Policing the Fat Cats

The feds had to bail out the collapsing financial industry or there would have been a depression in the United States. There's no question about it.

But no American should be happy about this. In fact, we should all be angry that the government has let us down again.

Capitalism is a social contract. It requires trust between we the people and financial institutions like banks and brokerage houses. That trust has now been broken and our government did not properly alert us to the danger, so we got hurt.

Monday, the stock market tanked again, and there's no question that we are in for tough economic times. Here is what John McCain told "60 Minutes" Sunday night.


JOHN MCCAIN, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I say the Bush administration has failed. I say the Congress has failed. Democrats and Republicans. I remind you the Democrats have had the majority in Congress for the last two years. So, everybody has failed.


The senator is correct. The president, the head of the SEC, Sen. Chris Dodd, a Democrat, Congressman Barney Frank, a Democrat, all should have publicly warned the folks that companies like Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were trafficking in bad loans. But we can find no public warnings by those men, none, even though they all knew risky loans were rampant.

Look, when bad food comes to the market, the FDA has a responsibility to warn us. When bad toys came in from China, the feds issued warnings. When cars are faulty, they're recalled.

But in this case, with tens of millions of Americans investing in companies that were doing risky business, the feds stood mute. Unacceptable.

Remember last summer when I told that you that speculators were driving up the price of oil and that the American oil companies were exploiting that artificial situation to raise gas prices? Remember that? Well, how many guests came on "The Factor" and screamed supply and demand, supply and demand; India and China were driving up the prices? They wailed I was dead wrong.

Sure, and when the speculators bailed out in August, oil prices cratered. So what happened to demand from India and China? It was all bull. There is plenty of oil for sale. So much that OPEC says it will cut production to get those artificial prices back up there.

So where was Samuel Bodman, the Energy secretary, during the gas price run-up? Was he warning about the speculators? No, he was not. And Monday, those speculators got back in driving up oil again.

Again, there is supposed to be a social contract in a capitalistic country. We need to trust the game is not rigged. The federal government must warn us if companies are putting investments at risk or exploiting the folks. That is what we elect these people to do.

We all have a right this evening, ladies and gentlemen, to be very angry about this.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has been very hard on Wall Street weasels, people who break the rules and deceive consumers. Sunday night on "60 Minutes," John McCain was asked who might clean up the financial mess.


JOHN MCCAIN, GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I've admired Andrew Cuomo. I think he is somebody who could restore some credibility, lend some bipartisanship.


I think McCain's right. Cuomo is a very tough guy and a patriot.

On the pinhead front, another case where you decide. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone were walking together when a reporter shouted out a question.

Click here to watch "Pinheads & Patriots."


UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Arnold, I have to ask you. You know, Chong said that you and him used to smoke weed together.

SYLVESTER STALLONE: That's a fallacy.


UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was right? When you're done with the government, are you kind of looking back to those days?

SYLVESTER STALLONE: He means dandelion weed, dandelion weed.

SCHWARZENEGGER: We always have a good time. We know how to enjoy ourselves.


Pinhead? Again, you make the call on that one.
