A 10.5 Economic Earthquake

Imagine being covered with tons of rubble and debris, waiting for rescue workers to arrive and get you out. As you're waiting, you can hear distant voices discussing how best to remove the rubble and debris without harming you further, or causing more damage to structure and foundation. The talk you hear coming from above, sounds more like indecision, fear of failure, and lack of real concern, than it does about positive plans and actions to rescue you.
After several hours of darkness, pain, fear, anxiety, and much hope, you hear new voices criticizing those that have procrastinated, and failed to work together in an effort to save you. Again, hours pass, and the new voices are telling the crowd that has gathered, “trust us, we'll rescue every single one buried”. The crowd watches, and cheers as each piece of debris is removed. More time passes, with very little “real progress” made. Because of egos, personal agendas, and obviously, the thirst for recognition and fame, real help is slow coming, or never comes at all. Thus, the story of our economy.

We're presently experiencing an “economic earthquake”. A severe one, that has buried us beneath tons of debt debris and political rubble. Our financial institutions are sinking deeper under the debt debris as each hour passes, with no end in sight. This 10.5 ( or higher ) magnitude economic earthquake has shaken world economies, some worse than others. A sound plan to rescue the badly shaken economies, is nowhere to be found. We hear the talk about plans to dig us out, but, in the end, talk is all there is.

This earthquake was predicted decades ago, but few, if any, listened to the reasons and logic behind such talk. Now that we're buried beneath the rubble and debris, without a hint of daylight coming through the cracks, many are claiming to have rescue plans and workable solutions, but haven't told the general public exactly what those plans are. So, we're still in the dark, and still buried under the debt debris of this very serious economic earthquake.

Although some claim that this “world shakening” event occurred primarily because of bad lending practices on home mortgages, the truth is, bad mortgages were just the straw that broke the camel's back. Many factors contributed to this economic tremor and collapse, not the least of which was, and still is, the rapid decline of our industrial base. This has lead to the widening gap between real wages and the cost of living in many areas of the country. This effect, coupled with higher energy cost, higher medical cost, higher food cost, and “run-away” personal debt, greatly influenced the bad lending practices that has caused a “panic mode” within financial institutions around the globe.

Primarily, what we're seeing now, are mere “band-aid” fixes for the severe wounds, which in reality, require major procedures to close. Without re-establishing our industrial base, demanding balance foreign trade, cutting wasteful spending and give-aways, and addressing the illegal immigration issue, our economic tremors and quakes will continue for a long time to come.

This country is running on tremendous personal, corporate, and government debt. The economic debris and rubble will continue to have us buried, until we demand real change from those responsible for the decisions that govern the well-being of this nation. This latest economic earthquake may not be the worst, or the last, but it sure has us buried deep under debt debris and political rubble.

Sonny Clark