Financial fiasco

I have pretty much kept my mouth shut on the financial crisis the country is experiencing right now because I don't feel completely qualified to comment. But, there are times when I get really frustrated. Army of Dad has had to listen to my same rant for the past 10 years. I am still angry at the model home salesman who tried to get us to buy more home than we could afford simply because we could qualify for it. In the past few years, we have had the same conversation in various forms about how many people were buying homes they couldn't afford and at some point, the whole housing system was going to crumble. Funny how a simple country girl like me with a fine arts degree can reach that conclusion and many of our elected leaders and financial gurus didn't see it coming. Now, we are experiencing one of the scariest periods in my lifetime. Aside from 9/11 when fear dominated my world, this is really frightening. I've felt like President Bush guided us through the threat of terrorism and we've been safe there. So, that fear is not as strong. Of course, I fret more now with a new administration who thinks chatting with Iran's leader is going to accomplish something. I've never seen a playground bully who could be reasoned with. *shrug* Poor analogy, but it makes the point.

Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent. What I was trying to say is that fear is once again at the forefront of my emotions almost daily. But it is a fear for our way of living and for my children. We've had tough times in our 10 years of marriage. Early on, when he was a low-paid soldier and I was a low-paid daily newspaper reporter, we managed to make do. There were weekends that we scoured the roadside and parking lots for aluminum cans to pay for a dinner out at a decent restaurant. But, we made it through. Our ability to live pretty well has been a roller coaster and the only thing to help us in seven months of unemployment was that we had been saving money and working multiple jobs to have that income to make up for the loss of the job. Common sense things.

I just fear that common sense isn't common. Sheila Bair, the FDIC chairwoman, saw the writing on the wall and encourages all of us to go back to using our common sense. It is hard to save money when you're not earning any, but now that Army of Dad is employed again, we'll be putting money back in the savings account again. Lord knows, we'll probably need it.

And, as far as the bailouts go ... my gut tells me that the government shouldn't step in. I fear over what may happen if all of these monster companies fail, but why would we want government in charge? Aren't they ones who got us a trillion dollars in debt? Seems like I recall stories from my youth about hammers costing hundreds of dollars, etc. Seriously, though. Government isn't in the business of running businesses. I just don't see how any of this is going to end well. *sigh* What was it I was saying about being fearful? Oh yeah. This fool will not be parted with her money easily any more.