Day of economic reckoning nears

The experts tell us that another two million mortgage loans are going to reset within the next 18 months.

This is the lit fuse that our politicians are watching burn as they collectively panic in a bipartisan plan to crank up the government printing presses at the mint.

Their plan is to give out $150 billion in U.S. dollars which are of less and less value against other major currencies every day.

Bush and Company wants a chunk of this giveaway for his business supporters; while the Democrats want most of it to go to the poorest (food stamps and folks in the 15 percent tax bracket).

The businesses, in theory, will use this money to buy equipment and hire folks. But if they had customers banging down their doors for their goods and services, I suspect they would have been gearing up with their own money.

It's probably more likely they would buy Krugerrands with this free money before it loses even more value -- while poor folks would spend it immediately.

If the Bush and Company's seven years of laissez faire policy have taught us anything, it's "hold onto your wallet."

For seven years, the large corporate powerhouses have formed giant trusts and monopolies, just as they did in the late 1800's. Except this time they were global multinationals.

Safeguards like the FTC created in 1914 and the Banking Acts of 1933 and 1935 were dismantled or kept in a coma by Bush appointees.

So now we face the "R" word, recession, or perhaps even the "D" word, depression.

Jim Peterson

Hoffman Estates