To hell in a bucket: At least we enjoyed the ride.

The thing I find most interesting in the chaos that is the United States economy, is the steadfast certainty of Liberal and Conservative pundits about what direction the country should go in. If you lean toward the Democrats then you want to let bygones be bygones and get on with the "new" way of doing things. If you lean Conservative then you want nothing short of a new President. Pundits on both sides of the aisle provide templates for economic success which just appear to the rest of us as more of the same old blather.



While I can understand the desire to have certain questions answered: "What happened?" and "Where do we go from here?" I think we can do a little better than that. The least all of us could do is own up to two things: First, we all share blame, albeit in varying degrees, for what has happened to our economy. Secondly, let's face it, no one knows what to do or what will truly work. As the most powerful economists will tell you, no one really knows how our economy is working; not the President, not the Congress, not the SEC Chairman, not the Office of Management and Budget, not even the economists who spend their entire careers studying our economy. No one really knows how much our real debt is. No one really knows what are actual revenue is. It's a numbers game pure and simple. But this should not surprise anyone. It is what our country was built on.

Our economy has always been a seemingly strange one that has born boom and bust cycles. Recessions after the Revolution, in the 1830's, 1870's, 1890's, early 1900's, 1930's, 1970's, late 1980's into early 1990's and in 2001 have all been followed by recovery and boom bubbles. However, far from being unusual, this is a perfectly normal cycle for a nation built on con-games. We have willingly put our economy (budget) at the mercy of people who are larcenists. A con artist doesn't take advantage of you, he takes advantage of your trust, hope and optimism. Think of our country as a large fairgrounds where there are consumers, vendors and game/ride owners. If you can understand the world of the carny, you can begin to understand our economy. Sadly, few people who took advantage of us broke the law. We all just chose to ignore the possible consequences of our actions because we were having too much "fun at the fair."

At the end of the day it does start with each individual. While there are many good people at all levels of our society, knowing that Capitalism has become the equivalent of a huge binge party where a few greedy people have set up shop to take advantage of us is the first step to economic "recovery." Simply put, you (we) can no longer afford to be trusting. Follow the basic principles of managing yourself and we will ultimately make this country better than what it has been.