Don't get me wrong, I have my opinions about politics. Generally I just like to keep them to myself. I'll make an exception when it comes to Big Government.

I don't like it. Not one bit. Get your hand out of my wallet, Uncle Sam.

So when I heard the news that the US government plans on creating a separate fund to buy bad debt off of the books of struggling banks and other Wall Street players, I got on my high horse and started preaching to anyone who would listen (ie, the cats and the trash collector) about the folly of making taxpayers take the brunt of the financial mess in New York.

I am off my high horse now, and ready to see the error of my ways.

We are in a big mess right now. I'm not saying that to get people scared, and I'm not being paid by some Wall Street short selling scam artist to create panic in the market place, but the fact is we're not in such a hot position. This week we saw a modern-day run on the banks with investors hastily pulling money out of all sorts of investments. We're seeing record-setting foreclosures and high unemployment. And our dollar has lost a lot of global confidence recently.

The actions of the Treasury to somehow triage this mess are not ideal, but I will have to admit that to a marketplace foaming at the mouth with panic, the Treasury's announcement to guarantee money market funds was like giving the nation a giant paper bag to calm down its hyperventilations. And people are responding: check out the action on Wall Street this week:

One of the big determinations of financial success is consumer confidence, and we were sorely lacking in it this time yesterday. Now we have some reason to believe that there's hope, and we're taking tentative steps toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm curious to see if this will be the big turnaround that we are all craving. Or maybe, as some of the Chicken Littles out there are saying, this is yet another bandaid over a severed artery. As always, time will tell.