Who Will Deliver Us From Financial Perdition?

  As an artist, theatrical actor, singer, dancer and theatre professor and businessman, I have parodied many songs from musicals - almost all  too ribald to mention here.

  Having just viewed the Biden and  Palin debate last night, I reflect that she repeatedly tried to shift Joe Biden away from references to the past.

  As Biden ably countered: "What's past is prologue!"

  We can't be like the Italian race car driver in the movie "Around the World in Eighty Day," who states, "First-ah rule-ah of Italian-ah race car driving-ah... no mirrors!" - and then proceeded to rip the rear view mirror out from in front of him!

  At every turn I am reminded, with startling clarity, of the current financial crisis and its ramifications.

  Yesterday, I phoned Wells Fargo (which, in fact had been purchased by Norwest, but retained the good old name of the western courier), just to get my checking balance.

  The young man engaged me in a conversation about the mortgage

  "Oh, we can do better," he said, "you can rest assured that we are the most solvent bank in this country!"

  "Maybe so," I responded, "but I've got to remove the excessive inquiries on my credit reports before I do anything else, because I got involved in an infernal 'online contest.'  Since that moment my accounts dissolved into utter ruin.  And   I'm still picking up the pieces!"

  Among displaced items, I reported to him there is my passport and dear, irreplaceable family heirlooms I know I have somewhere but cannot find.

  "Well," he went on, "you should consider us when you refinance."

  "Fine," said I, "just send me the literature and I'll think it over."

  All of this mind you, when just a week before I had seen my line of credit with American Express be chopped in half and that of my business card Visa state I had "zero balance, zero due, and zero available!"  All this from a business Visa card where I previously had a credit line of over $20,000!

  Where does it all end?

  Bank of America, started as a neighborhood bank by a first generation Italian-American  immigrant, is certainly not just solvent, but availing itself of the opportunities to buy out other Wall Street firms.

  Ours is, unfortunately, an economy bred of speculation, hitherto unchecked since the days of FDR.