What goes around comes around...

I've spent the last week watching the economy self-destruct.  I haven't looked at my 401k balances because I don't want to lose my lunch.

Here's the thing -- the collective greed of mortgage companies and banks, combined with developers and real estate agents created this mess.  By not performing due diligence and thoroughly checking the credit and earning potential of mortgage applicants, we've got a record number of foreclosures on the table.  These foreclosures eradicated the paper assets that the banks used to build up their collective statues in the financial world.

No sympathy here, folks.  You mortgage people deserve everything you get.  You have single-handedly contributed to:

1.  The rape of our open spaces and farmland.  Remember how Marlboro used to be apple country?  Now you're lucky to find a working orchard.  All that's left as you drive north on Lattintown Road are the ugliest god-awful McMansions I have ever seen.  Plus, nobody that lives and works in the Hudson Valley can afford to purchase these monstrosities.  This drives up the price of all the other houses and apartments, so people leave the area in droves.  It's a phenomenon that isn't limited to Ulster County, you know.  It's everywhere.

2.  Ever stop to think that the reason deer, bears and other wildlife are targeted for death because they have no other place to go?  Our forests and meadows are torn up and built up.  So let's have a hunt fest and eliminate these "predators" because god forbid the deer eat our shrubs and the bear get into the garbage cans.

3.  Since these homes are so overpriced they are assessed at a higher rate, thus driving up the assessment rate for every other home in the community.  Our seniors cannot afford to live in their homes and have to sell out and move on.

Greed is not good, Gordon Gecko.  Note to our congressional lemmings:  If you really want to see angry people, let this economic bailout be used to pay some fat cat CEO a multi-million dollar buyout.  You will see a backlash you can't even imagine. 

What economy is McCain referring to?

I caught an interview with John McCain this morning on the Today show.  Prior to that interview, they showed a sound bite from Monday where he referred to the economy as being "solid."  Huh?

Just yesterday, the stock market dropped 504 points -- the largest fall in recent history.  Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  AIG might do the same.  There are a record number of foreclosures, potential foreclosures and personal bankruptcies looming in the wings.  Unemployment is at the highest level in years.  

But John McCain says the economy is solid.

Oil prices, which drive the price of just about everything we touch, eat, drink, wear or use, have increased the point where some small businesses have to shut their doors.  

But John McCain thinks there's no problem with the economy.

I work in the senior housing industry.  Every day I hear about seniors who could very well be your parents and my parents having to choose medicine, food or heat because they just can't afford to live they way they deserve.

Don't worrry - John McCain thinks the economy is fine.

He must be living in some parallel universe.