Forecasting this coming Economic Armageddon has sort of deadened me to the personal pain being meted out to so many Americans who thought they were playing by the rules and doing the right thing, only to find themselves unemployed in a house worth less than the mortgage, and a retirement plan cut in half. In a conversation this morning with a great guy I’ve known for years, he has come to the conclusion that he’ll work all his life. He did what he was told, bought some real estate, bought some mutual funds, paid his taxes and thought he was doing okay. He’s resigned to working forever, but worried that his 34-year-old son in a safe job at AT&T is facing layoffs.
The good news is that he’s optimistic that people will pull together and get over being so materialistic. God, I hope he’s right.
It’s becoming more mainstream to hear forecasts of a slide for years in earnings, incomes, stock prices, real estate values and all the other corrective actions that the free market fans hope will be forgotten quickly, but they knew deep inside were inevitable.
Too depressing to write much. Head over to iTulip.com for a real cheery (but nearly always correct) view of the future.
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