A Few Words On the Economy

I'm definitely not a financial expert, nor do I work in the financial world. However, I do a fair bit of reading, and recently that reading has been dominated by what's going on with the economy, wall street, etc. There seems to be a whole lot of panicking going on - with good reason - America is definitely in a touchy situation at the moment, one that we haven't seen in a very long while. I tend to avoid reading the doomsday type of articles, as they don't seem to have any valuable advice in them. The best column that I have read on this subject can be found on ESPN.com. I am referring to my favorite sports writer, Gregg Easterbrook, and his weekly, TMQ (short for Tuesday Morning Quarterback). His column primarily sums up the week in NFL Football, tempered with some extra content on a subject not related to sports. Recently, TMQ has commented on the current economic woes, including the recently bailout plan, voted down by the House.

I find myself adhering to Easterbrook's words more and more, especially whenever he comments on government, the economy, and similar subjects. The bailout plan was a bum deal for Taxpayers, and I don't think many Amercan's realize that. The bailout was essentially free money to the banks and organizations who created the current economic crisis to begin with. The worst part was that it would add $700B to the National Debt straight out of current (and future) taxpayers. As a relatively new taxpayer, I am not excited about the egregious amount of debt that this country is carrying. The National debt was five trillion dollars in 1998. It now sits around eleven trillion dollars. As TMQ notes, it took this country 220 years to get to five trillion, and we doubled that in the past 10 years. Mind-blowing, I know - but what should we have expected from a guy who managed to not only run a baseball franchise bankrupt, but also an oil company. Yeesh.

Anyway, I've rambled around enough, hopefully I can expound on my thoughts tomorrow. I recommend TMQ to everyone, even those who do not like sports. The column can be found on ESPN's "Page 2." See you tomorrow (hopefully!)