Mendolonium

You take one down, you pass it around, 450 pages of bailout to read…

OK, I give up! I tried to read the final version of the Emergency Economic Economic Stabilization Act of 2008(The Bailout), but real life intervened.  The truth is, much like watching a train barreling towards a car stuck at a crossing, most of us could see that what was going to happen, but were powerless to stop it.  Even the engineer, or in this case members of Congress, who saw what was about to happen and attempted to throw the train into emergency mode could not avert the disaster this is the bailout.  There was simply too much momentum. 

While you and I can’t stop the worldwide economic mess we find ourselves as pawns in, it is important to realize that WE ARE NOT POWERLESS.  There are steps that we can take to protect ourseleves, our loved ones, and even those that we do not know but who are also suffering.  Briefly, I believe that those steps are to (not necessarily in this order):

1. Become an informed citizen
2. Protect your assets
3. Prepare for the long emergency
4. Change your lifestyle

I am going to discuss each step in separate posts starting with “Become an informed citizen”.  As someone who has experience in the intelligence field, I have found that the key to forming an accurate assessment of a situation is to use multiple sources and multiple types of sources.  Meaning, do not get all of your information from one “source”, (e.g., CNN, cnn.com, and Time magazine  – all are produced by the same media conglomerate.).  Likewise, use multiple types of sources, the internet, print media, radio, television, and the guy next door.  I’ve listed my favorite sources of information below:

• This American Life:  A weekly show on NPR covering all manner of topics.  There are two recent episodes which do a phenomenal job of explaining the details behind the current economic implosion.  Those episodes are the aptly named:  The Giant Pool of Money and Another Frightening Show About the Economy.
• The Economist: In my view the Economist is rather conservative; for example, they were generally pro bailiout.  They are refreshing for their global, rather than U.S. centric, perspective and their extensive research.  I have a print subscription, however, over half their content is available for free online.
• Bloomberg.com: An excellent source for information on the day-to-day happenings in the financial world.
• The Automatic Earth:  A blog devoted to prophesying and analyzing economic collapse.  These guys were warning of the exact scenario we are experiencing now long before Paulson was even Secretary of the Treasury.  The authors also do a fantastic job of compiling the relevant articles of the day from around the web.
• CNN:  Ah, CNN, I think much of it is sensationalistic, repetitive, and biased.  However, it is the most popular news source in America so if you want to know what everyone else is hearing, it is useful to watch in limited doses – perhaps with brownies.
• Everyday people:  The guy you know who works (or used to work) at Lehman Brothers, your friend who is trying to buy a house in the current market, your aunt that runs a small business.  Real people that you know can help you to reconcile what you hear and what you read with reality. 

“But Gina”, you ask, “if we can’t stop this train wreck from happening, why should we bother to watch it and read about it afterwards?”.  Because what you learn will change your response and empower you.  Based on our reading of “the way things were headed” we actually made a number of financial and lifestyle changes months ago which we believed would serve us well and we continue to make changes based on what we learn.   In addition, while this crisis is global in scope, it will play out uniquely for different regions of the world and the country.  For example, do you live in central California with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation and where you have a 90% likelihood of owing more on your house than it is worth if you purchased it in the last five years?  Or do you live in a city in the Midwest, where there is no public transportation and you are dependent on a car?  Being informed about the conditions in your community is vital in preparing for what may come.  Finally, being informed also allows me to give my elected representatives an intelligent opinion.  While I believe that most of those elected are not doing what needs to be done, they’re what we’ve got and I am committed to trying to make democracy work in the midst of a time when it seems that our democracy is being eroded. 

I would love to hear what you, my readers think about these issues and if you have any favorite sources for information please leave a link in the comments. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Climate Change, Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.