Saturday, October 04, 2008

Financial Stuff

It's been a busy couple of weeks - lots of work and I took a business trip out to New Jersey which was awesome. I've just been too tired to hop on the Internet!

I am absolutely furious and flabbergasted that the bailout bill passed Congress. The government took advantage of people's fears to push through a law that will do nothing. In fact, already this morning there was news that the banks are saying the $800 billion was not enough money and they want more. They'll be like baby birds now - they'll want more and more and more. Not to mention, where is the line drawn? When GM starts to go under, will the government step in to save them?

They use the "falling market" to scare people. All the stock market shows is consumer confidence, nothing more. People who learned (incorrectly) in high school that the stock market drop caused the Great Depression are scared crapless that when the Dow keeps dropping that it will kick us into a depression. In fact, economists have been saying for years that the late 1990's and early 2000's reflect the 1920's quite a bit - overuse and overextension of credit, huge decrease in savings, etc. They have been saying for quite awhile that unless the credit was brought under control, we were facing another depression. Welcome to the future.

The gov buying a trillion dollars worth of bad debt is not going to stop that from happening. The bailout bill (I refuse to call it any type of law that will help me, because it will NOT) helps big bankers who made loans to people who should not have gotten loans...and the banks knew it. Not to mention that the banks knew this was coming. It was not a surprise.

We are so screwed.

We are in for scary economic times, and I really hate the fact that we're going into them with so much debt. Our own fault, of course. I just wish we'd focused more. I will probably start to focus on Ebay a little more again. As tiring as it will be, we need to get stuff out, and the money will help.

(I really do hope I'm wrong...but I don't think I am. I'm just really glad that my job (teacher) is pretty recession-proof.)



On brighter notes, I am going to hit Kmart tomorrow for super double couponing. I'm very excited - I need to see what coupons I have available. I am giving myself $12 out of pocket from the grocery envelope. How much do you think I can get? :)

2 comments:

)'( ~Couture~ )'( said...

This was a great post! There is so much turbulence in the market today, and people need peace of mind more than ever. I follow Dave Ramsey, and really love his work. I wanted to offer your readers a link to another blogger who is doing great work. He writes about our 'childhood money messages' and how the best approach to stability in today's market is to resist letting these emotions control our buying/selling habits. It is really fascinating work, and something you should all check out. His name is Spencer Sherman, and you can view his blog at http://www.curemoneymadness.com/blog.

Keep up the good work!
Lacey

Jennifer said...

It's true. All this talk has scared me.