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Tuesday, October 7. 2008
Crazy Man
Bad news on the horizon. No kidding. Just heard that on MSNBC this morning. But, maybe the networks have to keep pounding that message. It doesn’t appear most Americans have a grasp of what’s going to happen with the collapse of the markets here and around the world.The bailout bill passed and signed by our government didn’t end the crisis, although some people directly involved in it really gave that impression. Senator McCain in particular talked about solving this crisis when he claimed to be “suspending” his campaign to phone in his participation.
Of course he would want to “solve” the crisis before the election. As long as the economy is the main topic of conversation, his numbers fall in the polls. And if he can convince the voters the crisis is over, then he stands a chance of winning the presidency — as long as he keeps hitting the negative campaigning, something McCain said he wasn’t going to engage in when he started his campaign. But, the financial crisis won’t be going away anytime soon. This will continue for years, well into my once envisioned retirement years.
Retirement years … °sigh° … remember when we would look forward to retirement?
The Dow dropped below 10,000 for the first time in four years on Monday, first falling over 800 points and finishing with a session loss over 300 points. The big stock tip no one really wants to talk about, except for the crazy and honest: if you need your money in the next five years, pull it out of the stock market. What’s left of your money in the stock market. Jim Cramer, the crazy man on CNBC told us that a couple days ago and he’s been getting a lot of shit for doing so because it’s so … so … true …But this is America, truth is not an option! If you take your money out of the stock market, it will confirm what the markets are currently telling us: our economy is in recession, nay, a depression!
Lately, I’ve stopped looking at the balance sheet for my IRA. Quite frankly, I’m like every other American. The truth is killing me.
Back to Cramer. A year ago he told us the credit crisis was going to be Armageddon and the entire financial system of the world would collapse as a result. A year ago Jim Cramer caught a lot of hell for telling us that because it was such a negative pronouncement, antithetical to the American “we can do anything!” positive attitude! Jim Cramer is too negative! I even asked a friend about it a year ago and my friend’s opinion of Cramer was that he wasn’t to be trusted; Cramer’s opinion was suspect because he was on a television show trying to get ratings.
Turns out Jim Cramer was right. Maybe it’s time to review my IRA portfolio, although Cramer says that if I’m not planning to use my IRA in the next five years, leave it alone. Well, okay, I’ll do that, but I wanna get in on the misery too so I’ll check it out — and then cry a little. Pension plans have lost two trillion dollars in the past 15 months. °sigh°Just watched the president give his little press conference Tuesday Morning. He even took questions. He looked worried, even scared at times. Americans don’t want to see their president looking scared. Bush even got animated explaining why he just put American taxpayers on the hook for at least $700 billion.
He did so just after Chairman of the Fed Ben Bernanke told us this crisis would stall the economy well into next year — personally, I think he’s being overly optimistic — in his words, “Overall, the combination of the incoming data and recent financial developments suggests that the outlook for economic growth has worsened and that the downside risks to growth have increased.”
He also said the bailout bill prevented an exponentially worse outcome. On the one hand, the president is telling us to remain positive and on the other, the chairman of the Fed is telling us there’s not much to get excited about in the economy.
In just a few hours from now, as I write, Senators Obama and McCain will be “debating,” essentially taking questions from undecided voters, as selected by the Gallup organization. That should be interesting. How many questions will be about the economy? Will moderator Tom Brokaw (NBC) skew the questions so they aren’t heavily about the economy? Even though for 80% of Americans, this is the major issue and think the United States is heading in the wrong direction. If the questions are predominantly about the economy, it assists Senator Obama. If Brokaw chooses to balance the various issues, including Bush’s war in Iraq and National Security in general, that could level the playing field.
Frankly, our men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan have largely been forgotten in this financial crisis. There hasn’t been any news from Iraq in a long, long time. It seems longer still when we have grown accustomed to the 24-hour news cycle.Of note: turkey will extend its mandate to invade Northern Iraq to punish Kurdish rebels who killed 17 in Turkey. Wonder how that plays into the security pact negotiations going on in Baghdad.
“What negotiations,” you ask?
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the U.S. and Iraq are “very close” to a joint security agreement. He’s meeting with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, but disagreement still exists, especially on the issue of whether U.S. service people can be subject to Iraqi laws and the Iraqi judicial system.
Americans are still serving and getting wounded and dying in Iraq. As of today, (October 7), 4,181 American men and women have died in Iraq and the list keeps growing. Iraq was the issue that catapulted Senator Obama to the top of the Democratic ticket. It is a disservice to them to forget their service for us when we wrangle over the financial crisis here at home.
Let’s keep them in our hearts during this ugly time.
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