It's really something. One hardly knows what to say . . .

[pegkerr]

Okay, I was stupid. I knew I shouldn't look, but I did. My 401(k) has lost about 39% of its value since the beginning of the year. My family's dealing with unemployment, but I know there are a helluva lot of families out there with equally scary stories. The mind boggles, trying to grasp what this desperation is like, nationwide.

A sentence in the cover article of this week's Time Magazine sort of jumped out at me: "Credit Suisse predicts that 13% of U.S. homeowners with mortgages could end up losing their homes."

Excuse me?

You know, I wouldn't blame either Obama OR McCain for looking at the mess of headlines from the last couple weeks and saying, "You know, come to think of it . . . nah. I'm withdrawing my name from the ballot. Don't want the job anymore." But we need someone to step up and lead us out of this mess. Which just keeps getting more frightening all the time.

Remember that great exchange in between the President and one of his advisors in Rob Reiner's movie The American President?

Lewis Rothschild: People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.

President Andrew Shepherd: Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.

You know, I'm getting really tired of drinking sand.

(Great movie, if you haven't seen it.)

Comments

[wordswoman.livejournal.com]

It's deeply frightening. I was depressed enough checking my retirement account balances a week ago; I don't dare look again now.

I was working for an investment office on Black Monday in 1987, which was then the biggest one-day percentage decline in history. I remember the investment analysts just huddling around the stock ticker screens in a state of shock. Yet I don't remember feeling scared myself. Maybe because I had so much less to lose, back then. No investments, no house, no kids, no debts.

Everything is scarier when you've got hostages to fortune.

[weaselmom.livejournal.com]

Not that much has changed in 21 years! This week my guys are still huddling around the Bloomberg terminals with Very Concerned Faces. I still don't feel affected because I still don't have any money. You're right about the hostages to fortune thing - I don't have those, so I can safely say my retirement plan is to die young. Not everybody can.