I hold a deep concern that we will squander the last remaining shreds of our nation's good credit without confronting the malignancy which is ruining us. In my view, our problem is that we have substituted profligacy for productivity. Our economy, for all it's statistical size, does not produce nearly enough essential value to pay for the standard of living we have deluded ourselves into believing we are entitled to enjoy. One need look no further than our balance of trade to support that. Indeed, the only thing sustaining us at this moment is the one contribution we make to the global economy which is it's most vital resource: political stability, a function of our Constitution and of our overwhelmingly dominant military. However, both of these pillars of our hegemony are under assault.

I fought hard for 10 days in late September and early October opposing the bailout. We lost, but I realize in retrospect that had we prevailed, whatever had happened subsequently would have been blamed on not doing that thing, no matter how wrong it actually was. As was pointed out, the bailout not only failed to rescue the economy, every prediction I and many others made as to the way it would be mis-used came true. It served only to provide those who precipitated this crisis a means of salvaging their assets, and preserving their hegemony over the financial infrastructure which sustains a corrupt plutocracy.

As Lord Acton's aphorism asserts: authority corrupts, and absolute authority corrupts absolutely. I would suggest that the principle: "Too Big To Fail" (knowingly adopted by our political leaders circa, 1999) is the tangible manifestation of the absolute corruption of the essential divide between government and the private sector in this country. The electronic paper trail reveals a cabal consisting of members of Congress, and mostly anonymous financial moguls who influence and sustain them. The evidence is massive and irrefutable. Recently, I was reminded of Theodore Roosevelt's attack on J. P. Morgan and the complex network of trusts he used to dominate this country's financial infrastructure at the turn of the 19th century. I would argue that the status quo today, while lacking a single obvious Czar, is equally corrupt and far more virulent in it's potential consequences.

We must dismantle it, because if we don't, the credibility of our Constitution, in particular: it's checks and balances, are at risk. Those checks and balances were not just intended to balance the branches of our government, they were intended to protect our credit and our currency from plunder by any private-sector interests. The concept Too Big To Fail is a blatant abrogation of the core principles which legitimize our democracy. Without them, we no longer provide that most critical building block of the global economy: an honest currency which provides a final haven for abstracted wealth. Too Big To Fail gives a handful of individuals in the private sector a lien on the financial bedrock of our nation.

I believe the key to repairing this damage is not only by allowing these institutions to absorb their own losses, but by unleashing the Justice Department on the racketeers who gamed the system for private gain. The DOJ should have the goal of exposing their fiduciary misconduct, and recovering at least some portion of their ill-gotten gains over the last 8 years or so (since the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act at least). And it's not just the top tier of executives on Wall Street who must be sanctioned. I can only hope that President-elect Obama realizes that people like Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Robert Rubin, et.al are not his friends. The reason for the bailouts is that in their absence, the malfeasance of those on Wall Street and in the Congress would be exposed. I believe he faces a challenge similar to the one Mikhail Gorbachev faced when he realized that the utterly corrupt Soviet Union must be euthanized. The corrupt plutocracy of Congress and the private-sector in our country must also be excised. I wonder if Mr. Obama sees that parallel?

We face formidable problems, but there has been very little discussion of the core dysfunction which has brought us to this point. The debate has focused almost entirely on symptoms, little or no critical thinking has been directed at our flawed economic practices:

* We must dismantle the credit-card mentality which has afflicted our economy, and created a systemic shared delusion of prosperity which is unsustainable. There is very little difference between revolving-credit and gambling, and this addiction has permeated our entire economy.

* The regulatory structures created by Congress are intrinsically flawed, and they must be replaced (wherever possible) with autonomous expert systems implemented in software. We now have the technology to fundamentally change banking and banking regulation, providing 100% oversight and transparency in many venues, and we must begin writing legislation which recognizes those capabilities, and indeed mandates their incorporation into our legislative paradigms.

* The unilateral authority of the Congress to raise the debt ceiling, and the government's constitutionally unregulated 'authority' to create entitlements must be moderated. In simple terms, we must make it more difficult for the Congress to encumber our nation with additional debt.

* We must specifically and aggressively re-tool our economy by eliminating numerous sacred cows which we cannot afford: a bloated and corrupt 'litigation industry', a health-care industry which has been distorted by burdensome torts and dysfunctional insurance regulations, and an educational and academic research industry which is massively inefficient and over-priced.

* Finally, we must stop building robots that can land on Mars, and start building open-ocean aquaculture infrastructure which will enable us to become the dominant provider of carbon-neutral fuel for transportation on this planet. The critical determinant of our survival as a species depends upon our ability to create a stable, carbon-neutral liquid fuel which can be stored in a can, and poured into a tank. In order to do that, we must harness thousands of square miles of open-ocean for the cultivation of bio-fuel by photosynthesis. Given the state of our science, and the little time remaining to turn back climate change, this is our only option.

In order to succeed in all this, I believe we must be prepared to endure some significant economic pain over the near term. That is the only way the corruption can be exposed, and it's stewards disconnected from their authorities. This may seem draconian, but I believe it is essential to the survival of our country as we know it. The saving grace of our enormous investment in our military is that this world desperately needs a benign and healthy democracy which retains the unilateral power to deter the initiatives of dictators or nations with authoritarian rulers. However, by allowing private interests (and their co-conspirators in the Congress) to plunder our credit and our currency, we risk all of that. The legitimacy of our democracy is at stake: It is legitimacy which the rest of the world demands of us, and we must make it so.

When Lincoln took office in 1861, he still believed that slavery could be contained. It was not until late 1862 that he realized there was no middle ground. That realization led to the Emancipation Proclamation, and to this message to Congress in December of 1862:

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

I believe our new President risks disaster if it takes him two years to realize that retreads of the same failed measures we have used in the past will cure the malignancy which is undermining us. If President Obama were to close his inaugural address with those very same words Lincoln used, it would be the perfect summation of the greatest challenge we have faced since 1860, the one we face today. We must think anew, anything less will be inadequate!