The headline-grabbing refund checks, part of an economic stimulus package passed in February, will go to roughly 130 million US households and will range in value from $300 to $1,200.

According to President Bush: “The money is going to help Americans offset the high prices we’re seeing at the gas pump, the grocery store, and also give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown.”

“The Bush legislation includes a provision that offers generous tax credits to individuals who buy homes out of foreclosure,” says Peter D. Schiff in Money Morning.

“While this is billed as a benefit to homebuyers, it is just another handout to lenders, since the prospective buyers qualifying for the tax breaks will simply pay more at auctions as the tax breaks subsidize higher bids. The real winners are the creditors who will now get more in foreclosure than they would have had buyers not been counting on having their bids subsidized by the government.

“Of course, for all the talk about taxpayer bailouts, none of the Senators bothered to mention that — for the moment — no tax increases actually are on the table. Instead, the bailouts are being financed by savers, pensioners, wage earners, investors and the elderly on fixed incomes, who all suffer staggering increases in their costs of living, as the Fed uses inflation to rob Main Street to pay off Wall Street.”

While our government is chastising Big Oil for making money and the Federal Reserve is using taxpayer money to bail out their banking buddies, Cuba is tearing down former economic barriers. It is like the earth has tilted from her axis and everything is backwards.

Let’s start with Cuba. Apparently Raul Castro is one of those rare dictators (or even any politician) that makes good on his word. He promised change and that is what his people are getting. Just yesterday the new president opened the country’s doors to major progress.

Cubans are now allowed to use cell phones. They can stay in hotels. They can own home electronics like DVD players and kitchen appliances. And most importantly, the Cuban government is lending unused state land to farmers. The economy will surge.

The island still has a long ways to go before freedom is declared, but this is a monumental step in the right direction. Investors should take note.

We ain’t Cuba

Unfortunately, the United States is moving in a different direction. Can you tell we have a democrat-controlled congress?

The nation’s large oil companies flew their private jets to Washington yesterday to answer some questions that are considered unusual for a free-market society. Congress wanted to know why Big Oil is raking in so much money when consumers are paying an arm and a leg at the pump.

How come nobody is hanging Starbucks for that $4.75 latte I had on Sunday? That’s the real crime.

The House committee grilling the oil companies yesterday wants to know why the industry continues to receive huge tax breaks while profits make new records. The real question should be why is Big Oil forced overseas to look for opportunities to expand its oil supply. If Congress is truly concerned with high gas prices (and not just with looking good in the eyes of voters), it would open up the nation’s coasts to oil and gas exploration.

Washington is expecting companies like Exxon, Shell, and BP to fund the nation’s alternative energy research, yet it is willing to pickpocket the same companies the instant they begin to see the fruit of their labor. It doesn’t make sense. Maybe Castro quit running Cuba because he got a job in Washington.

At least they won’t die alone

As if a lousy attempt to manipulate the oil markets is not enough, the government is giving the Federal Reserve more power over the banking industry. Instead of relegating the power to the organizations created to oversee the nation’s investment banks, the Fed is crossing its boundaries to be the new Wall Street traffic cop. So long checks and balances.

It is true without the recent help of the Fed, America’s banking industry would be in the toilet (or even further down the sewer line), but isn’t a free market what this country is all about? If I run my business into the ground because of bad decisions, I don’t expect Bernanke to write me a big taxpayer-funded check. Why should some bank that tried a flimsy get-rich-quick scheme get a reprieve?

By sticking out a helping hand and lowering its own lending standards, the Fed left the sidelines and jumped into the nation’s credit mess head first. Eventually, it will all come crashing down. Wall Street banks lost hundreds of billions of dollars. That kind of mess does not disappear overnight. Haven’t we learned enough times that government intervention never helps a free market?

I do not know what has gotten into this country, but it is looking less and less capitalistic every time I turn on the news. When Cuba is setting its people free and America is punishing them for getting rich, we have some very serious issues.

At least they are making money in Cuba.