DISGUSTING.

It's funny how high-ranking politicians and government officials just conceded this week that we're in a financial mess nationwide. Rewind to the previous week, and they were still telling the American people that everything was fine and our economy was "sound".

Even a young banker from Indiana could see this coming. Not to toot my own horn, but in November 2007, I wrote a blog post entitled, "The State of Our Economy" as seen here: http://gcdailyworld.com/blogs/chriswathen/entry/14766/ In May 2008, another post by the name of "Postage, Mom, & Corn-Fed Beef" ( http://gcdailyworld.com/blogs/chriswathen/entry/18062/ ) warned about stagflation. A month later, in June 2008, I asked who would be caught holding the bag next in the post called "Musical Chairs. Who Will Be Out Next?" as you can see here: http://gcdailyworld.com/blogs/chriswathe...

It's not something I'm especially proud of, nor did I really ever want to say "I told you so," but it appears to be unfolding just as predicted. I guess you tend to think that these high-ranking officials have special privileges, powers, and information -- something beyond the grasp of the 'average Joe' -- but obviously not. Maybe they just need to read the news with some critical thinking involved like this Midwestern banker does.

If you hold politicians on a pedestal, you're going to be disappointed. When I read that the CEO of Goldman Sachs made $70 million last year ( http://www.nypost.com/seven/12132007/business/goldman_ceos_pay_may_be_70m_in_07_56960.htm ) I think, no wonder we have the politicians we do! Why would anyone ever want to be a politician when they can run a company into the ground for $70 million, losing over half of shareholders' wealth? Executive compensation has gone out of control. They could have hired any idiot off the street to do the same at many of these companies for much, much less.

But it gets better! Why work for $70 million a year when you can get fired and collect $68 million?! Chuck Prince, former CEO of Citigroup, made just that to get lost and join the unemployment line, as seen here in this CNN article: http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/07/news/new...

You may have read a few months ago, too, that Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo inadvertently hit 'reply' instead of 'forward' to an e-mail asking for help, which was sent to him by a customer facing foreclosure. If not, here's a link to the story in the LA Times: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/21/...

To comment on Mozillo's compensation package, using a word from his own inadvertent e-mail reply, I'd say, "Disgusting."

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This blog post by Chris Wathen was also published in his Linton, Indiana based Greene County Daily World blog entitled, "Riddle Me This".