When it Rains...

During this time when we are trying to conserve cash, it seems that a slew of potentially costly negative events keep cropping up. I suppose we may have overlooked much of them if we were working, chalking it all up to the regular rhythm of life. But, when life has already dealt you a series of heavy blows, it is hard to feel that the world is not against you when Murphy's Law is in full effect. Lately, everything that can go wrong has been going wrong.

My computer died completely on Thursday; I need a new motherboard so a complete rebuild will be required. What a pain. A rock hit my husband's windshield leaving a nasty star dent; we hope to avoid a complete replacement. Also, his cell phone, which is at least 4 years old, no longer functions in any capacity for which it is intended. Our lawn mower that we bought used a couple years ago was overwhelmed by the heavy grass growth that this very wet spring has wrought and so it too died. We have been looking on Craig's list but so far the one's we've liked have sold quickly; we continue the search while the grass grows. While I love the rain, we could use a little break and a little more sun.

Also, I received news that my certification courses are scheduled to start at the end of June, right when my children are done with their school. I was hoping it would start sooner so we could all be in school together. So now, there will be additional childcare costs for the summer. Great. I believe in positive thinking but lately, it is not bringing the intended results. I need a karmic reset. Nevertheless, I will persevere. Wish me luck.

Rose-Colored Glasses

Today I did not pay much attention to anything. Somehow, the market went up 200 points on the news that the Federal Reserve would keep pumping money into the financial markets because the several trillion dollars that they have already put in still has not eased the liquidity crisis and the house passed the newly proposed $819,000,000,000 stimulus plan; more money above and beyond the $700,000,000,000 plan passed last September and the additional trillions that have been injected by the Treasury Department under its own programs. So the answer still is to throw even more money at the problem.

Maybe the GOP is right, maybe this is too much debt to take on despite the state of the economy. It is ironic that the GOP presided over the run-up of federal debt during the last 8 years and now they are the ones crying that the debt is too high to spend any more dollars to help boost the economy. I don't know, it is all going in circles and no one is guilty; all the corruption was on the fence but was it all really illegal? Now the enriched have enough money to convince us that they should be allowed to keep the money, no matter how ill-gotten; as long as you have enough of it, money talks.

Speaking of money, I have now spent way too many hours, probably to the detriment of myself, trying to find a good deal on hotels for my trip next week. So far I am fairly satisfied with my flight plans and rental vehicle costs. I have reserved a hotel but I'm not 100% convinced; I am surprised that in this economy hotel rates are still so high and they charge for every additional amenity; in many cases after paying an exorbitant room rate, you still have to pay for internet, breakfast, parking, beach chairs and towels and other resort fees. Excuse me but aren't those fees included in that exorbitant room rate? Then again, the last time I went on vacation was years ago so I must not have kept up with the inflation.

Years ago you would call a travel agent and that would be that. Now, there are so many internet sites to check, it is impossible to feel comfortable with your choices. I checked all the sites, I'm sure I did not miss any: AAA, American Express, Hotels.com, Kayak, Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline (except I did not want to bid and end up with someplace I really didn't want), Trip Advisor for all the reviews, Yahoo Travel, Away.com and numerous others. I am compelled to check daily to see if there is a better deal.

Nevertheless, it does seem that there must be enough people going on vacation to justify these room rates and charges. Some people must still have some cash lying around somewhere. Or maybe we're all doing the same thing, escaping now before the real crash and burn.

"R" Word Comes Out of the Closet

Today, the National Bureau of Economic Research finally played the "R" Card. Not only is the U.S. economy in a Recession but it has been so since last December. What? The Think Tank of Think Tanks finally deigns to call a spade a spade almost a year into the card game. How long was it going to take before the experts recognized the Commerce Department's sleight of hand as it issued false positive GDP data all year long (only to revise the numbers long after the fact and when we stopped looking.) There was barely an eyebrow raising last week when they released their revised data.

All of us little people have known the truth for as long as it has taken for the experts to parse the numbers. With major banks crashing, major industries crashing, 30 U.S. States deeply in the red, retailers going belly-up, the stock market at an all time low and Wall Street firms in disarray, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve having spent trillions trying to shore up the financial markets and so on, we needed to wait til December 1 to find out the truth. We have been drowning in so much negative data that we have plum forgotten the stimulus package we the people received last Spring, the first of many handouts that was supposed to save the economy.

Of course this "new" bad news sent the markets down nearly 700 points for no reason whatsoever. No surprise here, just another round of end of the world scenarios to get our knickers in a twist over. Tomorrow, the slightest smidgen of good news can provoke a rally in the other direction. Meaningless.

Yes, we have been in a Recession for quite some time. If this is news to you, then you must be too rich to notice and in that case, I want to be your friend.

2nd Presidential Debate Leans Obama

I was looking forward to the debate today because of the promise that the questions would come from the people. Apparently, 6 million questions were submitted so it was surprising that the chosen questions were quite similar to those of the first debate especially when it came to foreign policy. It sounded like the whole foreign policy section of the first debate with the same answers, almost word for word. The domestic questions were a little more personal but here again I was expecting a debate centering more on the current economic crisis.

Just like the first debate, Obama's answers were well articulated and he even explained McCain's health care policy and tax policy a little better than McCain did; McCain simply did not present enough detail of his plans. Americans are really looking for detail on how problems will be fixed going forward in light of the 2009 budget deficit of $500,000,000,000 and $1,500,000,000,000 pricetag for the 2008 bailouts thus far if you tally what the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and Congress have committed so far.

We are in serious trouble financially. Obama has some concrete ideas; McCain's plan is "trust me, I'll fix it." Either way there is plenty of spending on both sides and cutting current spending to allow for new spending effectively leaves us with the same deficits. I do worry that a democratic administration will spend more on entitlements but I worry more about where a continuation of the Republican economic ideology will take us. All we have to do is look around.

World Upside Down

On Friday, America passes $750,000,000,000 bailout bill to help ease credit markets. Today, the Federal Reserve offers $300,000,000,000 per month for the next 3 months in Term Auction Facilities or short term cash to the credit markets.

It didn't work and the stock market was down 800 points at midday eventually closing down 369 points. The Dow is now less than 10,000. World markets nosedived as well. Investors fear the worst. The credit markets are still frozen.

What do the Presidential candidates do now? Assure the American people that they have a plan to help us?

Well, the people in glass houses, McCain & Palin start throwing stones, launching a full throttle smear campaign against Obama; the same Ayers, Wright, Rezko, Hussein smears that we heard earlier this year in the democratic primaries are back with a vengeance.

Obama lobs one back with high mention of the Keating 5 Savings and Loan debacle. Try as he might to talk about the economy and solutions, he is dragged down into a slug fest.

Tomorrow, the Presidential candidates debate. America is in a major recession, this is what we need to talk about. What are their plans for America going forward? This is what America needs to know. The best answer should win.

The nastiest candidate in this presidential campaign can't also be the best candidate to lead us out of this misery we are in.