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These are "interesting" times, an opaque adjective applied with tongue tucked firmly in cheek. On the one hand, we have a panel of experts ready and waiting to explain to us what we just heard from the mouths of robotic politicians, all reading from the same teleprompter.<?xml:namespac e prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:off ice:office" />

"We must act. Companies won't be able to borrow or make payrolls. Your son won't be able to go to college." If we gathered the words from the mouths of all of the politicians, we could sift them down to perhaps thirty common words espousing the same message. We don't hear an original thought or recommendation among them, much less a ticking off of actual examples of the kinds of repercussions we can expect with or without an economic fix. Perhaps decision makers and the media have developed "Joe Plumber-itis", a condition that allows one to build a caricature of the average guy, instead of really seeing who he is and how he lives.

Individually, legislators might not possess the financial or economic expertise to understand, much less resolve, the financial crises we face. But collectively, they should now exercise the kind of serious oversight that would have prevented the mess from developing in the first place.

Looking forward, they should learn several lessons from the miserable past. Bigger often isn't better. Ivy League credentials don't assure integrity. Earmarks are befouled examples of what's good for your own back yard. And neither banks, nor stock brokers, nor insurance companies nor auto makers should run this country or its financial coffers. We look to our elected officials to be our ombudsmen, standing on that unbiased ground where issues are fairly weighed and acted upon with accountability and responsibility.

They, that sea of black and gray suits in Congress, don't seem to understand the reality of our world. You can go to your mailbox and sift through the paradoxical mix of retail desperation coupons, interest offers and, oh, a letter from your bank. They just reviewed your account and lowered your credit limit! Now, that's a daring move, in light of the fact that you'll find another letter offering a line of credit with zero percent interest on account transfers. Oh, it's all such a hackneyed tale.

For the past several years, banks have spent millions to flood our mailboxes with credit offers dispensing attractive opening interest rates that turn into 20 to 30 percent over time, a kind of usurious

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