How's My Country Doing Today?

The ether is awash with news about Treasury's Bank Stress Test results. The banks got their version 10 days ago, and therefore Goldman Sachs was able to sell a bunch of million dollars worth of stuff already, violating the agreement to keep the results quiet, the PR departments of the financial giants had some time to get their spokesmodels an extreme make-over at the local day spa (or the far-away, outrageously expensive one), and the Cabinet folks who have some explaining to do about the criteria used had some study time to get the spin speed adjusted.

Wait one darn second - since when is Goldman Sachs a bank? Ah. Since October, 2008. Fine. Just in time to get in front of the line for the money being handed out.

As near as I can make out, of the 19 tested financial giants, most are doing really well, and the rest are fine.

How's that?

The results are self-reported. Good grief, Gertie! as my grandmother would say. Treasury needs to step up to the reportage responsibility.

Just wearing a cowboy hat doesn't make you Randolph Scott.

It's enough already that the dollars we have in our pockets (few dollars: holes in pockets) are not as green, and not as stretchy. It's enough already that there are now corporations that can "furlough" employees without pay for weeks, and that those employees are too scared to look for another job.

It's enough already that my father got a letter from Bank of America about cutting his credit limit. "You don't need it, so we're not offering it," was the tone of the letter. My father doesn't use credit, but he's not the only one who got that letter. Isn't offering credit how banks make money?

Isn't making credit flow again a major function of the bailout?

Maybe I'm wrong.

I want government officials - elected and appointed - who are being paid to serve the American people, to wake up every single morning and ask "how's my country doing today?"

Larry Summers can start by staying awake at meetings, or if he needs a nap like many of us do, he can do it off-camera.

Wall Street needs a prescription for methylphenidate. Why we keep paying attention to a blister when the economy is on fire is beyond me. Wall Street isn't the economy. The economy is the economy.

I want - in the quite near future - to be able to answer the question "how's my country doing today?" with "much better, thank you."