Friday, October 10, 2008

Worldwide Economic Disaster

Did that catch your eye? It's catching mine in the news media. The thing is, of COURSE markets are going to fall, or rather recalibrate here. The entire engine has been running a little ahead of itself lately, with the TRUE value of assets bought, sold, and traded far beyond their real net worth. The shit has just hit the proverbial fan here, and the value of assets are coming back into a more realistic place.

The more difficult question remains: how does this actually affect us ordinary, every-day citizens? Certainly those of us tied to a corporate reality in one or several ways are going to feel effects. But really, for ME, well, I don't own any stocks, nor is any of my money in large, corporate banks. I rarely shop in corporate businesses. And I live in a small community of 250 people. Life here is not different at all really, except that we're all talking about it. Well, and gas prices continue to fluctuate wildly.

The other question I have is how long all this is going to go on? The worry, yes, and also the hype. Let's just get down to business, for goodness sakes, and pull ourselves out of the mess. There's a lot of important good work to do...like retooling our entire energy economy for sustainable sources. Now there's a meaningful purpose full of economic promise for America: create jobs, clean up the environment, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and therefore our need for overseas wars which drain our budget, et. al. It's not really that complicated. Seriously.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Amanda, I like to slightly rephrase the fan comment to the SHIFT has hit the fan. sounds a bit better, huh? Also a very real thing folks in Petrolia will need to prepare for is the eventuality of a barely passable road network to town. The wildcat is one of the most expensive, least travelled (with respect to major highways) and most frequently maintained roads in the county and once federal and state $$$ really slow down, so will our drivable roads. So it would be great for Petrolia folk to take stock in medical supplies, hard goods and storable groceries..kind of like some folks did for Y2K. Let's see, what else do we drive to town for? You get the pic and thanks again for your wonderful blog, am really enjoying it, especially that Ella!!! Love, ali

Amanda said...

You are so right, Ali. Sometimes I think of this too, and worry about it. I definitely realize that at some point, the road will no longer be passable, and if we want to leave, we will have to do it on horseback as in days of old! A two day journey to town! Yikes! Might affect the times of year folks actually do it, eh?