Wall Street is all in jitters. Bank of America and Countryside are holding hands while a bit of cash is pumped into the bloodline of Countryside by Bank of America. This will bring smiles and giggles once more to the trading floor. The next "Happy Hour" will be if we can keep those hurricanes in hurricane status so that "oil jitters" will drive up that price of gas. A good strong wind is all that it takes but a hurricane - now that is for real.

There seems to be a puzzle piece that is missing. What about the people who don't want to wake up in the morning because they are losing their homes? What about those that are collecting boxes just in case that sheriff department comes up and evicts them right out of home and hearth? Oh, that's right - they are the collateral damage - not really a part of that financial picture, except in their own photo albums and family portraits.

While corporate America is biting its nails down wondering where oh where this downward spiral is going to stop so that they can go back to big CEO bonuses, flying managers and the top echelon around the world for party-time and those banquets, paid for with the tears of families across America who thought they had finally found the key to the American dream of home ownership. Now that dream, a nightmare in disguise, wakes them in the morning and gives them the glass of water for those sleeping pills at night. Those fast-talking sales people who said that adjustable arms where the way to go, or the only way to have that home that only sugarplums and angels can envision, now are no where to be seen. They have turned over those "virtual" dreams to bill collectors and fore- closure. Welcome to corporate America 2007 version.

Families want the best for each other. Those Hollywood movies make home ownership a given, except for the one "Money Pit." In this movie home ownership came first, then the repairs, major repairs followed, untl finally the arguments, tension and stress got the better of everyone. The family portrait with everyone smiling now looked more like the Addams Family with each member looking for ways to sell whatever the other members had for those few extra bucks, and to sell the furniture, appliances, and baby brother and sister if that would just save the house in that fantastic neighborhood in that very private school district and with matching designer shoes and jackets. Reality came knocking one day and the bubble burst with the splinters spreading far and wide. Home is where the heart should be - not the daily checkbook and calculator deciding the fate of the family in the house. This is not what life was meant to be or the American Dream. This scenario was picked up by corporate monguls and they may just write a book or make a movie. Something to think about. ©Arleen M. Kaptur August, 2007