I worked for the telephone company for eight years. During that time, all employees received a small amount of AT&T stock (not a 401-K or anything like that, it was just part of the bennie package). When I left the company, I had fifty-one shares, approximately $3,000 worth. I figured, "Okay, AT&T is a pretty solid stock, so I'll just let it sit and build up over time as part of my meager retirement fund." It did appreciate. But some years ago, AT&T switched some of it over to Lucent Technologies, which they said was going to be a real hot item. I figured, "Well, okay. Looks all right, I guess. I'll let it sit. But it's nice to know I can cash it in any time I need it."

Just yesterday on the news, I heard that Lucent Technologies is going belly up because of mismanagement, and the stock is now pennies a share and is considered to have fallen into the "junk" category. They are considering bankruptcy. The CEO, who is receiving an annual salary of many millions of dollars says, in effect, "Gee whiz! I don't know how that happened!"

Question 1:— What in the hell do CEOs do to earn salaries like that? It seems that the best thing they do is either screw up royally or run off with the money.

Question 2:— Do you really want your Social Security invested in the stock market?

The Securities and Excange Commission (SEC) is supposed to oversee this kind of thing to prevent it from happening. They've obviously been dozing for the last several years, but instead of giving them a kick in the butt, the Administration just reduced their authority to act when things start looking fishy.

Fortunately I still get my monthly Social Security check. But while our fearless leaders are pointing overseas and crying "Wolf!" they're quietly doing their damnedest to change that. And this is only one of the things they're doing while we're all looking the other way. I really think we need to clean our own house before we try to tell the rest of the world how to run theirs. How about a regime change here?

Don Firth