As fatiqued as I am with the economy and the election, I find myself taken in by the news.  It’s sad to think that If I just kept the radio off, didn’t turn on the TV, or check the CNN webpage, I wouldn’t have a clue that anything is wrong and would be happily going on with my life.  But I’m hooked and I can’t wait to see what going to happen next.

It’s clear to me that the American people are angry and that many people don’t understand how this involves them and why this impacts them. Wallstreet is the stuff of rich people and fantasies and, therefore, totally disconnected to “Mainstreet.”  It’s hard to understand that much of this paper we call money doesn’t actually exist.  Rather credits are shuffled around thouands of a times every second, one institution borrowing from another, betting that their longer term loans will make more than their short term borrowing.  Little do people understand that their company may not have the actual paper money to pay them, but rather their salaries are paid by weekly or bi-weekly short term loans.  Well, what if your company can’t get that loan to pay you?  And if you don’t get paid, then you can’t pay those institutions you owe.  It’s a big chain of debt, held up by the belief that everyone will get paid in the end and that these credits we are trading are real — as in we can trade them in for something and that something keeps increasing indefinitely.  Gold, perhaps, … well, it’s been a while since the US dollar was attached to gold.  Some would say that the dollar is attached to oil.  I personally would say that it is attached to the belief and hope that the US is fundamentally good, stable, and strong.  I don’t want to lay blame, though, however, I will remark that the hand basket we’re in, while pretty, is getting a little toasty.

And so I think, what would happen if I turned off all the media.  Would my husband lose his job?  Would we not find a buyer for our house?  Would we move in with my parents who’s money is guarenteed by a pension from a bankrupt government that we know nothing about?  Where would everyone live if they had no money and no house.  3-months from now after we’ve defaulted on our loans, will we all just step outside and sleep on our lawns?  and give back our cars to non-existent dealers?  When I think like this, something on this scale becomes meaningless.  Of course that couldn’t happen.  It would mean that all the money evaporated … ah, but you see, it never existed in the first place.  That’s what’s so funny.  An economy based on the faith and the hope of a country’s goodness, stability, and strength and we’ve all collectively lost faith and are at present holding out for hope.  These are interesting time we are living in.  I can’t wait to see how the story ends.