Academic

"Meet you at the Hummer dealer. Bring your credit card. In fact, bring two."

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

Kent Greenfield offers a sardonic perspective on the Freddie-Fannie bailout over at Huffington Post:

I've discovered the secret to having this administration care about your financial well-being:

1. Mismanage your finances, especially by overextending yourself by investing in dubious investments;

2. Be too big to fail.

Luckily, many of us have already begun to take these principles to heart. Americans are notoriously poor savers, and household debt now stands at historic highs.... So under the first condition for government assistance, we're all doing poorly, that is, well. We are piling up debt by putting our money in poor investment instruments.

Personally, I have piled up debt investing in things such as vacations for my family, gasoline for my SUV, and a flat-screen television. There is absolutely no chance that any of these investments will pay off. Fannie Mae has nothing on me.

The second condition is more problematic. I have not amassed enough debt that anyone outside my own family would care. If my "investment" by way of VISA in a new Wii for the living room doesn't pay off, I will have no one to rescue me.

Personal bankruptcy, perhaps? Lots of people are doing it. Unfortunately for Kent, it's not as good as it used to be.

Full post as published by Conglomerate on July 15, 2008 (boomark / email).