What about that Mayan calendar?
David Nichol, T-H Staff Writer
Source: http://www.thnews.com

Well, by the time this is read, we may know if there is going to be a bailout or not. You know, bailout? Of all the folks who supposedly got us into this economic mess?

Should there be or not? A bailout, that is. Do I know? There are those who say the sky is falling, and there are those who say we’ll make it through, even should the sky go kerplunk. There are those who say we can prop up the sky, if the sky will promise not to fall so hard next time and we appoint sky police to keep the sky in line.

Personally, I don’t have an advanced degree in economic gobbledygook. That means I am allowed to admit I don’t know squat, while the experts, who have jobs and titles to justify, have no choice but to pretend that they not only know squat, but know how to un-squat it.

So just who did get us into this mess? Well, it was just about everybody, including people who took out mortgages they had no chance of paying (Duh!), those who encouraged them to do so (tsk!), therefore encouraging bad debt (tsktks!), and maybe even me.

Me? Yep, and you, too. When we saw houses worth less than $100,000 going for twice or three times that much, we should have raised a ruckus. We should have asked, “What the sub prime is going on?” Did we? That’s a rhetorical question; you don’t literally have to say, “No we didn’t.”

To be totally honest, I’ve gotten a little concerned. It’s said that lending may stop altogether, which could be bad for business.

On an individual level, it may not be that bad, though, if folks have to start living within their means — provided they get to keep the means they have. The price of homes may actually deflate back down to their actual value.

No one so far, that I’ve heard, has raised the specter of the 1929 crash, when margin calls had people saying things like, “How could I lose $500,000? I never had $500,000!”

So is it the end of the world as we know it? Again I say, I haven’t a clue. There are a lot of Chicken Littles out there, and not just in financial circles. F’rinstance, Some say the world will actually end when the Mayan calendar ends, which is Dec. 21, 2012 (Maybe we’re becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy; maybe this economic upheaval is part of The End). Only trouble is, there are equal numbers of folks who say that isn’t what the Mayan calendar says or even implies. And I’m sure that afterwards, people will discover that Nostradamus predicted it all (Funny how folks never figure out what Nostradamus was predicting until after it happens. Big help.)

The upshot of the whole thing is that we’ll just have to see. See what happens when Dec. 21, 2012 gets here. See what happens when there isn’t a bailout — or there is. Remember all the Hell that was supposed to break loose on Jan. 1, 2000? People hardly think about that anymore, especially since 9-11, which wasn’t predicted (except maybe by Nostradamus in hindsight).

I’m beginning to think the bailout may be necessary. But I don’t like it. I don’t like thinking about it. I don’t like the people who made it necessary. Guess I’m not overly fond of anybody today.