Federal Waste,

We truly have a financial crisis in this country, driven by excessive federal spending, deficits and debt.  I have made a few suggestions about how to at least try to address the issue, which will be painful no matter what.  One item I did not go into detail on is the horrendous amount of fraud and waste.  A timely note at Zero Hedge identifies a recent analysis that found $3 trillion in acknowledged improper payments by federal agencies in the last 20 years.  Some of this is outright fraud but a lot is just stupidity, for example making payments to dead people, when it is very easy to check to see who has died recently.  Government computer systems are generally very antiquated which accounts for much of the problem.  But when you wonder why we have such a bad mess, the incompetence of the federal bureaucracy is a big part of the problem.   (ZH Post)