Economics...how stimulating!

Wow, what an amazing day! It got up to at least 55 degrees here, and an incredible amount of snow has melted. I can see patches of lawn! Ken washed his Mustang! I went out without a jacket! I have one more day of taking care of Shane's kitties, and there's a car wash on the way. I'm going to get Slick washed tomorrow. We know they'll get dirty again soon enough, but it's important to wash all the salt from the roads off of cars as soon as possible. It's rough on cars.

I just got the ribs in the oven, so they can cook for a few hours (we eat late). As I was cutting the slab in half, Ken asked, "What are you having?" Hardy-har. These look pretty meaty, so I think there will be plenty!

Uh oh...looks like A-Rod is A-Roid. Tsk tsk.

Well, it looks like they're getting closer to agreeing on a stimulus package. I know some of you won't agree with me, and that's okay by me, but I believe this is necessary to "prime the pump" and get things flowing again. The downturn is a vicious cycle, a snake that eats its tail: people caught in the crunch spend less on goods and services; businesses losing money cut back on workers and/or hours; people cut back more on goods and services because they have less take-home pay; businesses cut back further. And on and on and on. I'm no economist, but it seems to me that unless we jumpstart things, it's going to cycle down and down until the problem becomes even worse.

Actually, I think it will get considerably worse in the coming months, and I hope no one thinks this stimulus package is going to magically erase our woes overnight. It took years to get into this mess, and it's going to take years to get out. But I believe that if we invest money now in repairs and improvements, it will create desperately needed jobs. I mentioned yesterday that our neighboring county now has a 15% unemployment rate. That is frightening. And I think we need to keep in mind that there are real people behind all these numbers. It's easy to toss around numbers like 15%, or 50,000 more jobs lost...those aren't just jobs, those are people (one of that 15% is my brother-in-law). People who might lose their homes, or be unable to pay for needed medicines and health care, or who can't pay their heating bills.

Would the market eventually correct itself? I would think so. That seems logical. But can we really afford to wait a couple of decades for it to reach an equilibrium? Not when there are people suffering, and I believe some are suffering.

Having said all that, I will say that we, as consumers, definitely need to rethink our crazy behavior. Plenty of people have been living large for quite a while now, and it's time to stop the insanity. I took an Economics class in high school, and a Personal Finance class in college. Is that even taught in high school anymore? And my college class was an elective. Let's make these things mandatory, and maybe our future generations won't make the same bonehead mistakes we've made. I'm not pointing fingers at any particular party, either (although you probably can guess who I would point at the most for deregulation...and with the biggest finger). The blame crosses party lines, and the solution has to as well.

I had no problem with the Republicans wanting to cut some of the stuff out of the bill. Focus on job creation, because that is definitely the most crucial thing here. But keep in mind that what might look like it would squeal if you poked it could very well be something that does create jobs. (For example, Dan said that a friend ridiculed the grass seeding of the Mall in D.C. Dan pointed out that it would mean hiring a local company to put down the seed. Job creation.) Everyone, especially those companies getting money, also needs to keep in mind that this is not a handout, it's a loan that will need to be repaid. That's why I had no problem with the President setting a limit of $500,000 on some executives' salaries, those from the companies who are getting a piece of the pie, until the loan is repaid. That's not enough for managing a company that deals with billions of dollars? They need to pay the big salaries to attract the best people? As Craig Ferguson said, "Cry me a fucking river." Tighten your belt the way so many others are having to do because of your mismanagement. If you budget wisely, I think you can live on half a million a year!

I was telling Ken today that it really is kind of amazing to be living during this time. It's historical, but in such a bad way. My great hope is that we, both personally and collectively, will eventually emerge from this having learned an invaluable lesson. We have to be smart with our own spending and with our finances, and we have to keep an eye on--while doing our best to keep our hands off of--the practices of the financial world. I believe we can get out of this...but as Bette said, fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night.