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Global Financial Collapse: Reality show that's a little too real.Thursday, October 9, 2008
I was a little bleary-eyed when I came into work today because I've been up late each night watching the most riveting thing on television — Global Financial Collapse. It's on 24 hours a day, it is on several channels and watching it means I don't have to listen to talking heads endlessly rattling on about what Sen. John McCain meant when he called U.S. Sen. Barack Obama "that one" during the recent debate. I get up in the morning, I turn on CNBC. I get home, I turn on CNBC. After the late night news (including the Daily Show), I turn on Bloomberg Business Channel. So I follow bad news from New York to Tokyo to London and back again. I used to be so happy. I would watch old movies on Turner Classic Movies, sports on ESPN and car races on SPEED channel. And you know what? I think this show is going to be picked up for a full season. Even though every day seems like a rerun. Stocks tumbled again today in New York, with the Dow Jones Industrial average dropping more than 660 points to close at 8,586. At that rate, as one commentator noted in a moment of black humor on CNBC after the 500 point fall on Monday, there are 13 trading days left until the Dow is at zero. That, the sarcastic prognosticator said, will be a "buying opportunity." Many people think journalists are biased. Well, we are. We have a bias toward big events, bad news and blatant public stupidity. Like a never ending series of train wrecks, the collapse has all those elements. There's no doubting it's big. And it's bad. By whatever measure you use, this collapse is historic in size and will have long-lasting, horrible impacts. You may not lose your job, but over the next year be glad if your pay isn't cut. Forget about a raise. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that over the past 15 months, pension plans have lost $2 trillion in value. That's money that used to be in my 401(k), your 401(k) and the investment accounts holding pension funds, public and private, operated by employers. Even before today's steep decline, the stock market crash since the October 2007 high of 14,000-plus on the Dow Jones Industrial Index is the worst decline since 1937. And the public stupidity? I can't decide which is more appalling — the inability of our government and others around the world to stem the slide — despite $1.7 TRILLION in bailout money from the U.S. alone — or the blindness to the growing problem that calls into question whether Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson or Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke have the basic competence to balance a checkbook. I hate to be so negative. I really don't have much in the way of investments, except my 401(k). But I don't want to stand in soup lines, either.
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Rudi Keller is a reporter with 19 years experience covering government from city councils to the Missouri Legislature and politics from school board races to statewide political campaigns. A native of Louisville, Ky., Keller has worked at the Southeast Missourian since July 2005.
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Rudi: Good column well said. I know this is very serious and all of us should expect the worse to come. I been doing the same thing you have watching all of this each and every day and I can tell you this we are in trouble. I hope and pray there is a miracle out there some where, but chances of that is very "slim" at this point. But, remember this when we come out of this some day we will no doubt be stronger and smarter then we ever have. The great depression produced the "golden generation" one of the greatest generations of all time.
Rudi great post! Lumpy very well said. "Good enough" sounds like the motto of 95% of my generation. I will say this, many people think those comforts you mention are necessities which speaks volumes. Cell phones, cable/sattelite, new car every 2 or 3 years, multiple times dining out each week/month, huge shopping trips on unnecessary things using credit cards they can't pay off. Personal accountibility and responsibility for ones actions seem to be myths or lessons long lost for the majority of the country today.
Rudi, thanks for your excellent post.
I have been through some rough times of my own doing. I have and can live on bologna sandwiches and Smak Ramen noodles. I worry about my kids in these times.
I hope that cancelling cable and using last year's backpack is as bad as it gets. I'm afraid that we are losing so much more than comfort though.
I don't, never did actually, buy into Paulson and Bernanke's "dumb" act. These are very intelligent, and dangerous people who know exactly what they are doing.
Thanks to the big bailout package passed by our "represntatives" last week, Paulson and Bernanke now have unfettered power; they answer to no one and can do what they want, when they want.
Has anyone noticed that most "deals" are made in the dead of night or after everyone has gone home for the weekend?
Not that it would matter. The public is stupid. As long as we get Dancing With the Stars and a lukewarm pizza on Friday night we are content. "Good Enough" is the new mantra.
We have no choice in elections. Only the very old and the very ignorant get exited to vote for their candidate. Most of us sit at home lamenting over the fact that it is of no use.
AND THAT IS THE WAY THEY WANT IT!
I fear that America has lost it's soul. Liberty is dying and her citizens only ask for more rule.
I don't know where this is leading. The optimist in me says that if things settle down we may come out of this stronger and in better shape than when we went in. I can see a return to the values of saving and living within your means returning, and a strong manufacturing base.
Unfortunately, I have lost all faith in humanity.
The easy way is the chosen path. Raise my kids, buy my house, feed me, keep me healthy; this is what people have become used to over the past several decades.
The line is drawn. It is faint, but one cannot ignore it. Liberty or tyranny, individualism or collectivism. These are the choices that face us as a nation as we contemplate who our next "leader" is going to be.
I don't know who our next leader is going to be. I do know that it will NOT be McCain or Obama.
sorry for the double post
Make that 2 people...and I'd also like to hear your thoughts on Uber's 2nd question....
Oh, and most of what you say James, my father said to me when I was 14 and too young to care. Now I wish I had listened more closely.
Make that 2 people...and I'd also like to hear your thoughts on Uber's 2nd question....
Oh, and most of what you say James, my father said to me when I was 14 and too young to care. Now I wish I had listened more closely.
My pleasure. It's always nice to find a moral though in all the other sewage.
I have two questions for you, James. The first may seem rhetorical, but begs the second.
How is it that so many individuals have not come to the realization you and I have found?
How could our society ever transition from state schools to entirely private education?
Thank you uberfan20, I appreciate that
James,
I haven't heard the truth more simply and elegantly stated anywhere on any message board.
Thanks.
Know that there is at least one man two generations behind you that believes in exactly the same fashion. I will do my best to carry the torch as you most undoubtedly have.
Rudi, I,m retired and have watched my retirement cut severely, but worry more about the politics shaped by this event than I do about my IRA. I worry about calls for drastic political action as happen in the thirties. Roosevelt's love affair with fascism nearly became a reality for Americans. Today, my fear is national socialism. With leaders in both political parties shoving in that direction, it just might become reality.
I hope that Americans keep a cool head during this crisis, and remember without fascism or national socialism we will return to the productive nation that we were.
Let the marketplace solve what needs to be solved. Government redistributing wealth is not the answer.
technically you haven't lost any money unless you sold.
As long as you aren't planning on retiring in the next couple years you should not even by stressing out.
technically you haven't lost any money unless you sold.
As long as you aren't planning on retiring in the next couple years you should not even by stressing out.