More than fifty years ago, LaVern Baker & The Gliders, brought Jim Dandy into the fray to lasso runaway horses, dry the tears in little girls’ eyes, and to save special mermaids from the hooks of villainous fishermen.

(Black Oak Arkansas’ rendition on You Tube will help you understand what your parents and grandparents survived.) Go, Jim Dandy! Go, Jim Dandy!

This generation’s “runaway train” is a slip sliding housing market victimized by lender’s greed, Wall Street’s creative dark side, and congressional tinkering with a process that worked well for centuries— and all by its lonesome, George.

Our little girls’ tears are those of small, vulnerable, main-street-residing investor’s whose retirement dreams have been shattered by securities markets that are little more than casinos, and instruments of mass financial destruction that even their creators cannot explain.

The mermaids? They are the taxpayers who …

Thirty Billion Dollars is a huge amount of money, but it translates into less than $100 per US person— a small price that we should all be willing to pay to give the Automobile Industry time to restructure itself and to save a few million jobs.

Give them the green, but have them pay it back in a more economy and environment friendly manner. Here’s the deal:

Every new American-made car buyer would receive a debit card along with his ownership papers. The card could be used for anything other than the car purchase itself. Card amounts would vary from $6,000 for “smart” cars, through $3,000 for fuel-efficient sub-compacts, $1,000 for other borderline greenies.

The debit cards would lose 20% of their value per month if not negotiated. All debit cards would function as free passes for all highway tolls so long as they are used with the proper automobiles.

The 60’s gas-guzzler tax …

Dateline Raleigh, NC, November 6, 2008: Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives discuss confiscating our 401(k)s and IRAs, by Carolina Journal Online reporter Karen McMahan.

This shocking pronouncement is certainly an attention grabber, which if even partially true, would have an impact on nearly every employed and retired American. The basis for the report is testimony before the House Committee on Education and Labor in early October.

Dr. Teresa Ghilarducci is one of many witnesses (scholars, retirees, activists, an investment mogul, and benefits experts) who were interviewed by the committee members. (I was skipped over once again, but a receptive person in the HCEL was willing to forward a listing of my articles to the right person. I expect an invitation to testify momentarily)

McMahan writes: “Dr. Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research, …