Socialists of convenience.

It has been an interesting time in the financial world of late. As the old curse says, "May you live in interesting times". Americans in particular are rabidly capitalist and scornful of anything that smacks of socialism or government intervention. Companies don't want government regulation or interference in their affairs saying that they could do better than government regulators.

So here we are... one of the largest financial meltdowns in modern history. A tale of greed, dishonesty and outright fraud. Fund managers demanding more and more profits and driving companies to make riskier and riskier loans. People were lent money they could not repay on the irresponsible advice of greedy loan financiers.

So now, President Bush wants the government to bail out his friends. Congress has baulked over payouts to millionaires and billionaires who made these bad decisions. People are loosing their homes, jobs and going bankrupt - meanwhile the people who caused this mess will likely walk away with a windfall from the bailout. By buying the bad debt they are effectively nationalising the money market and bailing out the people who made the mess.

The same government that won't bail out individuals or claims that it can't afford Medicare is preparing to spend approximately $700 Billion on the bailout. It appears that if you're poor or middle-class the government won't help you, but if you are rich you can expect a bailout.

Socialism for the rich. Everybody is capitalist when they're doing well, but when things go bad they want the government to step in. If the true test of a system is how it handles adversity, I guess US capitalism is an abysmal failure.