A little lesson in Japanese economics goes a long way.

Well, ye socks, it looks like the ObamaNation will enjoy a tax-evading Treasury Secretary who hires illegal aliens. Kinda scary that he will be the guy handling the remaining hundreds of billions of dollars in bail-out money due to flow out of DC . . . more hope and change!

Republican or Democrat, though, everyone can recognize our economy is in a fragile state. As usual, the solution to the problem may be found through an examination of history, for those who do not learn the lessons of past mistakes are doomed to repeat them. (Kinda like we're getting Jimmy Carter Part 2.)

I hope the new economic recovery team will see the freakish similarity between what happened in Japan over the last ten years and what's happening on this side of the Pacific today.

It is not enough to spend all this money to buy distressed assets and bad loans. It took the Japanese the better part of a decade to realize they also had to completely recapitalize the banks that were being bailed-out.

We must do the same.

This means not only throwing enough money their way. It also means getting serious about auditing those banks, and taking action to ensure they don't slide back into their old bad habits--or, if they do, stop propping them up and allow them to fail.

Up to this point, the very thin silver lining to the cloud that's been hanging over our heads is that the US response has been both faster and more aggressive than the Japanese.

Let's hope the newly-coined administration not only continues this precedent but also avoids the pratfalls of our Asian allies. We cannot afford a ten-year recovery. At least I can't. How 'bout ye socks?