I could hardly believe what I was hearing when this financial crisis first broke. Our Treasury Secretary issued a quick response, offering a three-page solution that required immediate application to be successful. Among its points:

1. He needed to have singular authority to approve, direct and disburse $700 billion in stimulus funds (tax dollars) to private banks on Wall Street. The amount of monies to be distributed was selected "because it was a big number."
2. These monies would be used to purchase the "toxic assets" of these banks, with no indication that the taxpayer would receive any equity in return for their "investment."
3. This remedy proposal virtually required overnight approval to be effective. There was therefore no time to be wasted in allowing Congress to examine the proposal and determine for itself if it was a wise use of funds. Furthermore, it was stipulated that there must be no allowance for review of these disbursals by either Congress or our Courts.

"Just trust me!" said Hank Paulson, and upon his trustworthiness were we supposed to commit to him the authority to pass around one of the largest sums of money ever approved for disbursal from our treasury.

I ain't brilliant. When it comes to talking about my skill level as an economist about the best I can say is "Well, I make a pretty good truck driver." Yet, there was something about this whole affair that simply didn't pass the smell test. "Hell," I said to myself, "if I didn't know any better, I would have to say it feels kinda' like extortion or grand larceny disguised as 'economic stimulus.' In fact, it feels like a whole other kind of stimulus that would first require me to bend over and grab my ankles."

But surely I was mistaken. No one could be so bold as to attempt to steal $750 billion in broad daylight, right? And Paulson? Why, he's our very own Treasury Secretary, charged with managing this economy as a public servant looking out for our best interests, right?

Well, yeah, the fact that Paulson was a former CEO of Goldman Sachs presented a glaring conflict-of-interest in this regard that seemed troubling, perhaps. But who was I to even entertain a thought that this upright banking executive and financial expert might be capable of such a bold and corrupt lapse of morality to support thievery of this magnitude? At any rate, surely our Congress could not be fooled into letting anyone get away with an outright crime against the taxpayer of this magnitude provided my suspicions were correct, right?

Under a flurry of such internal questions and outright incredulity, I was paralyzed from pursuing this any further as the TARP giveaway unfolded. Yet, as I listened to the January 23rd issue of Bill Moyers Journal it became increasingly apparent that my first suspicions were correct, regardless of how incredible it seemed that "respectable businessmen" could rob us blind in full view and with no sense of shame.

For a story in last Sunday's "New York Times", largely overlooked in all the pre-inaugural hoopla, reporter Mike Mcintire reviewed investor presentations and conference calls to see how bankers talk when they think the rest of us aren't listening.

This from Boston Private Wealth Management, a healthy bank that was handed $154 million: "With that capital in hand [...] we'll be in a position to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves once this recession is sorted out."

Once this recession is sorted out? Those funds are supposed to generate loans for people and small businesses in trouble -- not to help banks ride out the recession on a cushion of cash.

Then there's this bit of Simon Legree mustache-twirling from the chairman of Whitney National Bank in New Orleans. They've received 300 million dollars in bailout boodle: "Make more loans?" he asked. "We're not going to change our business model or our credit policies to accommodate the needs of the public sector as they see it to have us make more loans."

I'm not making this up -- Flushing Financial crowed that it was newly flush enough to use the bailout bucks to raise the ante and buy new companies: "We can get $70 million in capital," their CEO said. "So, I would say the price of poker, so to speak, has gone up." And, so to speak, he's playing with our chips!

Yeegads, it makes you feel kinda' foolish, don't it? Jesse James robbed banks. Here, we have Hank Paulson and the bankers robbing us! And they've gained for themselves an amount of purloined cash at a level that the James Gang could never have imagined in their wildest dreams!

For Jesse James, he would stick a gun in your ribs with a threat of "Your money, or your life." Pretty effective approach, that, but not nearly as productive as the terrorist tactics engaged by these modern day robbers in the Brooks Brothers suits. The Paulson Gang gained their spoils quite easily simply by threatening to terrorize the whole economy if we failed to fork over the money.

How could we be so dumb?

More importantly, what can we do about it?

First, I think we need to stop delivery on the last portion of the funds promised to the extortionist bankers. If they wish to enhance their personal wealth, they should be encouraged to get a real job and work for their money like any other working man.

Secondly, we need to reclaim the monies that have already been stolen. This can best be accomplished by nationalizing the banks in question; by receiving for the taxpayer ownership of these institutions in proportion to the amount of monies contributed over total assets and holdings of the particular bank. In this way, we can at least claim for the taxpayer some equity in exchange for their contribution of funds to these criminal enterprises. And we can then exercise ownership rights in these banks to reestablish them as legitimate contributors to society instead of their present utility as front organizations for thieves and robbers.

Going forward, we must take steps to create a firewall between Wall Street and our treasury. Having been so keenly duped in broad daylight by these extortionists, we must not ever again allow the robbers to place in the role of policeman and protector any member of this Wall Street/Paulson Gang. This would seem to be pretty obvious, of course, but then someone needs to explain the recommendation that Geithner should serve as the Treasury Secretary in this next Administraion, and that Rubin and others from Wall Street should play critical roles in overseeing our recovery.

Finally, we need to hold accountable Henry Paulson and the other criminals who have so boldly compromised even the very future of this economy for no more reason than personal enrichment. In Jesse James' case, the robber was assassinated in a government directed action to rid the world of the parasite. I would of course recommend against any such action as being too extreme and smacking too much of vigilantism. No, I would instead suggest that a sincere apology followed by a summary hanging in the town square should be sufficient to meet justice requirements and to discourage any such actions from such brazen criminals anytime soon in our future.