An article last week made mention that Wall Street’s banks had eased their credit terms to hedge funds and private-equity firms that borrow against securities and trade over-the-counter derivatives.  To quote the great Yogi — “It’s deja vu all over again.”  There is more cash sitting on the sidelines than there’s been in a long time, and these guys get more access to additional dollars so they can speculate.  Wow, what a country!

Elizabeth Warren, who leads the congressional panel overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said U.S. taxpayer bailouts helped Wall Street and not small banks.  TARP “worked really well for the Wall Street banks, but it didn’t work well for the rest of the banks in the system,” she recently said on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop with Betty Liu.”

I hate to say it, but I think that our financial system is out of sync.

Meanwhile, the folks who make this country great, our blue collar workers and small business men and women are getting the short end of the stick.   Our politicians are not willing to find creative ways to help businesses and people, get off the sidelines.  There’s talk of more money for education, job creation, and small business lending.  Why not just stop writing laws for a while and let the system move forward.  Get creative with finding ways to support small and medium size businesses to get the money they need to start producing and hiring — and don’t expect it to happen overnight!  Too many folks in our country don’t understand that business (and consumers) won’t start hiring/spending until they know what’s going to happen over the next 12-18 months.  As long as the Administration and Congress keep talking about more laws and more deficit spending, more the reason folks will stop, wait and see.  Not a good way to kick-start an economy.