Question: What's going to happen?

Things are, to quote Tom Petty, “Free fallin’, they’re-a free fallin’. That song has been in my head a lot as I watch the numbers plummet, and see the panic and/or despair in people’s eyes when we talk about what’s going on.

I’m not an economic expert, but I am related to one. She’s a PhD in economics and worked at Harvard Business School for many years where the students are rude and arrogant and the teachers don’t get tenure. She works at a much nicer place now, where students are respectful and she gets tenure.

But I digress.

I’m going to be consulting her for her take on things, but I can’t reach her at the moment so it’s just me. I don’t know what the hell is happening but it isn’t good.

Suddenly recreational shopping doesn’t sound so appealing. The mall really does seem quieter this past week, and no wonder. Who wants to buy frivolous shit when people are losing their houses, their retirement accounts, and their investments? It’s scary.

And the whole world is getting sucked into the gaping maw of this disaster.

Does anyone understand what is going on?

A better question: does anyone know what to actually do that will work?

Perhaps the answer is that since we as a collective country made this mess, we are going to have to clean it up, coming in the form of less errant and extravagant spending, and less consumer lust for all things shiny, big, and/or electronic.

Guess my kids are going to get a crash course in economics. Good thing we haven’t started giving them allowances.