Are you worried about the financial crisis? I can't sleep.

[calmblueocean]

You know how it is. You start reading articles on the internet, and the more you read, the worse things look.

BILL MOYERS:But this is disturbing, George. If everything we're doing keeps accelerating the downward negative feedback and isn't working, are you suggesting, can one insinuate from what you say that we're heading for 1930?

GEORGE SOROS:Hopefully not. But we are heading for undoubtedly very difficult times. This is the end of an era. And this is a fact.

BILL MOYERS:End of an era?

GEORGE SOROS:At the end of an era.

BILL MOYERS:Capitalism as we have known it?

GEORGE SOROS:No. No, no, no. Hopefully, capitalism will survive.

-- http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10102008/watch.html

"Hopefully?" "The end of an era?"

The White House is now "re-tooling" the bailout plan, because the markets didn't respond to it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/business/12imf.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&src=igw&oref=slogin

It feels like the government is slowly realizing that solving this crisis and stopping the markets from crashing is beyond their capability. And I keep wondering what that's going to really mean for the economy if that's true.


How many businesses will end up collapsing because they can't meet payroll, or must lay off large numbers of workers to do it? Will it happen to my wife and me? What would we do if it did? We don't have much saved up. We rent. What if no one is hiring once the markets tumble? What would we do if they evicted us?

Then I broaden it to thinking about my friends and relatives, even folks I don't know. What will all the senior citizens out there who are counting on their investments do when the market dries up? If they can't pay the mortgage, and they can't sell the house, and they get foreclosed on, where will they go? How will they live?

Yeah, I know... a lot of what ifs. But what-iffing is what you do when you feel powerless to solve a problem that's going to affect you.

It feels like we're living in a very portentous moment right now. Like these might be the last days we can pretend everything's gonna be fine. I don't trust Bernanke or Paulson or any of Bush's people in the Treasury Dept. to do the right things to get us out of this safely. After 9/11, after Iraq, after Katrina... how could anyone?

Never thought I'd live through something like this. Whatever happens, I try to remind myself that we're all going to be in this together as a nation, and that's a good thing. Obama is going to be president, and that's a good thing, too. I don't envy him the job he finds when he takes office, but I know he will work with the best interests of everyday people in mind, and not the banks or Wall Street. I know it in part because I've been reading "Dreams of my Father", where his compassion and intellect shine through. I just hope the bigots and haters on the right will let him do the job he needs to do. I have my doubts.

Anyway, I hope that this post ends up being a failed prediction. I hope I'm wrong about all this. I hope Bush and Bernanke and Paulson kick ass and dream up phenomenal plans that save the day. But have they ever?

Are you worried?