I replaced the toilet last week in our guest bathroom. It was fairly easy. Just pull the old one out, run down to Lowe's (the new one down the street), have Kay pick one out, go home and replace it. Except the hose that connects the toilet to the wall was too short. So back to Lowes, get a new one, back home - DANG. This one has the wrong end. It seems like all my home repair projects start with good intentions, but get sidetracked as things progress.

I think the US economy is in the same situation. The solution of the federal government seems to be just toss money at the problem. This is seldom a fix for anything. They first tell us they are going to buy bad morgtages. Next they tell us they are going to loan it to banks. Now they are talking about giving it to the car manufacturers. Just toss a few billion here, a few billion there, and that should fix things. Oops, hose to short? Here's another billion, that should fix it.

I can almost guarantee you that someone is making a killing with all this money flying around unaccounted for. There are lax controls, little congressional oversight, and little or no accountability. Mark my words, in a year or so we will be hearing stories about the millions being siphoned off by crooks, shysters and thieves in suites and ties. And we, the taxpayers, will be footing the bill.

Our economy is souring because we were too lax with homeowner loans, requiring little or no credit or verification. The greedy folks on Wall Street just kept throwing money at consumers, thinking it would never end. It always does.

The good news is our market in Oklahoma City has weathered the storm better than most. Our conservative values kept our bankers from going crazy with poor loans, and most of our homebuyers purchased houses they could afford. Only downside is as taxpayers we get to foot the bill for all the other folks that were not fiscally conservative!