February 28, 2009

I am not wealthy, but I have tried to save a little over the last decade. Since the stock market was averaging much better than my savings account, I started contributing to an IRA account mostly made of stock in various companies.

It’s all been pretty much wiped out. That was a risk I knew was there, but didn’t really expect to lose everything. My house, once riding a wave of higher and higher value, has plunged to below 68% what I paid for it nearly 12 years ago when adjusted for inflation.

So the “always a good investment” has turned sour.

My retirement years (which I was going to start this year or next) will be postponed until I feel comfortable with my income, hoping my pension and social security are still around and my home value returns. I doubt it.

There is every sign that we are slowly moving down the road to deflation and once that gets deep enough we will be in another Depression. Its not inevitable, but unless there is some slowing in applying the spending train, global economic stability will be elusive.

So with that in mind, when I go off the deep end complaining about the mess Washington is putting us in its because I have this gut feeling that our elected representatives are doing what they always do –spend money…money that does not exist, money that is borrowed and will need to be paid back, money that is being sucked into a black hole of overspending.

I won’t bore you with the details, since I gather most people are either clueless, apathetic, or so totally ignorant of how things work that their eyes glaze over.

What really amazes me is this almost blind faith in our newly elected President. He speaks well, as any good lawyer should be able to do. Speaking well does not mean he knows doodleysquat about finances…and his own budget people are scared of whats going on.

Yet when I call these things out, some of YOU say “Oh, cut him some slack, you’re being too harsh” Well , I guess my answer is F that. His words, mere words, are wrecking the economy. Because people that have the money he wants to spend don’t trust his ideas; every time he says something on the economy, markets plunge.

He and congress propose the biggest usurpation of authority by passing massive debts, and programs that will require the states to pay for decades to come for these mandated things, not to mention the loss of privacy things like a national health information system will create.

So when the stuff hits the fan, and you saps are sitting around in your FEMA run urban reconstruction camps, living off the few pennies the government allows you to keep to pay for your free food and medical and housing, remember the good old days, OK…and remember people like me tried to warn you.