Sunday, November 2, 2008

No, the sky is not falling...

I went up to the Town Center this afternoon and saw something very interesting. Lots and LOTS of people. People everywhere, walking around with their shopping bags and their lattes from Starbucks. If it weren't for the news telling me otherwise, I would never have known we were in the midst of "the worst time since the Great Depression". Seeing that today leaves me with two possible explanations - either people are in denial OR maybe things really aren't that bad. Hmm.

Lest I sound insenstive, I know there are a lot of people out there struggling right now. Just last week, several people we know lost their jobs and I'm sure we'll see more in the weeks to come. I'm not suggesting that things are peachy keen. It's just that I think a lot of what we're hearing is a little blown out of proportion. Yes, the stock market it had it's worst one month decline in it's history (14% loss). But, it's ONE MONTH people! It's not the end of the world! The news has a difficult time reporting anything but the hear and now. They fail to put things into perspective most of the time. So, here's one nuggest for some perspective - Did you know that since 1994, the stock market is up nearly 57%? And that's as of the close of our "worst month ever".

All this to say... Based on what I saw today at the mall and the basic numbers I mentioned above, I don't think we're anywhere close to being able to compare this to the Great Depression. But, hey, it makes for some great political soap box's for our Presidential candidates.

Anywhoooo... I doubt anyone cares about my rants on the economy. So, I promise -next post will be back to "A Day in the Life of a Mom" and some new family pics!

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