BONNIE & CLYDE & WILLY SUTTON WOULD LOVE THE FEDERAL BAILOUTS....

Bonnie and Clyde could have made tons more money by running banks than by robbing them if 2008 is any barometer of arrogance, incompetence, and hubris in the US financial markets and the entities charged with their regulatory oversight. The news on 22 December 2008 reported that many of the banks and insurance firms who received multi-BILLION dollar handouts refuse to account to the public for how those funds were spent.

"We choose not to disclose that information," while enfuriating a response, is absolutely trademark for the arrogance of an industry that privatized profit while socializing debt. The same news day reported an AP survey that showed bailed-out executives received $1.6 BILLION dolars in 2008.

Let's see if I have this straight:

* A mail room clerk who repeatedly misaddresses outbound mail would get fired.

* A UAW member who diligently worked a monotonous assembly line job and was the beneficiary of better union versus managment negotiators faces financial ruin resulting from layoffs because of decisions made by his 'superiors' who weren't.

* A doctor who repeatedly misdiagnoses and negligently treats patients loses their malpractice insurance and ultimately their license.

* The governor of a midwestern state that may have solicited a quid-pro-quo for a discretionary US Senate nomination faces impeachment proceedings & criminal indictment.

* The US's 'Big 3' automobile manufacturers don't get bailed-out but get loans which must be repaid; similar to how loans differ from grants or gifts.

* Bankers, insurance and brokerage house leaders who bled their firms get federal handouts with no accountability and exhibit insufficient public relations acumen to at least act humbled and to provide ongoing fair and full, totally transparent accounting of how they spent/spend these taxpayer monies.

Fear not, the US Congress is "on the job." Are the members of the respective House and Senate financial services/banking committees charged with oversight of the industries who have received taxpayer bail-outs victims of previously undiagnosed craniarectoral syndrome; where their heads are literally up their own arse?

I'm not a doctor nor have I ever played one on T.V., but what other possible explanation could there be for legislation that didn't even bear the minimal tinge of mandatory disclosure and accounting requirements?

Maybe it's just the nature of tabloid journalism, but in recent days more ink and column inches are been devoted to whether the NY Governor will appoint a daughter of Camelot, 'Princess Caroline' to the US Senate, than have focused on the actions of the US Congress in acquiescing to an outgoing presidential administration hell-bent on providing for their friends via Congressional legislation passed on an expedited timeframe with minimal hearings, minimal oversight, and no mandated accounting. The US Congress should hang their collective heads in shame.

Alas, don't hold your breath. Some Members of Congress are too busy bashing Obama's choice of a cleric to pray at the inauguration, others jet off to Iraq on a surprise junket with Gov. Patterson of New York, while others stake out positions on the 'Princess Caroline' wants a seat at court issue.

But let's be real. Why should we expect the US Congress to hold these nefarious financial industry executives to account when it was the same US Congress some years ago that couldn't even run it's own in-house banking operations?

With a career path like Bonnie and Clyde, if Willy Sutton had been born later and a tad smarter, Willy would have gone to work for AIG, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, or the U.S. Treasury, because "that's where the money is!"