Memo to the markets from coast to coast, Wall Street to Main Street: Not to steal Dorothy’s line from the “Wizard of Oz” but “we’re not in America anymore.”

Indeed, we can’t even say “free markets” anymore because, ever since the government “bailouts” began just six months ago, coming with all those expected and unexpected strings attached, America’s markets aren’t free, they’re government controlled. 

What’s more, increasingly and alarmingly, so are our lives and the ability to individually pursue and achieve our birthright -- the “American dream.”

That’s because this week it became crystal clear that it’s no longer who, but rather what is running the American economy -- the federal government.

The week hadn’t even started when reports revealed that the federal government, led by President Barack Obama, was actually dictating how two giants of American industry would be run for the foreseeable future -- if they even have any future.

Using the marionette strings provided by “saving” General Motors and Chrysler at the end of last year, President Obama not only forced out the chief executive officer of what was the world’s largest auto maker for more than three-quarters of a century, but also instructed two of Detroit’s Big Three that they would have to “work[ ] closely” with his “team” to have any chance of survival.

According to President Obama, GM will need a “new vision and new direction” -- one that implicitly will have to be approved by the federal government.  And, after disingenuously claiming that the “United States government has no interest in running GM,” as well as “no intention of running GM,” President Obama made it clear that his federal government would do exactly that, albeit from Washington, D.C., rather than Detroit.

How else could GM take President Obama’s comment that “my team will be working closely with GM to produce a better business plan”?  Indeed, the leader of what was until the last six months the free world went so far as to tell GM’s managers that “[t]hey must ask themselves: Have they consolidated enough unprofitable brands?  Have they cleaned up their balance sheets, or are they still saddled with so much debt that they can’t make future investments?  Above all, have they created a credible model for how not only to survive, but to succeed in this competitive global market?”

With the government asking the questions, it also will be the government providing the answers -- not the company’s board of directors, nor its executives, nor its employees, nor its dealers, nor its customers, nor its stock and bond holders.  President Obama’s “team” might not be running GM’s business day-to-day, but they might as well be.

The same goes for Chrysler.  In fact, in his announcement, President Obama simply destined that auto maker to the dustbin of economic history if the company is unable to find a “viable partnership.”  After all, the federal government has “determined, after careful review, that Chrysler needs a partner to remain viable,” according to the President, so the government “team” will be judging whether “to keep Chrysler in business.”  Again, not the company’s investors, managers, employees or customers.

If that wasn’t enough to make it clear that the only word that properly describes the situation GM and Chrysler find themselves in is the dreaded N-word -- nationalization -- then the fact that President Obama assured American automobile owners not to worry about their warranties surely proved the point.  Here was the head of our federal government -- not the car companies -- telling you and me that the warranties we receive from GM and Chrysler will “be safe … [b]ecause starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warrantee.”

But it’s not just the auto industry that has been nationalized over the past six months, it’s essentially our entire economy.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg News dropped a bombshell story showing that, since the stock market began its crash and the government began its “bailouts,” the “U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year.”  That’s right, if there was any question as to whether the government was in complete control of the American economy, there can be no question now, it’s all right there in a Bloomberg table in black and white -- or more appropriately red and white.

The Bloomberg story went on to explain that the entire “gross domestic product” of the United States “was $14.2 trillion in 2002.”  And, with the American economy shrinking in recession, it is not unreasonable to think that the $12.8 trillion in federal spending, lending, and committing that has already occurred by the end of the first quarter of this year will exceed the total “value of everything produced in the country” in what is looking to be a dismal year.

In other words, at least right now, the American economy really is wholly owned -- and, as a result, controlled -- by the government.

What’s worse, given that reality, the government is increasingly willing to exercise its control, not only reaching way beyond its proper and limited public sector role into the private sector, but also all the way down to the bottom of the private sector on Main Street.

That might be hard to believe, but a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives this week makes it clear that government control isn’t limited to giving a “hair cut” to corporate excess and executive compensation, but could be extended all the way into determining whether “any employee[’s]” pay “is unreasonable or excessive.”

That’s the language from H.R. 1664, which would allow the “Secretary” of the Treasury, “in consultation with the Chairperson of the Congressional Oversight Panel,” to establish “standards” for paying “any executive or employee” of any company that received government investment funding.  That language is well on its way to becoming law after having passed the House on Wednesday.

So, if that bill does become law, even if you are a bank teller at Bank of America, your salary could be controlled by the federal government.  It wouldn’t matter what agreement you have with your employer because the bill is retroactive, applying even to “any existing compensation arrangement.”

This is nationalization -- that other dreaded, feared N-word -- no matter what anyone else calls it.

If it was “morning in America again” when President Ronald Reagan renewed the American revolution to keep the government out of our personal and professional lives as much as possible, then it sure is looking like dusk now.

What America has seen in just the last few months, and continues to see, is a dramatic expansion of the government that has not occurred in generations -- if ever.  No one should be fooled.

The government isn’t limiting its targets to the rich, corporations, or any other currently disfavored class.  Instead, the government’s newfound “principles” are intended to affect both Wall Street and Main Street, reaching not only into the corporate board rooms but also our living rooms -- all with a dramatic shift away from respecting individual freedom and personal responsibility toward imposing public assistance and government control.

“We’re not in America anymore.”