Depression

As in "The Great."

Scared yet? I am. Let's see a show of hands: Who sees history repeating itself? Stock market crashing, banks failing, people losing their homes, dollar's value falling........hmm.....sound familiar?

I am trimming every possible extra cost that I can find on our books. No more text messaging as we get charged for each one. No more pay-per-view movies on the cable bill. I canceled the automatic withdrawal to Brian's Roth IRA in August. Canceled the newspaper. Canceled the wireless internet service we paid for each month but never used (for laptop computer travel purposes). Of course those fuckers rope you into a 2 year contract and charge you $175 to break it. Bastards. I won't be taking anymore photo junkets anywhere (sorry Axe, the trip to the Lees' graves will have to wait till spring). No more stopping by the craft stores and bead shops. We're dialing down Xmas. Didn't go to the Puyallup Fair this year. Mr. Vu and his crew was awesome while it lasted, but after the next couple of weeks, we'll have to let him go too.

I've applied for health insurance and Steve is going to pick up a good portion of that cost but I'll still have to kick in some $$ towards it. Brian has no health insurance. We couldn't afford to put him on the policy for which I applied. He's still had no bites on his resume.

But I am pissed. Really pissed. I can solve the Wall Street crisis right now: Make the oil companies bail them out. It's that simple. We're being repeatedly raped with taxes and the cost of gasoline, so let THEM bail out the economy. Why the already burdened middle class has to do it is beyond me. What about all those people who are losing their homes? Who is bailing them out so that they can keep their homes? This is just bullshit.

Maybe it can be traced back to the Clinton administration, maybe not. I think it goes back to the excesses and greed of the Reagan years of the 1980's. Borrowed from Peter to pay Paul back then, and it happened again. Now we're stuck holding the bag? The American middle class? WTF???? As far as I'm concerned, this is all a byproduct of the failed Bush Administration.

Do I blame people for taking on mortgages they couldn't afford? Partly, yes. I do blame people who knew they couldn't afford the $500,000 house, 3 car garage, boat and RV but bought them anyway and mortgaged themselves to the hilt. But I don't blame the people who simply wanted a piece of the American dream, and own their own home. I don't blame people who didn't have the savvy, education and/or guidance to realize that their mortgage and/or home equity loan was a huge scam.

My bank sort of went under. Washington Mutual was about to fail and have the FDIC step in, when Chase bought them at the last minute. But the fucking WaMu CEO, who was there THREE WEEKS, gets to keep his multi million dollar signing bonus AND gets a multi million dollar golden handshake. I am so goddamn mad about that it's not even funny. We initially decided to stay w/ WaMu/Chase, then we heard about the CEO's severance package and decided that it's time to move to a credit union. I'm sure WaMu is going to go out of their way to deny us our money, but they really don't know who they are fucking with if they try that with me. I'm sorry that the WaMu employees and retirees lost their retirements and 401(k)'s when the stock tanked, and I'm sorry that they are facing layoffs just like so many millions of other Americans. Yet the CEO gets like $14million to walk away??????? What is wrong with this picture????? But I'm not going to leave my money in that bank any longer. We've been making a pittance of interest on our savings account. It's time to move on to Boeing Employees Credit Union. I'll feel safer w/ my money there.

And think about the major trickle down effect this is having. It's not just employees of companies getting laid off, but the coffee stands will see their business fall, as will convenience stores, restaurants, dry cleaners.....you name it. I haven't been to our dry cleaner since August. There's no need. Brian's cut WAY back on going to his fave watering hole too, so they will start to see a downturn in business. It's fucking scary.

We're in for a bumpy ride, folks. Time to hunker down and wait it out.