Well, looks like gas prices are hitting their lowest levels in five years. What does that mean for us American consumers? Do we start driving as much as we possibly can? Should we hoard gasoline? Should we pretend the gas price spike was just oil companies’ getting too greedy?
Yes oil companies are associated with greed, but the price of gas really was trying to compensate for the increase in world demand. The United States is the biggest consumer of oil as of now, and we have shown that we can significantly reduce the amount we use and forced oil prices to come tumbling down. But, how long will it last?
We can continue our previous mentality that there is enough oil for everyone, or we can continue our efforts of conservation and finding alternative energy sources. I think this blog post from FixThePig.com about conserving energy says it best.
In other words, we cannot let this sudden drop in gas prices bring us back to our old ways. I’m glad I get the chance to drive at such cheap prices, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t think I would see prices this low ever again. But at the same time, I will try my best to be as fuel efficient as possible. It’s the least I can do to make sure gas prices stay low for those that really do get hit hard by it.
One downside of lower oil prices is that investments may dry up in that industry. This means the companies will struggle to find the money to research new drilling spots. My instincts tell me that’s not good, but I could be dead wrong here. What say you?
I was watching Lou Dobbs the other day, and he was talking to three economic analysts about the current market and banking situation. One idea they all agreed with: giving the stock market a holiday. I said to myself, you know, that makes a lot of sense!
Other countries have already shut down their markets so that everyone can sit down and think about what’s going on. There’s no point in letting the markets continue to run wild and have stocks drop drastically. Why not cut our losses, freeze the system, and unfreeze it when we’ve found a solution?
When you have a patient dying in a hospital, don’t you normally attempt to stop them from getting worse by suspending his/her body? Stopping the heart and putting the person on support is a sure-fire way of giving the time necessary to diagnose and treat a seriously ill patient. This is no different than what’s happening on Wall Street. Investors are scared, everyone is panic selling, and the Stock Markets are falling seriously ill. Let’s suspend trading, put our heads together, and fix the problem.
During this bank holiday, there are several issues that need to be addressed:
1. Identify trouble banks and rule out banks that will not be impacted.
2. Inject the capital needed into banks that ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO stay afloat.
3. Identify the plan for which to buy back housing debts and actually begin to do so.
American taxpayers are concerned that the government simply isn’t moving fast enough. Even with the 700 billion dollar bailout, the government hasn’t actually done anything with the money yet; they simply have authorization to use it. What better way to let the government catch up than to freeze the system?
Ok, people can argue that it’s not American to stop the markets from conducting their business. I counter that the whole situation we’re currently in is un-American, so I’m of the belief that drastic times call for drastic measures. Even American workers need their holidays after all.
If you think the economic crisis doesn’t apply to you, then you’re either incredibly wealthy (which then means you may have been one of the causes if you were one of those CEO’s who cashed out) or you just have no idea how this crisis applies to you.
I have no stock, no 401k, and no investments. I’m a college student, so I’m really not thinking about those things just yet. However, if I need loans from the government, will they keep coming in? How can I be so sure? The cost of attending a private university is most certainly going to go up, and so maybe I should find a job? Surely businesses that want to hire me don’t have anything to do with… oh wait… they get loans from banks? Banks aren’t extending credit anymore? These businesses can’t hire me? Bummer.
If you haven’t felt any of the pain yet because you don’t have a 401k, don’t care about your 401k, haven’t been laid off, couldn’t pay your mortgage etc., then you should feel lucky. But you shouldn’t get too confident. Economics works quite quickly, I mean look at how quickly it’s been transformed in a matter of weeks! More and more jobs will be lost. More and more people are going to start suffering, and not just in the US! Europe and even Asia are feeling the pain. China is probably going to stab itself in the foot when it realizes the United States owes it a bunch of money that it doesn’t have…
Is it time to start budgeting? You bet. Is it time to start taking a hard look at the company you work for and try to see if you’re important enough to stick around? Look at your emergency funds. Do you have enough to stay afloat while we all wait out the storm? These are serious questions everyone should begin to ask themselves. I don’t know if anyone should feel comfortable right now. This is a time where fear can be an extremely valuable asset to save yourself from not doing enough to save yourself from economic ruin.
Did I lose my job? Yes. I did. I’m not THAT worried about it because I don’t have a family I’m supporting and I have no kids. So for me, not too big a deal. However, I worry about others. I was a relatively cheap asset to get rid of, so who knows how it’ll go for others. Financially ruining me will not really affect the economy, but financially impacting a family who then goes off to lose their home is a BIG, BIG DEAL.
Start to plan. Do not wait for things to get better; they will get much worse before that occurs. Do not bank on the US presidential election to save us. Believe me, even with a new president in office, it is going to take a while for us to recover. Despite the government’s best efforts to “bail us out”, they can’t. We’re simply in deep trouble from too many angles for inflation to save us.
Just to get this out formally, the 700 billion dollar bailout sucks.
Do I think it’s a good idea? No. Do I feel we have no choice but to let it happen? Yes. Essentially, Wall Street is afraid, and is now looking towards the government for reassurance. It’s pathetic and an insult to a capitalistic society. Will I get a bailout if I go into massive debt? No. Quite frankly, I’m not important enough. When you become important enough, only then will you have protection against ever failing.
It’s amazing how the market will start to swing upwards even on the mere HOPE that the federal government will go through with the plan. They don’t even have to pass the dang bill and the market starts going up again. Yes the gains do not outweigh the losses, but the way people act is just incredible, especially when they are scared. It would make a great psychological study I think.
The congressmen and women who voted down this bill don’t like it, but they do not realize that it would be worse NOT to pass it. I mean yes, taxpayers will essentially have to eat up three or four thousand dollars. That’s a lot of money. But look at everyone’s 401k’s!! They are sinking, and I bet they’ve been hit a lot worse than that amount of money. I don’t even have a 401k and I can feel everyone’s pain! The truth is people are left in the dark about important legislation. It’s just become a lot more apparent now because this happens to be a really really really important piece of legislation.
I was listening to the radio when one of the Senators (I don’t remember which one) mentioned that people should be suspicious of government. It’s sad when someone in the government has to say something like that. People should NEVER have anything to be suspicious about when it comes to our own elected officials. People blame the government for a lot these days, and it doesn’t matter whether a Democrat or a Republican is in office. They always manage to screw something up. It’s no wonder that people are sick of the one thing America has to be proud of: it’s political system and the right to have freedom of choice and the freedom to elect our representatives. Sometimes I almost feel like some people would gladly give up this freedom. I personally would never want to, but I can see why some of these people who go so far as to say such a thing.
The problem with this bailout is that it really is a catch-22. The government did not regulate a thing, and we trusted it. Now we’re in this mess because of it. And now we are expected to trust it anyway, because the one’s who caused this problem are the only ones who can fix it.
It has been said that Americans of my generation are the most irresponsible and the most reckless when it comes to finances. Some blame parenting. Others blame schooling. Yet others blame the media for encouraging spending. So who’s really to blame? I don’t really know. Honestly parents should be teaching finances to their kids, but that’s just me.
But that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about the current economic situation in the United States. Public schools are cutting back funding, food prices are going up everywhere, and well, now gas is coming down, which helps slightly, but not much. How do you explain to a bunch of kids that their teachers are no longer teaching or that Dominoes Pizza’s 5-5-5 deal is now $5.55 for three pizzas? The answer is by finally teaching them about economics.
Microeconomics is typically the intro course to economic study… in college. I didn’t say we needed to teach kids about economic theory. What they need is practical economic advice. What they need is a hard look at how to do finances, or what finances even imply. Ask a ten-year-old today if he or she knows anything about writing a check, how a credit card works, or how to go about getting a loan. Would he or she even know you need to build credit before you can buy a house? Would this kid even know that most people don’t pay for their houses with cash!?
Good grief! This is a world where people can make purchases online, and how are those purchases made, with cash? Most likely not. Plastic is seeing more and more use because it’s needed to make virtual transactions. It looks so easy to these kids. You just type in a bunch of numbers from a card and voila, you have purchased yourself a new online game or a new toy or new clothing or whatever you can buy on the Internet (which is practically everything these days). Shouldn’t kids be taught how to use these cards? Isn’t it important for kids to know how the world really works, before they get immersed into a world full of advertisements and people telling them to get a bunch of loans at outrageous rates?
There’s so much to know these days, that I think it’s imperative to start teaching these kids about finances and economics early. I highly do not recommend giving kids their own credit cards or anything like that, but it’s still vital they know how the system works. This is especially true with loans. Now sure, kids won’t typically be placing down payments on homes or be needing a loan for a new car. I understand that. But using a credit card is like taking a loan. In fact, it is taking a loan! That’s exactly what credit cards are, and like all loans, they have certain fees and interest rates attached to them. Kids need to learn about these details, and not just that its something you can use now and pay back later. Even with college students today, I challenge any of them to tell me their credit card’s APR off the top of their head. If any of them get that correct, then I would follow up with what the APR jumps to if they miss a single payment. This is a challenge I’m going to win most of the time, and that just doesn’t seem right to me.
Okay so let’s talk about the real issue behind this discussion: the American economy. We’re looking at tons and tons of foreclosures by the tanking housing market as well as a credit crunch at the same time. Combine these two factors with rising food prices and a higher price for gasoline (yes, it’s still high, believe it or not) and you’re looking at bad times for the United States. I’m not saying that younger kids need necessarily understand the dynamics of the situation, but look at how many young people are struggling to stay afloat in this abysmal economy. So many people have taken the economy for granted that they did not save a pool of funds in case of a crisis. Too many people felt too comfortable even as they accumulated debt, banking on the United States economy to stay strong. This obviously backfired. And now the government has to step in and spend money to help these struggling families (which means they’re using your taxpayer money, if you didn’t get that already). I’m not placing fault on all families who are struggling or anything like that. I don’t want anyone to feel like they are struggling to survive. But could better financial decisions at the individual level have softened the blow on so many people today?
This is why it is extremely and utterly important that young kids start getting to know the know-how of personal financing and economics. It’s in their best interests to get a head start today, because it’s impossible to predict the economic situation of the future. There are so many legal terms, binding contracts, loopholes, and documents, that it’s enough to make the heads spin of even those who work with those sorts of things daily. Knowledge is power, and the power for kids to learn how to control their own finances so that they do not pile on debt or make poor choices in buying a home is critical in making sure the American population makes wiser decisions economically. May these current times set an example for the kids who are growing up and are about to enter the economic whirlwind that the world is today.
Regardless of your income or employment status, nearly all of us need a little help at one time or another. Now, you can
get a cash advance online, easily and conveniently.
