"I Heard The News Today, Oh Boy...."

When I was a child, growing up in Manhattan, Simon and Garfunkel put out a version of Silent Night. Under the music, the nightly news was being aired. I remember thinking how over the top that particular news segment was; everything from the Vietnam War, to the shootings at Kent State, to the killings of the nurses at the University of Florida. It goes on for several minutes, each story seemingly more outrageous than the last.

Then I watched Meet the Press this morning. On the show, David Gregory had the CEO of Xerox, the CEO of Caterpillar, and the CEO of Google. The interview takes place on the floor of the stock market in New York, on the day that General Motors announced it will file for bankruptcy.

Mr. Gregory asks each of these people their opinion on what the future of America, and specifically the future of economic wealth in America, will be.

It struck me: how similar to the parable of the three blind men; each one held a different part of an elephant. When asked to describe what an elephant looked like, each man had an eloquent and accurate description of the body part they were holding. And not one of them came remotely close to actually describing the elephant.

The CEO of Google was asked the scariest question: "What are the top searches on Google?" That he even had a response was scary.

The CEO of Caterpillar was asked what the future of American manufacturing looked like. His response was even scarier; the US must be a Global leader.

The CEO of Xerox was asked if she thought America would rebound economically; if corporations were starting to hire again. Her response; no. Then he asked her about American's wealth, and if that would return to the levels we have grown accustomed to. Her response; no.

Mr. Gregory started, and ended, by acknowledging the fact that they were doing the interview on the floor of the NYSE, because the corporations they represented were major players on the market, General Motors was about to be erased from the board and because the market itself is intrinsically linked to our economy.

Let that sink in real good.

The market itself is intrinsically linked to our economy.

Now, when I tell you that the multi-national corporations are running this country and this planet, do you think anyone will believe me?

And yet you have one senator openly stating that the banks own Congress. You have another senator saying the insurance companies own Congress. And we nod in fake understanding when our elected "representatives" tell us that certain companies are "too big to fail", so we have to open our Treasury and let them literally empty the banks. Literally.

The bottom line should be fairly obvious. Everything that we are seeing today is designed to prepare us for what has already happened.

We are broke.

The system is broke.

Never has there been a clearer time for action than now....."in order to form a more perfect union".