Do you know the “feasance sisters,” nonfeasance, misfeasance, and malfeasance? Having responsibilities in office, “non” did nothing, “mis” did something but screwed it up, and “mal” screwed things up on purpose. Of the three, “mal” is the most dangerous. She’s malicious. She knows it’s wrong and does it anyway, often for personal gain.

In the world of finance, fund raising, and taxes, we seldom see a “non” because everyone is trying to bring down the cash. It’s the American way. But we certainly have the brothers “mis” and “mal,” misappropriation and malappropriation. All five brothers and sisters are part of the egregious family.

Misappropriation is basically good, but he makes mistakes like borrowing cash from escrow and then finding that he can’t pay it back because the check he was expecting wasn’t really in the mail or his customer died before signing it. We can almost forgive him, but what he did was wrong.

Malappropriation is another story. What “mal” does is deliberate. Mal thinks that everybody else’s money belongs to him and only he knows best what to do with it. If “mal” sees people wasting money on vacations, gambling, movies, or any pleasurable self-gratification, he sees an opportunity. If people in his market can afford to blow money on frivolous things, it just means that there’s still money he hasn’t bilked out of them yet. He starts looking for ways to get it.

Mal is evil as hell, and is constantly being scolded by his “feasance sisters,” except “non” of course who can’t make up her mind. It doesn’t bother him. He just tells them all to stick it.

After all, what are they going to do about it when he’s sitting on so much cash? With that, he can buy his way out of almost anything and probably even earn his expenses back with a little more manipulation and fear. He knows drama.

Mal doesn’t mind being called a hypocrite, swindler, con-man, crook, or any of the nasty words people sometimes use to define him. They wash off his back like the proverbial duck’s. In fact, he even blames his accusers. If they hadn’t been so gullible in the first place they wouldn’t have given him their money.

Today, malappropriation is in pig heaven. He’s reached the pinnacle of success. “On top of the world, ma.” And he’s on a mission.

He has already accumulated $1.7 trillion of the people’s retirement money, spent it, and has developed a way to have the same suckers pay it back, plus interest. And everybody listens to him.

Mal is working in the federal government. And the people in his market put him there.