Still Trying to Understand the Economy

"If the U.S. economy were a car, all of its warning lights would be flashing red." That's the start of an excellent question and answer article in USA Today. Economics has never been my favorite subject. I admit at times it seems like smoke and mirrors to me, but the USAT article answered a lot of questions including the always important "how is this going to affect me?" And just in case you've been totally out of touch over the weekend, the panic is over the demise of Bear Stearns, a global investment bank and securities trading and brokerage firm.

I expect a few thousand editorials about this current turn of events, but let's start with the funniest. Stephen Colbert says "Don't lose confidence because of Bear Stearns -- lose confidence because it's the right thing to do."



From the Washington Post, E. J. Dionne Jr. writes, "Never do I want to hear again from my conservative friends about how brilliant capitalists are, how much they deserve their seven-figure salaries and how government should keep its hands off the private economy."

From Newsweek, Robert J. Samuelson asks, "In rushing to fix one problem, has the Fed created others?" Quite possibly yes.

From the Detroit Free Press, "the inflation unleashed now by financial policy is the tax all Americans will pay..."