I may be tired from working hard lately but I’m exhausted from just keeping up with what is happening on Wall Street it’s disturbing to see the mismanagement and greed we’ll have to pay for.  When my 401 envelope comes I throw it in my file cabinet unopened (I am in no way suggesting you do the same, but personally I can’t stomach reading it.) I’m thoroughly convinced the only way I’ll be able to retire is by winning the lottery.  The main factor in putting off retirement is maintaining health insurance coverage. It seems that at a time in life when health care is of prime importance the availability of decent insurance coverage and providers is lacking. I’ve several friends in the same boat, staying in the work force longer then anticipated. In 2007, almost 39% of the labor force was over 55 years old and over 10% of people 70 years of age and older  who are not institutionalized are still working. The only saving grace for me is I enjoy my job and have Grammology.com where I can vent my frustration (aren’t you lucky?) Furthermore, with the wonderful news that I’m FREE from cancer I’ll be writing more!

Back to Wall Street; every evening when I get home we turn the on the news to see what the Federal Government has decided to do with our money, which lately is bailing out more banks, investment houses etc.  We have to wonder what these government bail-outs are going to mean to our future and I have to ask “Who is going to bail out the taxpayers?”  We should all be concerned.  Can this cycle be stopped or are we compounding the problem?  I really want to know.

Yesterday in the Wall Street Journal there was an article regarding the CEO of AIG being required to step down as a condition of the government loan (this was the largest government bailout of a private company in U.S. history…so far.)  He was appalled and threatened to not comply; can you believe the arrogance of this man thinking with the chaos and financial status of his business he deserved to continue working as the head of an otherwise potentially defunct corporation?

Earlier this month, The Federal Housing Finance Agency which took over the two mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, notified former CEO’s of both organizations that “golden parachute” payments will not be paid. These executives were looking at receiving $24,000,000.00 –this is not a typo: twenty-four million dollars – in exit packages that they now will not receive.  But before begin applauding and cheering, know this: Fannie’s CEO received $12.2 million in compensation in 2007, and Freddie’s CEO was paid $19.8 million (how will these poor dears ever survive?)  while both companies have been scrambling, reorganizing and laying off employees in an effort to make up huge deficits brought upon by their own accounting scandals earlier this decade.

Think about what you or I would get if we ran our employer’s business into the ground, fixed the bookkeeping, made bad business decisions, lost all our assets and broke the laws. I bet you’re not thinking we would get million dollar retirement packages.  We are happy to keep working just to get a portion of our health insurance covered, and still worry that we won’t be able to pay the balance for what isn’t covered.  I worry if I’m over the limit from the cost of my Ovarian Cancer this year alone.   Every time I open one of the bills from Blue Cross I wonder if I’ve reached the limit. Will the government bail me out?  What about the small business owners who have to close their doors, leaving their employees with no retirements, medical insurance or life insurance – are they being ‘bailed-out?”  Is the entrepreneurial spirit American citizens pride ourselves on now being watered-down in a system full of corruption, pay-offs, bail outs and protection for the privileged few?  We know who bails us out when we’re in a crisis and it’s not the government.