Money Matters

The president is working hard to find ways to regulate our financial system. I am very interested in this, because I don't want what happened a few years back to happen again. Recession is a bad thing. I know this because I have been watching the news. What I don't know is exactly why recession is a bad thing.
It makes sense, I suppose, since it sounds like there's not enough money to go around: receding, right? Metaphors abound, and everyone wants to explain it to me in some colloquial way. Whether it's the butcher shop or mowing the lawn, financial experts would like me to see it through their eyes. Hedge funds make me think of the shrub in my front yard, and after just a few moments, I start to glaze over. It's a carryover from my personal financial situation where my wife would love to get me involved in mutual funds but that sounds a little too intimate for me. And don't get me started on securities, which I connect to owning a blanket.
Speaking of which, I continue to be confounded by reports about the SEC. What does the Southeast Conference have to do with the price of tea in China, or Auburn? The fact that this three letter acronym also stands for the Security Exchange Commission just makes my head hurt. Trying to make sense of any of this stuff is just way too hard. Until I read this: California Representative Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said it was "disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at porn than taking action to help stave off the events that put our nation's economy on the brink of collapse."
Now I understand.