I read Pat Santy’s article on Pajamas this morning and took her advice. Don’t blame others. Do what you can for yourself in this time of financial crisis.
Well, exercise is something I can do for myself. As we’re told, it fights everything from a creeping waist line to Alzheimer’s. So I flicked on the television for diversion and off I went on my trusty elipse machine. But as it happens, Neil Cavuto was on. Non-stop bailout talk. Panic in the streets. G-8 can’t get along. No one knows if we’ve hit bottom.
Keep pedaling, Simon, I think. You’re shedding calories (a few raisins’ worth anyway). And spitting out a few endorphins. Who cares about your pension fund? You didn’t want to retire anyway. You know those stats about people who retire – how they die younger.
Still, anxiety creeps in. What’s with this bailout? Does it make any sense? Why not let the markets work? You’ve got to pay for it in the end. But then there’s this liquidity crisis. No one can get a loan. Society grinds to a standstill. What to do? What to do? Nobody seems to know. Nancy Pelosi, of all people, is going to make a speech about this on Monday. Does anybody think she can pass a basic math test… actually define what a derivative is (in calculus or stock terms)? The mind reels. I go back to Econ 1 at Dartmouth, trying to remember what it said in Samuelson. But did Samuelson know anything? What about Marx? Milton Friedman? Keep pedaling – it’s all in the mind. Keep focused. Remember Oscar Wilde: “We’re all lying in the gutter, but some us are looking at the stars.”
But does somebody out there really understand what to do? Or is it all illusion? [If all comes to naught, you can sell that fancy elipse machine on eBay.-ed. For what? A tenth of what I paid for it? Well, you said it yourself - "Everything Must Go!"]
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17 Comments
1. Charlie (Colorado):Remember John Dillinger’s advice: “Everybody lie down on the floor and keep calm.”
Oct 11, 2008 - 9:59 am 2. Anita Hope:E-bay is and will be on overload so keep the elipse machine and peddle away the stress as you watch the slow, very slow ups & downs and then the slow
Oct 11, 2008 - 10:02 am 3. Minerva:turn around. Oscar Wilde was a man of words that spoke so many verse’s of wisdom, thanks for the quote, it gives rise to “hope” that more will look up
and stop to see the sky is still blue, the grass is green and life will be different but good again. Keep on bringing people the opportunity to vent their
viewpoint’s, for so long our voices were unheard. It gives reason for further education and taking charge of how much we do count as citizens, a real
stimulation. Yes, keep pedaling, even after the 30’s we still came back and we will again.
Dear Roger:
You are doing the right thing — but turn off the television and balance a book on the machine. Play with the grandkid(s). Just finished Barbara Tuchman’s Stilwell and the American Experience in China, myself. Talk about one man remaining calm in adversity! VDH’s column today summed it up. George Will’s calling Gov. Palin “Sancho Panza” won’t appease his Georgetown neighbors. Maybe he will Cervantes someday. Rama’s supporters and the rats jumping ship will learn as CBS’s Dean Reynolds wrote this week, what goes around comes around.
Oct 11, 2008 - 11:01 am 4. srlucado:Remember Oscar Wilde: “We’re all lying in the gutter, but some us are looking at the stars.”
I thought that was Pet Shop Boys. (Well, same difference.)
Just finished Barbara Tuchman’s Stilwell and the American Experience in China, myself. Talk about one man remaining calm in adversity!
Great book, Minerva (though just about anything by Tuchman is fabulous; have you read “A Distant Mirror”?).
Anyway, a panic is just that – a panic. That we’re living through one doesn’t mean we have to join in the hysteria.
I remember the 1992 election, when the media was reporting on how rotten the economy was, and it was all George HW Bush’s fault. I was stuck in traffic on my way to work one day and thought, “If things are so bad, where are all these people going? On their way to non-existent jobs?”
And now, if there’s really such a “frozen” credit market, why do I keep getting near-zero interest rate offers from credit cards, stores, and car dealerships?
People are still getting mortgages – more of them last month than the month before, in fact.
The global economy has been fueled by garbage for years now, and it will take some time and some pain to sort out.
But it’ll be okay. Another Great Depression is not on the horizon. Today’s workforce is more flexible, more productive, and far more entrepreneurial than what America had 75 years ago.
The biggest risk I see is government’s urge to keep “doing something”; that’s really putting out a fire with gasoline.
Scott
Oct 11, 2008 - 1:03 pm 5. Eric R.:Roger,
Off-topic, but you were wrong when you said Brad and Angie were pro-McCain.
Ms. Jolie came out for the Messiah yesterday.
I guess your sources were not reliable.
Oct 11, 2008 - 2:35 pm 6. heather:to quote “Recessional”:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;…
…Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son.”
by Rudyard Kipling.
ok, it’s sexist… but aside from that, it is true. I am going to pay my grandchildren a lot of money to memorize that poem.
Oct 11, 2008 - 2:38 pm 7. heather:ooops. NOT “Recessional”: but “If”
Oct 11, 2008 - 2:59 pm 8. Brent:sorry.
This isn’t the first time that we have gotten sideways, but now that we are more interconnected and bought in to the market, it just seems worse than ever.
It is not worse than ever. Pull back and take a walk. Clear the head and think about what makes us whom we are. In uncertain times it is best to go back to what has worked previously, i.e. principles (self-reliance, shared community, laws & accountability, trust in friends, family and partners, oh and humor).
Do your job and focus on taking care of your partners and family. Be honest. Work a little longer and harder. Extend a hand where you can. Pray. And never give up!
Prediction: Energy Technology will massively alter the goepolitical landscape within the next 5 years. Western powers (USA, Germany, Japan) will shed the hydrocarbon leeches and Iran, Venezuela, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, the UAE and Nigeria will find that they have miscalculated badly.
This isn’t the end. It is a new start. Our fortitude will determine where we go from here.
Oct 11, 2008 - 5:13 pm 9. vb:Heather,
Oct 11, 2008 - 5:59 pm 10. ic:Buy him “The Dangerous Book For Boys” and he’ll learn it without a bribe. He might even write it out for you in self-produced invisible ink.
Don’t you know when a Democrat is installed in the White House, all will be well?
Day in and day out in the 1992 election, America was consumed with unemployment crisis, health care crisis, homeless people clogging the streets. As soon as the election was won, the sun came out, the tides of crises receded.
Oct 11, 2008 - 10:37 pm 11. Lightnin' Hopkins:srlucado: or was it the Pretenders (”Message of Love”)?
Other than that, what Brent said. I just spent 3 hours at the local ER with a relative (everyone’s fine, thanks), watching our “broken” health care system work remarkably well, considering every one of us – doctors and nurses included – is supposed to be in the full-on throes of unbridled panic.
As Brent put it, “take a walk,” crack a smile, make a sandwich. Sure, your toothbrush is probably still a silent killer, and coffee is bad for you – this week anyway. It’s still a free country. So go ahead and have a cup, buy a little stock (cheap!), and don’t forget to vote McCain to block on Nov. 4th.
I like this thread. No angry bots calling anyone a racist. There’s some fresh air for you, right there.
Oct 11, 2008 - 10:51 pm 12. Capn Eddie Ricketyback:Re: heather Oct 11, 2008 – 2:38 pm
Here’s my version:
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…
You probably don’t understand the situation.
–Capn Eddie
Oct 12, 2008 - 7:03 am 13. buddy larsen:Nice, nice writing, Roger –not the topic, just the literature (or litter-tour, as it were). I was going along there enjoying the piece and all of a sudden re the familiar Samuelson, “But did Samuelson know anything?” –and whoosh, topic and reality synch up and i like ta sh*t a brick –or another one that is.
Oct 12, 2008 - 12:49 pm 14. buddy larsen:o/t [apologies] yo Promoguy –howya doing? See that game? and them rankin’s?
Oct 12, 2008 - 1:26 pm 15. david foster:“Does anybody think (Pelosi) can pass a basic math test… actually define what a derivative is (in calculus or stock terms)?” Doubt it, given that this is the woman who didn’t seem to grasp that natural gas is a fossil fuel.
Regarding the “rescue plan,” I worry about the whole idea of focusing the efforts & funding on the banks that are weak. Since the objective is to keep the broader economy moving, not to establish stasis in the banking industry, maybe it would be a good idea to lend the money to banks that have shown they are likely to put it to good use.
Oct 12, 2008 - 4:51 pm 16. miriam:Did anyone ever break it to Nancy that natural gas is a fossil fuel? It seems a little unkind to shatter her hopes and dreams.
Oct 12, 2008 - 7:51 pm 17. Promoguy:ot back to buddy.
Have to tell you that it was a first that I was actually rooting for a Tejas team. Now if only Missouri can get back on track and take care of business this weekend.
Oct 13, 2008 - 8:24 am