Thursday, February 19, 2009

Beneath the Surface

I just finished the FRONTLINE program called "Inside the Meltdown." Wow. That was heavy.

You can view it below.



Thing is, for me, I don't have stocks (well, I have 1 in Apple and 1 in Toyota) and our IRAs are ridiculously malnourished (we just started them last year), so it doesn't really affect me right away. We bought our car with cash and our house with a mortgage with a decent rate that's a fixed 30-year.

But I know that there are people out there who are deeply affected by this looming (or already imminent) mess. I hear people saying naive things about how annoyed they are by people talking about it and making conservative fiscal decisions because of it.

Our workload has slowed and that has certainly been a wake-up call to us. And we've begun to really introduce a budget and take a hard look at some numbers and "supposed" values.

I wondered at the end of this FRONTLINE about the future of the USA. Will this be the thing that truly begins to dethrone the most powerful nation in the world? Will people like me wake from their slumber and try to live more frugally? Or will we suffocate in our own decadence? Who knows what's ahead. Do you?

Are you changing the way you live? Does it shift your world much? Or are you still kinda untouched by this economic shift? Or are you choosing as a discipline to try to think positive and not perpetuate the decline myth? Do tell.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

this was heavy indeed. i'm with you- don't own stock and we live pretty simply...but wow. makes you think.

Emma said...

the one thing i don't really get about economy is how the US dollar is getting stronger. 8 months ago, it was 62 rupees to $1. now its 77 rupees to $1. but, the british pound used to be 130 rupees to the pound, and now its 110 rupees to the pound. i'm just not getting this part of the equation... you?

Ryan Lee Sharp said...

All I can figure is that it's pulled down world markets so much. Yah, the Euro to Dollar equation is going to be working in our benefit this time around.