Tonight is a night in which we can all be proud.  It is a night that embodies the spirit of this nation; a night that illustrates our continued tradition of change.  It is a night in which the American people have stood up and overwhelmingly told the world that we can still challenge the status quo.  It doesn’t matter what color your state is…  or what color your skin is.  In every generation, one person stands up; one person stands out, and that person allows us to have faith again.  I have faith.  I have faith that we can repair the damage done in the last 8 years.  We can again be a people that leads the world by example, not by force.  And we can again be a united country in which we all have the chance for Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.  I think that we all expect a lot from our hero, and our beacon of faith.  In my lifetime, I have heard many speeches, I have seen many things.  I acknowledge that my time has been brief, but in my time, I have never been moved so powerfully by one man.  I have never had faith in a politician, and I have certainly never been moved to tears by the words of one.  But tonight, as I watched the colors of the states fill the screen, I saw America elect hope.  And with Barack Obama as the President, we will again be what America should be…  a nation Of the people, By the people, and For the people. 

Tonight, we tell the world as is asks us if America can handle the challenges it faces.  “Yes… we can!”

Ok, take this scenario… You look outside and you notice that there is smoke coming out of the house two doors down.  What do you do?  Most people would more that likely call 911 to have the fire department come check it out.  That is the responsible thing to do, right?  Yes.  It is.  Now, what do we NOT do in that instance?  We don’t sit back and say, “Well, I didn’t cause that fire, why should I call on my tax dollars for the fire fighters to come put it out?!  Its not my fault they can’t keep their house from burning.”  Apply that scenario to Wall Street…  The economy is on fire.  And its not quite 5-alarm, yet…  but its getting there.  LET THEM PUT THE FIRE OUT!!!

To those that question the plan to rescue the financial system, I understand you…  and on some level, I agree, but now is not the time to talk about prevention and blame.  Make no mistake about it, we NEED to find out all we can about the causes, and we will, but right now, for this very moment, the inferno that was the Investment Banking Industry is spreading.  It is spreading to every corner of our already weakened economy.  I may be a tad-bit alarmist, I admit, but there is no other choice for our Government…  and for us.  Our government’s primary responsibility is to protect us.  If they do nothing, then our way of life will change.  Drastically.

Of course, we are nowhere near that point…  but with each passing day of inaction, we grow exponentially closer.  This problems are trickling down.  Fast.

To the Congress:  We don’t have the time to iron out all of the details.  That is just the reality.  Pass the bill with three major additions: 

–Include the “people” and offer mortgage relief so they do not lose their houses (if we are going to bail out bad businesses, we should bail out our citizens)
–Require the bill to be transparent so we can trace every dollar spend by the Fed
–Mandate a full follow-up investigation in order to write more comprehensive regulation to prevent something like this from ever happening happening again.

I am not so naive as to think that this is as simple as I may make it sound, and I acknowledge that I do not have the facts, but I understand one thing, the longer it takes to get something done, the worse it will get, and I am not just talking about the businesses…  It will get bad for you and for me.

Every day we talk and not act, watch the market.  It will drop 3 digits.

-=brett=-