Sundays with Sus--10/26

It's the only day when the relentless news-cycle seems to take a rest. So I have some time to really reflect rather than just react. Here's what I'm thinking about as I sip my coffee...

It's a small world after all. We all know how much the world loves to play armchair-Quarterback with respect to the U.S. And they ain't shy about criticizing us. Yet, they still kept selling their goods to us, and chose to invest their money in our institutions. And now their markets are tumbling... and nobody knows exactly whose dominoes will topple tomorrow.

But the world now knows this: if America doesn't do well, they won't do well. So we are all in this together--that's the new Global Economy for you. And that (painful) lesson very much applies within our borders as well, btw.

It's time to try "Trickle Up" Economics. We've tried "Trickle Down" in this country... since 1980, in fact. So we've given that theory of economics 28 years now to demonstrate that it actually works. Is it just me, or does your head seriously hurt now too, from all that head-butting against a brick wall we as a nation have been doing. And it seems to me that the main thing that's "trickled down" is not Wealth, but Misery... not to mention Ruin.

Which is why I want everyone to start nudging their elected officials, especially the ones facing re-election on November 4th. One thing I took away from that brouhaha over the $700 billion bailout plan is this: our representatives will pay attention to their constituency when their elected tushies are on the line. Yes, ultimately a bailout plan was passed--because time was so of-the-essence, and no one on Capitol Hill seemed able to come up with a better, smarter plan at that time (or act enough like grownups to agree upon one).

But the next round of bailouts/stimulus-packages is coming... because it has to. And that next round must deal with the continuing decline in Housing prices and the Mortgage Crisis first. Because that's the base of the pyramid. Just picture a pyramid in your mind for a moment, and imagine what happens when the pyramid takes a devastating hit. If that hit happens near the top, the pyramid itself can still remain standing. Granted, it will be without a peak/summit, but the remainder will survive. But if you attack that pyramid at the base, the entire pyramid will probably crumble. Because that's the foundation upon which everything else was built. So rich, poor, and everything in between... they will all collapse.

Too many in Government love to use Fear as their weapon of choice in their dealings with the American people. Well, we can play that game too, can't we. Make them deal with the Housing/Mortgage Crisis first. None of them seems to have worked out yet just how to do that. Let's all make them figure it out...

And don't make me share with you just how much of its bailout money that AIG has already burned through. Trust me, y'all, you don't even want to know...