I was halfway through a wire story about the economy yesterday when I realized I was about ready to channel Howard Beale, the character from the movie “Network.” Remember when he screamed, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore?”

That’s how I feel. Mad as hell. I’m pretty much your average Jane when it comes to daily financial stuff. I try to make the ends meet, sock a little away for retirement and, in general, not go in the hole. Other than my 401(k), I don’t invest in the stock market. I probably could. I figure I have enough available cash every month to buy three shares of Microsoft stock or two shares of Potlatch stock. I suppose after 10 or 15 years, those buys would really add up to something. But for the most part, I keep an eye on the stock market just so all my retirement money doesn’t disappear, pay my mortgage and try to color inside the lines.

I, and a lot of other Americans it seems, had no idea what the financial big wigs were up to.

Did you have ANY idea that there were so very many creative (and by creative, I mean screwed up beyond all recogition) methods of financing houses? I didn’t. I knew about adjustable-rate mortgages and interest-only mortgages and even interest-only mortgages combined with adjustable-rate mortgages to create one house payment. I knew all that. I didn’t know that people could walk in, lie to a mortgage broker (or any other lender) about their income and the lender would then write them a big, fat check the borrower had absolutely no way to pay back. I didn’t know that lenders were making loans to people with credit scores in the single digits, then gathering a whole bunch of those lousy loans into one bundle and selling them as securities. Who knew? I sure as hell didn’t. And I’ll bet most of you didn’t either.

I even read wire stories one or two years ago in which analysts and other experts declared the housing bubble would never burst. There was no bubble, they proclaimed. Everything was cooking along exactly as it was supposed to. That sounded screwy to me, because we all know that what goes up must inevitably go down (unless it’s food or fuel prices, which are now on a rocketship to the moon).

Nevertheless, Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. Average American kept plugging along.

And then the bubble burst. Bigtime. Do you think any of those financial wizards are paying a big price? Angelo Mozilo, the president of Countrywide, the nation’s biggest mortgage lender, took home (sit down and take a deep breath) $48.1 million in salary, bonuses and stock-based pay in 2006, the most recent year available, according to a March 7 story in the Los Angeles Times. “As the mortgage industry swooned in late 2006 and 2007, he cashed out stock options valued at about $140 million. Countrywide’s shareholders, meanwhile, have lost nearly $23 billion in equity since February 2007, when the Calabasas-based company’s share price hit a $45.02 peak. On Thursday, the shares fell 50 cents to $5.20.”

Congress is investigating, but does anyone here think Mozilo will actually have to pay any price whatsoever for mismanaging his company (and the nation’s economy) into the sewer? Anyone? Show of hands.

Then there’s the Fed-backed buyout by J.P. Morgan of Bear Stearns. Who do ya think’s paying for that one, boys and girls? Go take a look in the mirror, because the answer is you and me. You think the brokers are taking a bath on this one, think again. According to Bloomberg.com, ” As more than 14,000 Bear Stearns Cos. employees watch the value of their stock sink and brace for firings, some of the company’s 550 brokers who handle individual investors’ accounts are receiving job offers from competitors promising windfalls of $2 million or more.” What’s more, if you read a little farther down in the story, you’ll see that the rank and file at JP Morgan will pay double … many will undoubtedly lose their jobs as the company cherrypicks the best of Bear Stearns and dumps its own employees.

I don’t know about you, but I want many someones very high up the ladder to pay and pay big. And I’m not just talking about money, folks. Doesn’t it seem to you that someone should have to cool his or her heels in prison? I’m only saying that because public flogging is so frowned upon these days.

Just sayin.

Now, anyone else mad as hell and not going to take it anymore?

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