What with all the talk about Stimulus plans, falling (and rising) stocks, Bailouts and Bonuses, I've begun to wonder what will actually help. It seems that every side has decent arguments in favor of what will work. Some plans involve direct government intervention while others allow companies to work with the government. Which leads me to the question of the difference between government Oversight and government Ownership.

I think most of us can agree that the current situation with our financial institutions is intolerable. It seems like a bunch of rich, do nothing, fat cats sit in their ivory towers and make as much money as they can. They get paid WAY too much money for what little ineffective work that they do and like Nero fiddling while Rome burnt around him, they care nothing for anyone other than themselves. The question is what to do about it.

The Democrats are all for more government intervention and control. The Republicans think that the free markets will sort themselves out and government will only make it worse. I think both are right and both are wrong. What we need is a Limited amount of government Oversight. Something to balance out the abusive financial practices that affect us all. However, this does NOT mean that Governments comes in and takes control. Oversight means that the government will be watching and monitoring the financial institutions for compliance with our laws and for practices that are harmful to our economy. However, the actual power the government uses should be limited. They should let the public know when a company indulges in excessive behavior. Bring all their backroom dealings to light. Let us know what is happening. We'll take it from there. We'll decide whether to withdraw our funds or support a company. In this scenario, oversight means just that. The government watches and limits its responses.

Ownership means the government buys out the troubled companies and those companies now become part of the government. There's a simple word for this. It's called Socialism and IT DOES NOT WORK. Not only that, but when government owns something, there is no competition. They set the price of whatever you're doing and you have NO CHOICE.

So where does that leave us? Caught in the middle between Government owning Democrats and let the companies do whatever they want Republicans. Waiting for Oversight to happen and instead getting Ownership.