Recently, a friend from England asked me what I thought the feelings of Americans were about all this. Scared, I answered. He wondered aloud whether perhaps "apprehensive" might be a more appropriate term.
Nope, scared was it as far as I was concerned. Scared and paralyzed, because nobody seems to know exactly what to do about it, and this is one of those rare times when you want all those who can think outside the box to do just that.
So far our elected representatives seem to be repeating the same old mantra about tax cuts and increased subsidies, but I wonder where is the light at the end of that tunnel? The New York Times published an exploration of what Sweden did not all that many years ago when it faced a similar situation: they nationalized the banks, and the taxpayers gained while the banks' investors lost everything.
You can't legislate greed out of capitalism, but you can find ways to trim sails so as to keep the boat upright, but apparently the mantra of "free market" attracted the cynical and manipulative and hypnotized those whose job it was to pay attention to what was going on.
At this late stage of my life, I wonder whether it's time, as K thinks it is to get a couple of large bags of beans and rice and hunker down under a lot of blankets and pray. I prefer to believe that the new occupant of the White House has enough intellectual capacity and curiosity to gather the best and the brightest and the most experienced around him and find strategies which will succeed and will be equitable.
Well, enough. Time for me to get down on my knees and pray both for the righting of the economic ship and for being able to get up off my knees when I'm done.
