The Heritage Foundation ran a contest to see if anyone could come up with better gifts for the Queen than the iPod the Obamas gave her. They divided it into two parts: thoughtful gifts and humorous ones. Some of the thoughtful gifts were truly excellent — Obama’s protocol people should take notes. But one of the facetious gifts was my favorite:
When the housing bubble burst last summer, people started worrying about more than just the values of their homes. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed and, in their wake, took down major banks like Bear, Sterns and legendary insurance giants like AIG. If you’re an investor, you can recall when these stocks were among those considered to be as close to “sure things” as any investment could be. Their collapse, and the threatened fall of other big banking houses, was and is frightening.
