Help me with this.

I'm no economist, so there are a lot of things that don't make sense to me. Consider this:

...with uncertainty about the auto sector, the Fed's policy meeting on Monday and Tuesday will also remain in focus. The central bank is expected to lower its benchmark fed funds rate by a half-percentage point to 0.5 percent.

That's great for people with adjustable-rate mortgages, since their payments will go just about as low as they can. Meanwhile, credit card interest rates are still in the 15 to 22 percent range. Why? What it tells me is that our government is in the back pocket of the credit card companies. If not, then how can you explain the fact that the Fed is lending money out at almost zero percent and Citibank and your local department store are charging 18 percent? I can't be the only one who wonders about stuff like that.

Our government is in a big hurry (supposedly) to help banks and auto makers, but the real catastrophe is going on with people paying 20 percent on their credit cards. It seems to me that a great way to stimulate the economy would be to lower the rates that people are paying on the money they've borrowed. You can't stimulate spending if people are still paying interest on their debt. Those 600-dollar checks that went out earlier this year evaporated in the heat of the interest that consumers were paying. It never had a chance.

I'd think that the best way to help put the economy back on its feet is to get the banks off our backs.

I remember seeing an investment guru on CNBC several years ago, explaining what great investments banks were. When asked why, he said, "What other business do you know that can pay 2 percent interest and charge 20?" That's an instant 18-percent margin for doing nothing but processing paperwork.

There's a lot of teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing going on over companies like Ford and General Motors who can't find their ass with both hands, while consumers are buried in debt that nobody seems willing to help them with. That's bad sentence structure, but it's even worse economics.

But I'm no economist.

Those are the guys who helped get us in this mess.

Find the short fat guys and tell them we have pants!

I had to do something today that I haven't done in a while - buy a pair of dress pants.

I have a wedding to attend on Saturday. It's the wedding for the guy we took to New York and Philly two weeks ago.

I went to a lot of weddings when I was younger. As we age, we find ourselves attending more funerals than weddings. And since I've had the same job for the past 15 years, and don't get out much, I haven't had an opportunity to trot out the sport coat in quite some time. Like most of my clothes, it still fits. I'm kind of proud of that.

Whenever I shop for pants, I'm surprised at the availability of the 40W 30L pants on the rack. There was literally one pair of Calvin Klein black dress pants in my size, which is significantly different than 40 x 30. Lucky for me they fit and they were less than fifty bucks.

No outfit is complete without a nice necktie. Most of mine have cartoon characters on them, so I felt it might be necessary to find one that wouldn't attract a lot of kids. Polish the outfit off with a nice new shirt and it's a deal. Now all I need to do is figure out what I'm giving as a gift. I figure I can't go wrong with cash. I know I liked counting the checks when I got married, and I can't imagine it's changed much in 17 years.

The local mall was a near ghost town at 5pm tonight. I suppose it's the result of that recession I keep hearing about. Meanwhile, there's a Target and Lowe's store going up a couple of miles from the Kohl's and Home Depot that have been there for 3 years. There's another vacant lot nearby with a sign telling us that "Coming Soon" are new retail stores. Somebody with an entrepreneurial spirit is opening two new water parks in Mt. Laurel, about ten miles from my home.

I'm imagining a lot of sleepless nights for the people putting up the money for these projects. I'm guessing they were planned and approved before the economy totally went in the shithouse, but still, I've never figured out why people are so anxious to open another store selling the same stuff I can get two miles away for virtually the same price.

I remember reading a Walgreen's annual report that said their surveys said people wanted a drug store within 2 miles from their home. I have four. If I took that many drugs, I'd forget where the stores were.

Which makes it particularly comforting to come home and let the cat wander in the garden. He's a beautiful boy.