Economy

I'm trying to remain optimistic about the economy, but it didn't stop me from getting extra beans and canned vegetables at the store the other day. I figure I'll just quietly stockpile a few dry goods. It can't hurt, right?

Wes found this graphic on the Dow Jones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DJIA_historical_graph.svg . He wonders if the real "value" of the market is somewhere down near the 2000s.

I keep thinking that maybe this will be the thing that shakes up our generation and we can become the next Greatest Generation. But I'm worried that the generation that lived through the Great Depression had recent trials to endure in at least historical memory, like WWI. I'm not sure that our generation has had anything nearly so difficult to live through (despite some exhortations that "this is a difficult time to raise children," I tend to believe that until now, things have been pretty darn great). Are we up for it? I like to think that as Americans, we aren't as whiny as Phil Gramm says we are, but are we? Can we pull ourselves up and survive a really bad economy? I sure hope so. Mostly what I hope is that there are some people who have money to buy all the stuff I'll want to sell if things go really badly for us.

But hey, isn't it great that we don't have a lot of investments to lose? (insert eye roll here)