if this were pinball

Honest to god, I feel personally jilted by the American financial system and the longstanding policy of deregulation that has led us to this place, the place we find ourselves today.   It goes something like this:

Prey upon the poor and lend money to them because they have poor credit! and limited financial capacity! and need money! and then you can eventually raise their interest rates a 100% after four years! and you'll make out like a fat cat! 

except when those people with poor credit and limited financial skills can't make the payments with the increased interest rates, and since you already cut their loan up and sold it to the i-bank down the street for a hefty profit, it isn't the credit union calling for money, or even the state, it's the i-bank that bought it and obviously can only take the house, because it has some value.  but there is still a loss.

then just when the creditor can't pay (i.e. middle class Americans), demand capital and put unknown pressure on the financial system!  and leave hundreds of thousands of Americans without homes!  

Don't fret, those companies can just write their debt down.  No worries!

But then come September.  Recall January when there were 5 i-banks that existed, now down two a paltry September set.  And somewhere in the neighborhood of, oh, i don't know, 150,000 American jobs shit canned.  

And there you go, the short version of why America is what America is today.  Why McCain thinks the fundamentals of our Economy is strong.  And why I feel jilted.

It amazes me that the men and women who exploited so many poor Americans all of a sudden know what it's like to be on the short end of their trade. 

And the sad thing is, while I want not to feel bad for them, I can't, because I sympathize with all of them, and every other American who is also affected by the financial tumult we experienced today.  Because today something big happened, and it is going to grow even bigger over the next several months.  

You know what, this is the fierce urgency of now.  And it is about politics and policy, about rich and poor, and the ability to call ourselves Americans.  Americans who stand on foundations of our making and not the foundations of foreign making, because a foreign bailout leaves the greatest country in the world as insolvent as its banks.  

And that's scarier than I know how to imagine right now.