By Dianne Lively Yost

Nightmare on Wall Street. It’s your turn! Spin the U.S. Wheel ‘O Fortune! Clack, clack, clack . . . clack . . . clack . . . Yikes! It’s stoppin’ on the black bankruptcy section! But wait! There’s a $700 billion bailout of distressed mortgages in the financial sector! A proposed $25 billion “loan” to the auto industry’s GM, Ford and Chrysler! Ding dang! Here comes Nouriel Roubini, New York University Economics Professor who Barron’s once compared to the Prophet Jeremiah! Y’all know Nouriel! He’s the guy who predicted the current economic crisis years ago as financial experts ridiculed him as crazy Dr. Doom.
   

Who’s crazy now?
   

Dr. Doom is now recommendin’ the government create a Home Owners Mortgage Enterprise to stop escalatin’ foreclosures (now happenin’ at a rate of 10,000 per day).  Specifically, Dr. Doom says: “rescuing distressed institutions without reducing the debt problem of the borrowers does not resolve the fundamental insolvency of the debtor that limits its ability to consume and spend and thus drags the economy into a more severe economic contraction.”   One thing is 4 sho: Everything’s done gone topsy-turvy! Free market capitalism is fast becomin’ a system of privatized profits and socialized loss at least in the auto and financial sectors! Talk ‘bout French fries! Wow! Wall Street has just shown us taxpayers the South end of the Wall Street bull!  Unfortunately, small businesses and regular taxpayers are left standin’ downwind hopin’ these bailouts work.
   

Honey Wall Street’s sick, but you don’t have to be! Buckhead resident and Thrifty Mac Pharmacy owner George Launius wanted me to tell y’all that Thrifty Mac is now certified to give vaccinations! Ouch! He says their pharmacists have received training and certification to administer and bill Medicare and private insurance for Flu and Pneumonia shots! Talk ‘bout convenient! You can pop over there and pick up your prescriptions, get your shot and Shazam! You’re healthy! Ok so Thrifty Mac is located across the street from the award-winnin’ Morgan County Citizen newspaper at 218 South Main Street in downtown Madison. Give George a call at 706-342-4141 for more info! Thanks George!
   

Madisonian and marketing director for the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center Patricia DuBose just stopped me on the street and wanted me to tell y’all that a really famous singer is comin’ to town! I’m talkin’ ‘bout none other than Kathy Mattea, famous Grammy winnin’ singer! She’ll be here to perform at the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center on Sunday, Oct. 5, beginnin’ at 7 p.m.!
   

Ok so Kathy is the singer of such classics as “18 Wheels and A Dozen Roses,” “Where’ve You Been,” and many other hits! Honey this girl is flat famous! I gotta get me and momma a ticket right smack this minute! Her new album, COAL, is gettin’ rave reviews! Kathy’s momma and daddy grew up in coal camps and her grandparents were also miners. After the Sego mining disaster, Kathy decided to channel her emotions caused by the tragedy into her music and COAL was the result! Kathy says she wanted to pay tribute to “my place and my people” on a record that is as much a textured novel as it is an album.
   

Her father was saved from the mines by an uncle who paid his way through college. You do not want to miss this important concert! Go by the Cultural Center at 434 South Main Street in Madison or call 706-342- 4743 for ticket info!
   

Wow! I nearly forgot! Tonight (Thursday, Sept. 25) is the Concert in the Park behind Madison Markets and Town 220 with the fantastic musical sensation  . . . The  Bearfoot Hookers! It all starts at 7 p.m.! I’ll see all y’all there in fab Fall outfits!  
    Ding dang! Outta space. Outta time. I’ll see all y’all next week: Same time. Same Number One Weekly Newspaper in the Great State of Georiga! Y’all be sweet now, ya hear?