Economic Crisis 2008: Where the US Economy is going
October 16th, 2008 | by alexis |
So, like most, my thoughts have been on where the US economy is right now and where we are headed. We’ve known this was coming for years. Unqualified home buyers in bulk. Large mortgage companies collapsing. Credit Card Debt out of control. Spending 3 trillion on the war in Iraq.
Last week, we got notice that Bank of America pulled it’s credit card offers from affiliate networks. So no new cards. There’s also a lot of buzz on the internet about Bank of America closing as many as 60% of credit card accounts of people with good credit histories.
The thing is — It still doesn’t seem like it has hit nearly as hard as it is going to. The issue of how to handle the past due mortgages and those being foreclosed on is getting closer and closer. As an owner of a couple of homes that’s never been late, it’s a frustrating issue. While part of me gets upset that people who should have never qualified for a mortgage may get a free pass, do we really want millions of homes foreclosed on? What’s worse, someone getting away with not paying or overall real estate values getting hit with a sledgehammer?
Oh yea, that whole spending stimulus earlier this year never struck me as a good idea. It always seemed like a putting a band-aid on a staph infection. You get people with maxed out credit lines and overdue bills buying new LCD TV’s. That’s a rant for another day though.
The bottom line, I think, is that there is no easy way out. We still have a high quality of living overall. Now is the time to really rally to preserve that, and I think we are going to see many more Wachovia’s across different industries. The thing is, how can we save some, let some drown and then start new businesses. If everyone is so scared of the economy that they wait to begin new business ventures we are in trouble.
I think at some level the solution lies in encouraging growth in the small business sector because that’s always been what differentiates the US from other economic powers. We are a country of small business owners, and that ownership gives us a reason to fight. Here’s looking to the next decade.