For several days, Clark couldn't work because he had a bad case of laryngitis. He came down sick just as our government did a partial nationalization of the 9 largest U.S. banks…and he was mute. Talk about torture!

Many of you have gotten down on the penny-pincher about his belief that the partial nationalization was the right move. In fact, he believes that it was wise of the feds to require that the banks take the bailout instead of making it voluntary.

One benefit of the move is that traditional non-interest bearing business checking accounts -- the kind favored by small and midsized businesses -- will now be covered up to an unlimited sum of money.

Of course, this partial nationalization is not like waving a magic wand that will make everything better. But if it encourages lending to businesses that can in turn make profits, that's a good thing.

Yes, there is an irony in the fact that right now we've got to be socialists to be capitalists. But in retrospect, Clark believes this will be seen as a good move. He is worried, however, that we'll forget about this episode of American history too soon. If we learn anything from all of this, it should be that we need more cops on the beat to protect us from the excesses of capitalism.