My pay has not yet been cut, but it will be within months.

With no accurate alternative (retired) I check unaffected.

However, many other retirees (my 90-year-old neighbor) have seen their investements chopped in half — which is their monthly income.

By selling all in July and day trading inverse funds I was able to close the year without a loss.

The crisis in confidence will not be remedied unless a lot of people in Congress, the rating agencies (S&P, Moodys) the SEC and Wall St. are punished for this huge continuing scam.

I’m not holding my breath.

Obama has already become part of the problem by adding to what he inherited without addressing the crooks who still run the show.

The only “change I can believe in” is in my pocket — and that is losing value.

glad you guys are o.k., so far ... me too, over here, so far. have you noticed all the network generated public anger focused on Madoff? he was just a simple scammer crook with more zeros, not the cause of all the fake money appearing and then disappearing with true value, not the fake-made-of-nothing-money, floating ever higher up the pay-scale.

like you said, whattheheck, congressmen and senators, like fla’s graham, the sec, rating houses, and all of wall street are pulling off the greatest asset heist of all time. them and all their enablers. and of course it all started with clinton or is obama’s fault. no money to deal with all the issues he was elected to address. like clinton, the real rulers sat him down and told what he could and could not do - promised or not.

single payer healthcare - no way - ending endless war (700+bases worldwide) - no way - invest in our collective future by nudging and supporting unprofitable tech investment, new-age infrastructure, free higher education, ceasing the privatization of our commons ...

now, in the grip of this mess, is, in fact, the best time to have the necessary national conversation about who and what we are, and want to be - and what economic system and money supply system is best for ‘we the people’ not ‘them the rulers’.