It’s been a year.

A year since the global financial system seemingly (and, largely, actually) had a meltdown.

The U.S. government came to the rescue…or, rather, American taxpayers did.

But things worked out far better for many financial institutions than they did for the rest of us.

A few of the “too big to fail” banks were kept from failing by taxpayer bailouts;the world’s largest insurance company ended up being insured by the U.S. government; and the banking and brokerage firm executives managed, for the most part, to hang on to their gilded compensation packages.

And, the rest of us?

Well, let’s see: the unemployment rate is way up across the nation; more and more people are not even bothering to look for work; companies are cutting back on health care coverage; banks are lowering or eliminating personal and even business lines of credit; home prices are still falling in many places; and, getting a mortgage that is affordable, still difficult. And, those proposed mortgage modifications? Best to forget about those,too.

Like they say, what a difference a year makes?

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