same thing

The economy has been interesting to read about lately. I remember a few months ago when a barrel of oil cost $140 plus, back when stock marketers were glistening with success. And now a barrel of oil cost under $100. For some reason, gas is back up to $4.19 per gallon.

Banks are failing, coming down with a loud bang, dust and debris. I read that the FDIC has $50 billion to insure $1 trillion worth of assets. That doesn't seem so good a plan. I hope they're insured! Oh, I guess they are insured by us. I sure don't have $1 trillion to insure anyone who has money in the bank. Maybe our government will borrow it from our grandchildren, hoping that our economy will be doing a bit better in a few generations, you know, after all these service industry jobs we've been creating begin to...oh wait. This is a plan that is going nowhere.

The national debt right now is almost $9.7 trillion dollars. We owe about $1 trillion of that to China and Japan. The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.93 billion each day since about a year ago. Your personal share is almost $38,000; yes, that's every man, woman, and child in our country, hocked to the gills by our government and freely selected bureaucrats. You too can learn many sordid facts about the state of our government and economy at the U.S. National Debt Clock site, http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ including this nifty quote: "The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled; public debt should be reduced; and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled." -Cicero. 106-43 B.C.

It amazes me that we can live quite easily in "deep poverty", and yet the men in suits can't figure out how to do it. It's easy to borrow ahead when you are not concerned about paying it back. But if our nation isn't concerned about paying it back, not any more concerned than banks loaning outrageous sums to low-wage workers living paycheck to paycheck, well, I can see why major banks are failing and the U.S. economy seems to be tanking as well. Maybe in a few months there will be another glistening day on wall street, when someone figures out how to make some money, and we will forget this ever happened. But I think we'll see a lot more crumbling financial infrastructure.

FEMA is at it again in Texas. I have read some nasty things about people who are staying at stuffed shelters--nothing to eat, nothing to drink, not being able to even go outside. I do not understand how Cuba has an excellent disaster preparedness program, but the U.S. obviously does not. As our climate begins to destabilize, I imagine a lot more of us will be going through natural disasters, and we'll get to experience this frustration intimately. I imagine FEMA will continue to be ignored like they were after Katrina, where anarchists and other do-gooders snuck into New Orleans with risk of arrest, to help folks & bring some relief. It's communities of people who help, much more effectively than government bureaucrats.

I personally was amazed at the lack of government assistance and attention after the tornado we experienced. I went to the FEMA office, where I was shuffled around from person to person, and spent a lot of the time waiting, even though I was the only non-staff of a dozen people in the building. I filled out an application, but nothing happened. It was a waste of time, and a lesson I only need to learn once. Our community, on the other hand, was awesome!

I am really enjoying listening to the flobots.

carey