Is America Depressed?
January 23rd, 2008 Categories: Local Real Esate Sales Numbers & Things, Mortgages & Loans
I turned on the TV news on Tuesday morning to the news that the stock market was down 400 points and the Fed has cut the interest rate almost a whole point!
My first thought was: Our government is really scared.
This is the same administration that has been wearing rose colored glasses for the past year. They kept saying that the market will work itself out. It’s the hands off administration that thinks its only job is to solve the crisis in the Middle East- one that’s been going on for thousands of year. I never understood why every American president feels that they are going to be the one to solve a conflict that has been going on for centuries. (But that’s for another day.)
Then I remembered it’s an election year. It’s like a game of musical chairs for the party holding office in the White House when the music stops playing. They will be seen as the one left standing.
I am not a student of economics by any means. And every time I write about the mortgage “crisis” I do a lot of homework and research about what I’m writing. This time I’m just writing about what I see and feel.
I can’t help but wonder if the American public is depressed.
We’re tired of this current state of affairs. In the past few years everything we pay for has gone up in price: gas, food, taxes and health care. Everything except our paychecks. We feel like that hamster in the tread mill– working hard just to stay in place.
Our young men and women are overseas at war. We don’t know who to believe about what’s going on over there. We have sadly come to the realization that we are going to be there for a long time. Even if we still want it to end.
Then we start hearing these presidential candidates telling us about all our problems and how they are going to solve them. They talk about hope and change and new beginnings. We didn’t know we had it so bad until they kept reminding us.
We see our neighbors losing their homes because they didn’t understand what they were getting into and think: Am I next?
We hear about layoffs, and talk about recessions and hope that we can keep our jobs.
And it’s winter and cold and dark.
No wonder we’re depressed. But we can’t take prozac because we have no health insurance.
Now the government comes to the rescue with plans of stimulus packages and temporary tax relief to “jump start” the economy. Our legislators think that putting $200 in everyone’s pocket will solve our problems. Or that cutting interest rates is going to encourage people to buy a home. Or are they just worried about getting re-elected?
I think the American public is ready for their next president. We are ready for something new and bold and different. That’s what will get us out of our funk. Is it November yet?
Agreed - so much of the perception of the national economy is dependant on buyer confidence, which is very hard to measure.
Yes I think its a terrible cycle. The media reports about how bad things are, people believe it, and create the bad economy- then things are really bad, people start losing their jobs.
If you believe in something long enough it will be true.
Mary, Great from-the-heart post, and it all rings so true. There is a bad funk going around and our government appears worthless in the midst of it. And this latest tax stimulus package is the biggest joke. I can’t believe all of “our” elected officials bought into it. I would like to get the potential home buyers sitting on the fence to understand that things will get better, and they will be better off if they make a move now. Otherwise, their going to sit on the fence and watch while property values start moving in the right direction again. And they are in many places, but the media chooses to focus on the hardest hit areas, since this type of negative shocking news tends to get our attention more than the positive trends in some markets.
To answer your question, yes, I do think most of America it depressed.
It is tough to keep a positive attitude when everything seems to be going the wrong direction. However, I do think trying to find the good in this market/economy/world is the way to go.
As the life coach Jim Rohn says, “Bad things always happen to everyone, it is how you deal with it that makes the difference.” I always think back to this statement whenever things are not going great. We can either choose to sit back and let things control us, or we can do everything in our power to make things different. I choose the latter, no matter who the President is.
Thanks for the good post.
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