The United States is being bought up by foreigners. It’s sort of like a rummage sale or a department store bargain basement. Investors are buying up US companies at a record pace and foreign governments are “buying up” the Federal Government through loans to finance Congressional and Presidential deficit spending and corporate bailouts. On one recent day, the stock market reported more than $14 billion in stock acquisitions, some of it in buyout deals by foreign financiers.

The American Bankers Association had assembled at a convention in 1923 and hired humorist, Will Rogers, to give a keynote address to the assemblage. Noting the scandals that had riddled the banking industry over the previous two years, Rogers began his delivery with, “You have a wonderful organization. I understand you have ten thousand folks here. And, if you count the ones in the various federal prisons, it brings your total membership up to around thirty thousand.” Much like in the twenties, the present day financial woes can be at least partially attributed to the easy credit, high limits and greed within our financial industry.