Like hundreds of thousands of Americans, I've been trying to figure out what this Wall Street financial crisis will mean to the average person on Main Street. It's hard to plow through the financial technical gobbledygook and make sense of it. However, after watching Congress, the Bush Administration and treasury officials, and the talking heads on TV, it looks like I'm not alone.

So, after days of reading, research, and such, I've come up with a simple analogy to describe what happened to us:

The largest and most expensive poker party in the world

The dealers: Republican-controlled Congress and the White House
The players: Wall Street and Washington bankers, lobbyists, politicians, investment companies, stockbrokers, special interests, hedge funders, insurance firms and such
The house: Taxpayers
House rules: None

Taxpayers put up the stake for the players of this Wall Street poker game through investments in retirement funds, real estate, savings accounts, stocks, credit card lines, and other financial assets to the tune of nearly $3 trillion dollars.

When there were game rules, players were limited to sure bets on their hand. Through deregulation under a decade-long Republican-controlled Congress (thank you, Sen. John McCain) and a two-termed Bush-Cheney Administration, the dealers stacked the deck against the house in favor of the players. Under-the-table pay-offs were made and hidden aces were ignored in exchange for unlimited bet ceilings, made-up wild-card mortgage games, and most importantly, to allow paper IOU's.

Whenever there was house cash on the table, it was quickly pocketed for executive golden parachutes, bonuses, bribes, bottom lines, and such until all the house funds were gone. For years the poker players were exchanging IOU's around the table, adding a few zeros to the end of the past dues until they ran out of paper. Last week, the poker game had to be suspended.

Now, the players and the dealers seek more money from the house to get the game rolling again. To start, the players and dealers not only want the house to buy up the worthless IOU's for $700 billion or more, they want us to throw a signed blank check on the table -- without any court or congressional oversight -- for good measure, too. And no, the trillions we are eventually going to be asked to pay won't cover our losses; our tax money is to cover the players' losses.

The dealers still can't tell us what the new rules are, if any, but we are suppose to trust them to run a clean game this time. However, the dealers insist we allow the players to continue the same betting practices for the good of the world and our pensions. AND now the players can legally exchange bad IOU's for house cash -- no more underhanded deals needed anymore! Just put it all on the taxpayer's tab.

Double or nothing. With a couple of trillion dollars-worth of financial assets already in the players' wallets and purses, do we give them more of our future earnings and assets and hand over our children's bank accounts in hopes that the players will get a few good hands in this Wall Street poker game winning back our lost money? Or do we say "stop," cut our losses, and start all over again?

Unfortunately, we are in a no-win situation. The house is sunk either way. Frankly, I'd rather give up a lot today and stop the game than continue to give the gamblers a chance to lose everything tomorrow. (And if tomorrow is today, the lights are off anyway.)

The only winning hand we are going to get this year is at the ballot box. It's our one chance to throw the dealers and players out of the game and ban them from the casino.


References:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/HowWallStreetGotIntoThisMess.aspx?page=3

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/22/dirty-secret-of-the-bailo_n_128294.html

http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/09/20/economists-blame-gramm/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/16/AR2008091603732.html?hpid=topnews

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/22/dirty-secret-of-the-bailo_n_128294.html