Thursday, September 18, 2008

I'm Not an Economist...

but does one really need to be to understand that the short-term profit associated with unregulated lending practices has been pocketed by the few while the enormous losses have been thoroughly socialized, and we're now just...fucked? If you are an economist, please talk me down. I'd love to be wrong about all the dismal statements I make here.

Anyway, my grandmother got married during the Great Depression. My grandfather could not afford a wedding ring, but as luck would have it, she found a rose gold woman's wedding band on the ground and wore it until she died. Someone else's initials are engraved inside. I have worn it for the past decade as a reminder not only of her but of the story behind the ring.

In the past few days, I've remembered a conversation I had with my uncle over 20 years ago, when I was in my late teens. He was talking about his retirement savings in Merrill Lynch, and I asked what was then perhaps a stupid question: "Is it okay to have all your money in one place like that?" He laughed and said, "If things got that bad, Funk, the value of the dollar would deflate to such a degree that it wouldn't matter anyway." He wasn't an economist, either.

Excuse the diversions. It just seems like a time for walking down memory lane. And I mean way down.

2 comments:

Rent Party said...

Disaster is what I keep hearing this is.

Anonymous said...

I so fucking agree, Am Funk. This bill-now-law seems like the exact opposite of what's needed. I still say if it is so dire and so important, another week to make a better bill that wouldn't make you vomit for vote for is worth it.Or~~gasp!~~a bill that might work.