’s biography, he called his meetings with Keating and regulators “the worst mistake of my life,” though from the text you’d think this was a spur of the moment decision, not something that McCain did repeatedly over a space of years. Still, you might think that a “worst mistake” would stay fresh in his memory.

It certainly didn’t fade quickly for the country. Following the S&L crisis, the Resolution Trust Company was formed to swallow up the debt of Lincoln and 746 other S&Ls gone wild, and taxpayers were left with the $125 billion bill. The resulting budget deficit forced cutbacks in other programs. The artificial real estate boom collapsed and housing starts fell to their lowest levels in decades. Finally, the whole nation settled in for a period nasty enough that three years later someone could still campaign around the idea “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Phil Granmm, John McCain

Even so, by 1999 Phil Gramm — who had entered the Senate two years after McCain and quickly become the economic guru of the Keating Five maverick — put forward the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. This Act passed out of the Senate on a party line vote with 100% Republican support, including that of John McCain. (To be fair, the bill eventually passed again with a wide margin following revisions in the House.)

This act repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act. This may sound like a bunch of Congressperson soup, but the gist of it is that Glass-Steagall was put in place in 1933 to control the rampant speculation that had helped cause the collapse of banking at the outset of the depression, and to prevent such consolidation of the banks that the nation had all its eggs in one fiscal basket.

Gramm-Leach-Bliley reversed those rules, allowing not only more bank mergers, but for banks to become directly involved in the stock market, bonds, and insurance. Remember the bit about how S&Ls failed because they didn’t have the regulations that protected banks? After Gramm-Leach-Bliley, banks didn’t have that protection either.

Gramm wasn’t done. The next year he was back with the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which was slipped into a “must pass” spending bill on the last day of the 106th Congress. This Act greatly expanded the scope of futures trading, created new vehicles for speculation, and sheltered several investments from regulation.

As with both Gramm-Leach-Bliley and Garn-St. Germain, large parts of this bill were written by industry lobbyists. This famously included the “Enron Loophole” that exempted energy trading from regulation and was written by (big suprise) Enron Lobbyists working with Gramm. Not coincidentally, Senator Gramm, the second largest recipient of campaign contributions from Enron, was also key to legislating the deregulation of California’s energy commodity trading.

Thanks to this fortunate trifecta of Gramm-crafted legislation, Enron was able to create “EnronOnline” and trade electricity in California with absolutely no oversight or transparency. They quickly worked out how to game the system. Previously, there had been only one Stage 3 rolling blackout in the history of California. Within months, the system had been manipulated by traders to generate 38 such blackouts and wholesale electrical prices had gone up more than 3000%. Despite production capacity equal to four times the demand during winter, energy traders even engineered a blackout in mid-January.

During the confusion of these deliberate “shortages” and “price spikes,” the California administration of Gray Davis — blind to speculator manipulations because of the walls erected by Gramm’s legislation — was forced to sign energy contracts at enormous rates. There was little choice, because most of California’s public utilities were on the brink of bankruptcy from the rising wholesale prices.

In a single year, Gramm’s legislation allowed speculators to bring the state to its knees. Enron alone looted California of $11 billion. The manipulations of the energy market were also a major factor in Davis getting the hook, helped usher the governator into power, and they still have repercussions in California’s budget battles today. By the end of that year, the depth of Enron’s deception could no longer be hidden, and the whole company came crashing down in the largest bankruptcy in history — at the time. This brought more billions lost in mutual funds and pension funds across the country, and played a major role in the economic downturn of 2001.

But that was only the second act. The combination of Gramm-Leach-Bliley and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act was a toxic cocktail whose total damage was greater than the sum of its parts.

The first Act promoted bank buyouts and mergers that reached such an insane pitch that the average consumer could only keep up by tracking the changing names on their checks and credit cards. Mercantile buys Ameribanc and Mark Twain. Firstar buys Federated and First Colonial. US Bancorp buys Mercantile and Firstar. And, because it allowed brokerages and insurance companies to mingle with banks, the Act cemented a trend that was already (and illegally) underway in which all those terms had become rather quaint. Is Wachovia a savings bank, an investment bank, a brokerage, or an insurance provider? The answer is “yes.”

In allowing financial institutions to grow to Godzilla-sized proportions, Gramm-Leach-Bliley helped ensure that we would have financial entities that were “too big to fail.” Rather than choosing to enforce rules that kept these institutions apart, the deregulators chose to create monster bankeragasurances whose downfall (and existence) was enough to threaten the whole system.

But if Gramm-Leach-Bliley removed the limits on size and scope, these new institutions still needed fuel. With many financial transactions operating on razor thin margins, and increasing automation sapping the profits from trading of all sorts, they needed a new way to generate the funds required to swallow their brethren in the merged fiscal corporation pond.  For that, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act was a godsend.

Among those instruments which the CFMA sheltered from regulatory scrutiny was something called the “credit default swap.” A kind of insurance one bank could exchange with another, credit default swaps supposedly made it safe for banks to take on ever riskier forms of debt. The Act didn’t invent these swaps, though they were relatively new. Instead, by placing them in a state where they were not only unregulated but almost perfectly opaque, credit default swaps were turned into the perfect vehicle to fuel a Wall Street revolution. No one had any idea what these things were actually worth, they were traded “over the counter” without being administered by any exchange, and even the SEC could monitor their existence only indirectly.

Who would cheer for a new kind of financial instrument that was difficult to understand, invisible to regulators, and impossible for even the whizziest of Wall Street whiz kids to value? Guess.

More recently, instruments that are more complex and less transparent–such as credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, and credit-linked notes–have been developed and their use has grown very rapidly in recent years. The result? Improved credit-risk management together with more and better risk-management tools appear to have significantly reduced loan concentrations in telecommunications and, indeed, other areas and the associated stress on banks and other financial institutions. — Alan Greenspan, 2002

Get that? Greenspan loved credit default swaps. He opined again and again that such instruments would be the salvation of the industry by spreading around risks. To the mighty Greenspan, both their complexity and their lack of transparency were good things, since swaps would only be handled by the big boys who knew how to play with fire.

When questioned about his support of Gramm’s legislation, John McCain called his friend (and by then, campaign co-chair) Gramm “one of the smartest people in the world on the economy” and pointed out that Greenspan also favored the acts Gramm and his coalition of lobbyists had authored. If both Gramm and Greenspan were on his side, McCain couldn’t possibly be in the wrong.

Except, of course, that he could.

From the beginning, there were plenty of people in the financial community whose opinion of these unregulated credit swaps was not as rosy as that of Gramm, Greenspan, and McCain. Chief among those speaking in opposition was SEC Chairman, Arthur Levitt. Levitt argued that what the industry needed was more transparency, especially when it came to complex instruments like default swaps, and he testified to this before Gramm’s Senate Banking Committee.

“In my judgment, the risk of this regulatory approach is simply unacceptable for America’s investors.” –Arthur Levitt, 1999

Gramm paid no attention.

Credit default swaps did allow the banks to share risks. So much so, that banks raced each other in an effort to find more risks. They made it possible for the down payment on homes to become 3%, 1%, 0%. Skip the credit check, avoid the employment requirements, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! We’ve got a credit default swap, we can do anything!

The encouragement and “safety” that credit default swaps provided made the sub-prime mortgage market possible. Just as with the deregulation of S&Ls in the 1980s, the market was suddenly flooded with easy credit. The result was a real estate boom, soaring home prices, and a plague of “Flip that House!” shows on cable.

As the banks piled up crappy mortgages, they heaped on ever more of the credit default swaps — and they still had no idea how to value the things. Worse, they began to trade the swaps themselves as if they were an investment, treating them like something worth holding instead of a big bundle of cartoon bombs whose fuses were already lit. Since very few loans were falling into default at the time, owning a default swap seemed like a way to collect fees without ever paying out. Banks wanted more, and more, and more.

A secondary market for trading swaps exploded into existence, and swaps were traded with absolutely no consideration for the nature or quality of the underlying investment. Swaps changed hands a dozen or more times, growing in “value” as they went. Worse still, no one regulated who could buy a swap, so it was (and is) perfectly possible for a company to acquire swaps that theoretically cover billions of dollars in loans, even if that company doesn’t have a red cent on hand to cover those swaps should the loans default.

How big did this market become? Here’s business correspondent Bob Moon and host Kai Ryssdal on American Public Media’s Marketplace from back in the spring.

BOB MOON: OK, I’m about to unload some numbers on you here, so I’ll speak slowly so you can follow this.

The value of the entire U.S. Treasuries market: $4.5 trillion.

The value of the entire mortgage market: $7 trillion.

The size of the U.S. stock market: $22 trillion.

OK, you ready?

The size of the credit default swap market last year: $45 trillion.

KAI RYSSDAL: That’s a lot of money, Bob.

As in three times the whole US gross domestic product, Bob. And the truth is that Moon probably underestimated. The unregulated and poorly reported credit default swaps may have actually passed $70 trillion last year, or about $5 trillion more than the GDP of the entire world.

So, are you starting to get an idea of just how big a genie Phil Gramm and his pals unleashed?

With some regularity over the last eight years, fiscal whistle blowers have tried to raise their hands and register a protest. Um, sirs? Is it altogether a good idea to run up debts exceeding all the assets it’s even possible to hold? But so long as no one actually had to pay off on the swaps, the party went on.  Even usually conservative (in the fiscal sense) companies like AIG started to worry that they were being left behind and leapt headlong into the swap pool.

Federal Reserve

Shortly after Greenspan’s departure in 2006, the Federal Reserve took the unusual step of issued a joint statement along with the SEC to warn about the risks associated with credit default swaps. But by that point, the damage was already severe. If swaps lost their value, most of those who had played the game would find their giant firms abruptly valued in pocket change. The only solution was to cover the problem with still more swaps and keep moving.

Then a funny thing happened. After years in which banks had handed out loans willy-nilly, guarded by the indestructible swap, people and companies started to really default on those loans. Credit slowed, home prices fell, and the whole snake started to eat itself tail first. Suddenly, credit default swaps were not sources of limitless cash. It turns out that an insurance policy — even a secret, unregulated policy — is occasionally expected to pay. Speculators started to look at the paper they were holding and for the first time realized it could all be worthless. Worse, it could (and did) represent a massive debt; one that no one had the funds to cover.

When Bear Stearns fell apart last March, it was only suspected that a big part of the effort in saving the giant investment bank was keeping their holdings in credit default swaps from unraveling and spreading to other institutions. Naturally, part of solving this problem involved creating a new credit default swap to cover Bear Stearn’s potential debt. But the all-purpose swap was starting to lose its power. Shortly after Bear Stearns went belly up, AIG reported the largest quarterly loss in the company’s history, taking a $11 billion hit on revaluing its holdings of swaps. The party was definitely coming to a close.

When AIG finally collapsed this week, there was no doubt about the primary cause of its failure. The previously well grounded company had “gotten itself involved with something called credit default swaps.” Point of irony alert: Arthur Levitt now serves on the AIG board… or at least he did until the government had to take over most of AIG to salvage the company from the very idiocy Levitt had warned of in 1999.

This week, the Bush administration announced the beginnings of a plan to salvage what remains of the financial markets. At first glance, it appears that the plan will consist mainly of creating a kind of “garbage pit,” a fund or group of funds — cousins of the Resolution Trust that was created during the S&L crisis — into which those people who have dabbled in bad debts can toss their problems. Only this time the cost to the taxpayers is at least $700 billion… and a big bite out of representative democracy.

The expansion of unregulated Savings and Loans in the 1980s brought on the collapse of that industry, a crippling of the economy, and left taxpayers holding the bag. Maybe that was only happenstance. Those pushing for the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act may not have known what they were doing.

The deregulation of the California electricity market, along with the protections provided to Enron through Phil Gramm’s lobbyist-written legislation brought blackouts, fiscal and political chaos, and left taxpayers holding the bag. But the people who engineered that event — people like Gramm and Greenspan — had already seen what happened with the S&Ls. They should have known better. Still, perhaps that was only coincidence.

The sub-prime mortgage crisis that has not only come so close to utterly destroying the markets, but has ruined the value of many people’s homes and left millions with mortgages they can’t pay, was also the outcome of the deregulation created by these men. The very predictable outcome.  When taxpayers are left holding the bag for $1 trillion this time around, it’s hard to believe it’s any sort of accident.

This is enemy action. This is a bullet deliberately fired into the economy by men willing to exercise their ideology regardless of the cost to taxpayers. Men who have every expectation that they can plunder the system again and again, while the public picks up the tab. John McCain may not have had his finger directly on the trigger, but he was there. He assisted. These were his personal friends and philosophical comrades. He may not be the high priest, but he has been a loyal acolyte in the cult of deregulation.

It may come as a surprise to the champions of deregulation, but nobody likes regulation. The restrictions that were placed on banks, S&Ls, and other institutions in the 1930s weren’t put there because someone thought it would be fun. They were put in place because they addressed problems that had just been clearly and painfully revealed. They were put in place because they were necessary.

It’s bad enough if John McCain didn’t know that. It’s far worse if he did.

About Mark Summer

Mark Summer is a Contributing Editor on the Daily Kos website, and one of the founders of the Political Cortex.  He is also commonly known as Devilstower. You can email him directly at .

A recent USA Today headline proclaimed “Rising prices hammer seniors on fixed income.” Food and medication goes out of reach for some. These are troublesome times, too, for parents, single or married, for grandparents and all adults.

It is formidable for us to think about the future when the financial skies are dark, because we have a problematical, hard to solve, financial quandary. Even though it takes a Herculean effort we still need to be  proactive and have a financial in place to implement in the better days. Being optimistic is permitted, even in these times of uncertainty. With the arrival of 2008, my investments in mutual funds declined in value. Since the onset of 2008, my rate of interest in the money market has declined to the level of 2.4%. As to interest on a savings account — that’s not worth printing.

As a minister in northwest Missouri, I’ll always remember the investment advice given to me by Wilbur, a Presbyterian who owned a portion of businesses in this town of 6,000 population. When talking about his grocery store, he said, “Pastor, over the years, as a pig farmer, I’ve discovered to make money is to buy when others are selling their stock.” What my friendly Presbyterian meant was to get into investing when prices are low or declining.

This is a time to invest, or to at least make plans to invest. For your long-term plans, think about what are called “faith based funds.”

In the early years of the 21st century, investment dollars are hard at work doing a lot more than making money. They are supporting conservation measures, fueling humane labor practices, and rewarding companies for shunning groups with ties to abortion service providers.

Religious mutual funds are burgeoning. Religious mutual funds are popular with the public and one way for an investor to express their conviction on social issues. Many investors are motivated by the opportunity to be socially responsible as well as to make a significant return in dividends.

The Amana Income Fund, an Islamic fund that avoids gambling, tobacco and meat-producing stocks, outperformed 180 funds in its equity-income stock between 2004-2007. Investors have lined up to join in this Islamic fund.

Faith-based funds are opportunities for investors with a passion for putting faith into action. The United Methodists have and outstanding investment plan for their pastors and employees. Since its inception, the Methodists have appreciated the link between ethics and investing. Rev. John Wesley, founder of the Methodists, dictated to his supporters “gain all we can without hurting our neighbor.” That ethic has inspired his spiritual descendants to shun investments in alcohol, tobacco and weapons manufacturing.

Socially responsible investing is growing by leaps and bounds. It has morphed into a $2 trillion mainstream industry.

There are precautions to observe before rushing into a broker or to the computer to invest in faith-based funds.

• Research the 10-year track record of the fund. This is a tool for measuring past success.
• Visit www.socialfunds.com for a free 20 page “Investing in Socially Responsible Mutual Funds.”
• As well as their success on dividends, be sensitive to their mission statement.

If contemplating such an investment, another step is to ask yourself the following question:

• What are my financial goals?
• What would I like my investment to support in terms of social or environmental practices?
• Do I care about whether my fund managers are working from a particular faith tradition?

In my investment plan I use First Command brokers in Clarksville. I recommend brokers, unless you have an elementary understanding of mutual funds. My investments for the future are already set or I would explore in depth Faith-based mutual funds as an investment.  I believe this bad, sad economy will eventually be history. prepare now for a prosperous future. It may take two or three but the good times will return.

Now is the time to reserarch investing.

The live discussion with America’s most notable financial leaders and policy experts, including Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; William Niskanen, chairman of the Cato Institute; Bill Novelli, CEO of AARP; Pete Peterson, senior chairman of The Blackstone Group and chairman of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation; and Dave Walker, president & CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former U.S. Comptroller General, promises riveting dialogue and keen insight into the crisis we currently face. The panel will be moderated by Becky Quick, co-anchor of CNBC’s morning news show Squawk Box.

From the producers of Wordplay and the studio that brought you Supersize Me, the must-see documentary I.O.U.S.A. uncovers the source of critical economic concerns that touch the lives of every American. A tapestry of archival footage, hard data and candid interviews woven together, it paints an authentic profile of today’s economic condition. Solutions for how we can impact this nationwide crisis and evolve into a more fiscally sound nation for future generations are offered by the documentary’s powerful conclusion.

In promoting the film, producers write:

I.O.U.S.A. boldly examines the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens. As the Baby Boomer generation prepares to retire, will there even be any Social Security benefits left to collect? Burdened with an ever-expanding government and military, increased international competition, overextended entitlement programs, and debts to foreign countries that are becoming impossible to honor, America must mend its spendthrift ways or face an economic disaster of epic proportions.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Throughout history, the American government has found it nearly impossible to spend only what has been raised through taxes. Wielding candid interviews with both average American taxpayers and government officials, Sundance veteran Patrick Creadon (Wordplay) helps demystify the nation’s financial practices and policies. The film follows U.S. Comptroller General David Walker as he crisscrosses the country explaining America’s unsustainable fiscal policies to its citizens.

With surgical precision, Creadon interweaves archival footage and economic data to paint a vivid and alarming profile of America’s current economic situation. The ultimate power of I.O.U.S.A. is that the film moves beyond doomsday rhetoric to proffer potential financial scenarios and propose solutions about how we can recreate a fiscally sound nation for future generations.

This critically-acclaimed documentary film was conceived of, co-written and executive produced by Agora Financial’s Addison Wiggin. In July 2008, the film was acquired by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. This live premiere will screen in 400 theatres around the nation tonight, including Nashville’s Opry Mills 20, 570 Opry Mills Drive, Nashville (615.514.4629) and Green Hills 16, 3815 Green Hills Village Drive Nashville (615.269.5910). Tickets are priced at approximately $12.00.

DUI package delayed by committee

The Criminal Practice and Procedure Subcommittee considered DUI bills this week, many of which were proposals rolled out by Republicans at the beginning of session as part of a comprehensive package to discourage drunk driving in Tennessee. Although they were pleased that some elements of the package received the committee’s approval, GOP leaders were disappointed as some of the proposals were delayed or effectively killed. Some of these elements may have hope with other sponsors, but the Republicans stressed that each portion of the comprehensive package is crucial to solving the problem and saving lives.

Among the proposals that were granted approval by the subcommittee were versions of the automatic license revocation and use of the ignition interlock devices. A Republican sponsored version of a bill that would increase the penalty for vehicular homicide as a result of the driver’s intoxication also cleared the subcommittee and will next be heard in the full Judiciary Committee. The GOP is hopeful that the package will not be passed piecemeal but instead will pass as a comprehensive effort—something they argue is vital to the safety of Tennessee’s roads.

Republican leaders announced in January that they would sponsor a comprehensive approach to combat drunk driving in the state of Tennessee. Among the proposals in the multi-faceted approach were automatic license revocation, a greater use of ignition interlock devices, a ban on open containers, and tougher penalties against repeat offenders and for those who refuse to take the BAC test.

Election bills move forward

Several election bills saw passage this week that will improve and ensure the quality and integrity of elections.

House Bill 3115 passed the House floor on Monday with a unanimous vote and would place safeguards around citizens’ sensitive voter information held by state and local governments. The sponsor touted the bill as a measure that would create safeguards and procedures for ensuring that confidential information regarding citizens is securely protected on all laptop computers and other removable storage devices. The bill has already passed the Senate, and will now face the Governor for a signature to become law.

The sponsor assured House members that the proposal’s costs were insignificant, and could even save money in the future. Passing the measure was particularly timely. Over the Christmas holiday in 2007, a laptop was stolen from the Davidson County Election Commission’s offices in Nashville. The missing laptop contained names, addresses, phone numbers and about 337,000 voters’ Social Security numbers. In the wake of the theft, questions were raised as to the strength of the security of the sensitive information.

Another election bill that saw passage this week was one that will prohibit a member of a county election commission or the state election commission from participating in the management or leadership of a political party or a candidate’s campaign. The Republican sponsor said the bill would ensure that the process was fair and would re-establish voter confidence in the election process. The bill, House Bill 1442, passed out of the State and Local Government Committee this week.

In the same vein, House Bill 1279 would require the state coordinator of elections to enter into agreements with other states for the purpose of comparing voter data to identify duplicate voter registrations. The bill passed out of a subcommittee this week, with the Republican sponsor informing the committee that when Kentucky compared their voter rolls with neighboring states, 8,000 duplicates were discovered.

Lastly, a bill that would require voting systems to produce paper versions of any ballot cast passed out of Elections subcommittee as well. House Bill 1282 would require the paper ballot in order to ensure the integrity of recounts, contests or random samplings to reduce voter fraud. The Republican sponsor stated that the measure would further guarantee voter confidence in the system if a voter knew their vote could not be manipulated. The bill will next face the State and Local Government Committee.

Republicans sponsor open government proposals

This week Republican leaders demonstrated the Taxpayer Transparency in Government Act, a measure that would make the state’s budget more open and accessible to the general public. Republican members gathered to discuss the possibility of Tennessee developing a  website similar to one run by the federal government and other states including Kansas, Texas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.  The Taxpayer Transparency in Government Act would establish a free, easy-to-use, searchable website that allows users to instantly explore state government revenue and expenditures.

The best sites allow taxpayers to search revenue and expenditures by agency, fund, program, object (such as grants or contracts), and vendor.  Details on payees include the name, address, document, number, processing date, and the amount. The majority of these states were able to produce their sites at little or no extra cost to the state.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Republican leaders explored Kansas’s website to help demonstrate how effective the site can be for citizens.  The bill’s sponsors believe that Tennessee taxpayers deserve to know where their tax dollars are going.  The Taxpayer Transparency in Government Act is a major step toward fulfilling this belief.

In the same spirit, a bill that proposes to harness technology for the purpose of opening the government process to the public successfully passed out of committee this week.  The bill would allow elected bodies to set up websites where they can instant message one another.  The “conversations” would be available for the public and the media’s viewing.  House Bill 2750 moves to the Finance, Ways and Means Committee next week.

In brief…

• House Bill 4066 cleared a House subcommittee this week. The bill, a long-time Republican Caucus initiative, would increase the maximum number of employees allowed under the Tennessee Small Employer Group Health Coverage Reform Act. The act provides a mechanism to make accident and health insurance available to small employers. Currently, only small businesses with 25 employees or less are eligible for the program. House Bill 4066 would increase that number to 50.
• House Bill 3891 successfully cleared the State and Local Government Committee on Tuesday. The bill, which was filed before the devastating tornados that swept though Tennessee, would allow TEMA to establish and administer a grant program to assist in the partial reimbursement of installation costs for safe rooms and in-ground shelters.
• A proposal that would have protected the right of business owners to require English on the job failed this week in the Employee Affairs Subcommittee, despite having passed on the Senate floor unanimously. The English in the Workplace Act, similar to that of Senator Lamar Alexander’s on the federal level, would simply have clarified that it is not against the law for businesses to require that English be spoken on the job.
• House Bill 1993 passed out of the committee system this week and will now be heard on the House floor. The bill changes the term for medical malpractice lawsuits to “health care liability action.” A health care liability action would include any lawsuit alleging injury related to the provision or failure to provide health care services, which names as a defendant a health care provider, health care facility, or employee of a health care provider.

The Week Ahead…

• House Bill 3661 creates within the TBI a “Repeat DUI Offender” registry of persons who have two or more DUI convictions and whose license is currently suspended or revoked. (Judiciary)
• House Bill 0852 rewrites the offense of leaving the scene of an accident to increase penalties depending upon culpability of driver, degree of harm, and the location of the accident. (Judiciary)
• House Bill 3069 provides that no penalty may be imposed for non-payment of traffic citation, based solely upon a violation recorded by surveillance camera, unless the citation is sent by certified mail. (Transportation)
• House Bill 4029 creates a pilot program to make laptops available to juniors in high school. (Education)
• House Bill 3059 creates a Class B misdemeanor offense of consuming alcoholic beverages while driving a motor vehicle on a public highway and a Class C misdemeanor offense of possessing an open container of an alcoholic beverage within the passenger area of a motor vehicle on a public highway. (State & Local)
• House Bill 3774 removes the prohibition on authorizing cyber-based public charter schools. (Education)

Mayor Johnny Piper announced today, that Clarksville Gas & Water’s Downtown service center at City Hall, would be closing on March 14th as part of a reorganization of the cities’ revenue generating departments. Once freed up, that space will be used to expand the existing finance department payment center, and to house the city court clerks. All of the clerks would be cross trained for both jobs, and be able to handle tasks for either department.

This according to Chief Ansley would “free up much needed space” occupied by the City Court Clerks at the police station  for use by the police department. Mayor Piper said that this is intended to help make the concerned departments “Be more effective and efficient.” He added that it would not affect the services provided to citizens at city hall, as they will still be able to pay their gas and water bills at city hall in the U. S. Bank, across from the current location.

The downtown service center was opened on October 22nd 2001, and only approximately 5% of the total gas and water department business was done at the downtown service center.

During the same press conference Mayor Piper also announced the city would also be hiring three temporary employees to help process the backlog of parking tickets and city court fines.

Watch the press conference

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Controlling pre-holiday spending to dodge post holiday blues” is the theme I’ll address today. Extravagant spending, that is, budget breakers, will inevitably come back to haunt the spender. Purchases that looks good in those days leading up to Christmas can precipitate stress after the emotion of the season is pass and one returns to reality. A stack of bills is devastating to morale and defeats long term plans for financial security.

How are we to get a grip on and control our urge to spend, which forfeits our future? One sane way to influence our expenditures is through the power of suggestion. Our suggestions to ourselves. Sit down, close your eyes, and imagine picking up the mail to find a dozen bills demanding payment. A handful of such “downs” have a sobering effect on the way we plan our holiday spending.

By all means realize it is the season to be supportive and generous. There are charities and families that receive renewed motivation for doing good with a little money to help move them forward.

One business leader, Dion Williams, maintains a philosophy of intently examining the family holiday budget. He says “my wife and i go over every single person we are buying for — including adopting a family for charity — and we decide how much to spend.”

This CEO gives us valuable insights for managing spending. The first is attention to charitable giving. There are needy families that would have a much merrier Christmas with a small donation to help them along. Our Salvation Army can assist in our efforts to be generous in giving to families. I also believe that that our budget for the holidays should include those who provide valuable services to us throughout the year. For example, it is our practice to give a cash gift or check to the one who picks up our trash weekly. Let’s also imitate my neighbor who last year included a gift to her mail carrier. Our veterinarian and family doctors merit a place on our gift list. For these, I avoid things like baked goods and believe a gift card is more functional.

Many of us have been taught it is better to give than to receive. Christmas is the appropriate time to brighten the lives of those who contribute to the quality of our lives.

In managing money, the following sage advice is given on doing good and yet not suffering a hangover from Christmas giving:

• Never ship anything when rushed…
• Do online research first…
• Take frequent breaks to take stock…
• Count everything you are spending…
• Set a budget…
• Careful budgeting will produce a merrier Christmas and a much better post-holiday season.
• Sensible use of credit cards opens us to further good feelings after the holidays. As rational individuals we can chose not to run into debt and create trouble for ourselves. Using a tax refund in April to pay off delinquent accounts from the holidays can cause extreme stress.

Rev. John Wesby was a wise financial planner as well as a church founder and leader. Regarding finances. He said:

“Make all you can, save all you can. Be wise, compassionate and generous in holiday spending.” The wisdom comes in knowing your financial abilities and limitations.