It's about time to tuck some emergency money under the mattress.
.
.
I'm not kidding. I was in New Orleans three weeks after Hurricane Katrina. No banks, no ATM's, no services.
If you had cash, and you were lucky, you were definitely ahead of the game.
.
As for the culprits in this mess, there's plenty of blame to go around. Time to stop living off credit cards.
To save before you spend. To discipline (regulate) the grubby fingers of Wall Street,
CEO's, and lenders who took their profits and ran.
And to face up and change the real two party system:
the one that says it's either black or white,
right or wrong, Democrat or Republican.
.
Trying to solve problems through the len of dualities
("If it's this, it can't be that; I'm right, you're wrong")
divides. And division is not what's needed in our
complicated interconnected international community.
.
We need each other.
.
It's about time.
I must admit that I find it incomprehensible that your country only has two political parties.
ReplyDeleteI hope the future is not as dark as it appears to be at the moment.
Fingers crossed.
True it all seems very black and white in america. Then we also have only 2 major politial parties but the Senate is varied with smaller reps and independents, that's where it counts, that's where law is passed. I agree KJ a little collusion between foes would be an amazing and generous thing. Although it seems that many Americans are against what they see as the nanny state. Someone needs to regulate against credit. Every time my card approaches it's limit, I'm offered more that I can ill afford.
ReplyDeletemiladysa, fingers crossed indeed. investments and retirement planning are down an average of 30%. maybe i should have spent that lost money already!
ReplyDeletebaino, hmmmmm: what is the nanny state? if it's caretaking, i wonder often what's needed to create the kind of self reliance and independence that's needed among people who are otherwise power-less....
Credit only works if it's a convenience and you are able to pay it back immediately. We're in trouble and I am so afraid it will only get worse.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the New Yorker cartoon where a man is being advised to "diversify" his investments and spread his money out between several mattresses in his house? :) And there are some who still question the recession ... ugh. Meanwhile there were two suicides in the news this week -- one woman couldn't pay her mortgage and the other couldn't find a job and he killed himself and his entire family. Something has to give ...
ReplyDeletecs, time to make do and make new..
ReplyDeletemelissa, what a mess! my financial friend says the effects of this will probably extend 10-15 years.
Political correctness is ruining our county, first it was education, now mortgage. We have this false sense of entitlement that it is our inalienable right to own a home even if we cannot afford to pay for it. To all those social architects who thought that it is a good idea to lend money to people who can't afford to pay, then force banks to issue sub-prime loans, those CEOs who made millions and lied about their company's assets (starting with Franklin Raines), The congressmen (Braney Frank) and senators (Schumer, Dodd) who accepted millions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack, I hope the sword of justice will soon find their heads. Congress is as corrupt as third wold and African countries. I am so sick of entitlements, demagoguery, graft and corruption. Since the Americans who lived during the depression are aging and dying and our young generation is growing up with a swollen sense of entitlemnent, perhaps we need another depression to teach us all a lesson. Winston Chruchill once said, that Americans will ultimately do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the possibilities. I hope we are soon finished with our social, political and moral experimentations but we are jus now getting into the worst part of it. Our country is so divided, both coasts are extremely liberal and socialist that perhaps it won't be such a bad idea if they just created their own country so those in middle America did not have to fund their ruinous socialist programs.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteces, i don't think the folks in middle america chicago and des moines and denver would necessarily agree with you about forming a different country. and what could be more socialist than a 300 billion dollar mortgage buyback program? the lot of them are the problem, not one side or the other.
ReplyDeleteI remember back in '90 when Michael (Junk Bond King) Milken had to write a cheque for $200 Million to pay his fine and spent a few years in the 'country club' prison.
ReplyDeleteI hope that some of these current scoundrels get hit where it hurts..
although Milken is still worth over $2Billion.
It's time to storm the Bastille.
It was a 700 billion bailout and not far from 1 trillion, they are not finished either. You are right. We need to think of what to do with those three cities, maybe they can build a wall around their cities. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's actually quite sad. Like Fred Thompson said last Sunday at the conference, the first thing the next elected president would do is ask for a recount!
I am only hopeful because for the past three days I was with 7,000 Americans and several foreigners who were innovative, intelligent and wowed each other with their smart, creative and useful ideas that serve humanity. The reason for the success - government had nothing to do with it. In fact the ingenuity and ideas were stimulated by a failed government policy. There were two topics about government - both focusing on its unsustainable Medicare program and Medicaid entitlements.