If management's bad, it shouldn't cost anything.

"If management's bad, it shouldn't cost anything." That's the title of an article by Charles A. Jaffe who is discussing the expenses behind mutual funds, in contrast with hedge fund managers who are financially accountable for their stewardship and productivity.

The problem with this logic is that, if citizens and shareholders start thinking this way in a more general sense, we will demand accountability from everyone who manages anything of ours — from CEOs who effectively manage our retirement assets to presidents and vice presidents who manage our fiscal health as a nation. In these situations, the stakes are considerably higher than in a garden-variety hedge fund, so if anything the level of accountability should be raised to meet the seriousness of the situations they manage.

Therefore, we should send Bush-Cheney an invoice for the $2 trillion they squandered as a result of their mismanagement of the United States of America.