Hey Merchant,
I agree somewhat with your sentiments, however, incompetence in my mind is not an excuse.
I'll say one thing, however, the sheer level of incompetence exhibited by our august private-sector "captains of industry" over the last few years (Lehman, Merrill, BP, and others) has proven one point: The only thing more worthless and incompetent than a government is the private-sector.
It seems that the only thing productive coming out of companies these days are erectile dysfunction pills and more ipod knock-offs. If only we could convince the Chinese that they needed these items too, we could shrink the trade deficit.