It's the economy.....I'm stupid

I've never claimed to understand economics. I balance my checkbook every month, and as part of my job at the library, I keep track of bills to be paid and money to be deposited. I can read and prepare a financial statement, and understand a bit about school budgets.
But that's where my knowledge ends.
I do have to tell you that I am worried, very worried--after all, both Bush and McCain have told us this week that our economy is "fundamentally sound". As that filters to my brain, all I'm hearing is, "Run for the hills!"
I guess I'm stupid--I don't understand how financial institutions could continue to make bad loans to bad credit risks, could keep on doing what they were doing, AND pay their CEOs not just millions but close to BILLIONS in salaries [from Nicholas Kristof, in his Op-Ed for the New York Times: "You should be raking it in like Richard Fuld, the longtime chief of Lehman Brothers. He took home nearly half-a-billion dollars in total compensation between 1993 and 2007. Last year, Mr. Fuld earned about $45 million, according to the calculations of Equilar, an executive pay research company. That amounts to roughly $17,000 an hour to obliterate a firm."] , and now it's up to the American people to bail them all out. How come the CEOs aren't giving the money back, to help out those companies they are so loyal to? How come the Board of Directors and anyone earning over....oh.....$2.5 million a year...required to give a large percentage of their salaries back? After all, they failed at their job; when anyone of "us" would fail so utterly and completely, we would have been gone a long time ago. Most of these people still have their jobs, and will probably move sideways into another job, or retire on the money they've socked away for a rainy day. Meanwhile, average Josette Schmo on the street is wondering IF she can retire at all, sunny or rainy day, since her retirement money was entrusted with one of those companies.
It would make sense to ask Commerce Committee member, John McCain, these questions, but I'm pretty sure he would defend his position on deregulation--he's been all for it for many, many years. And, he thinks the economy is "fundamentally sound". Heck, he wants to deregulate Social Security--after the events of this week, how many people would like that to happen? Oh yes, I count at least two, McCain and Palin (and she's just been told to raise her hand).
Finally, I AM understanding "Trickle Down Economics" very well: we deregulate as many areas of the economy as we can, and friends of those in power make a lot of money. What trickles down to the rest of us is the massive bailout bills we will be paying for generations to come.
Here's my heart-felt suggestion to George Bush: resign now, and take all your cronies with you (Cheney, Levitt, Chertoff, Gates, etc--you know who they are). You've all made all the money you can possibly spend in your lifetimes--there's greedy, and then there's greedy. Leave us what's left of this tattered country, while there are still a few of us left who think we can restore dignity to it. Please, please--just go.