[clockdaddy]

CREDIT-CREDIT-CREDIT
For the last forty years everyone has been brainwashed into thinking that credit is the panasia. The individual, the banks, and the Federal Gov't has practiced poor money management, mostly because of greed, and spent far more than they are capable of supporting with their income.
This is exactly what happened to cause the "Great Depression". Money flowed like water and people, businesses, and the Feds, saw no end to the economic good times. No one seemed to notice the true, daily inflation rates and causes. If they came up a little short of money, it was soooo convenient to just borrow a little more until better financial (income) times. Everyone owed somebody!!
Same thing now. If our government, businesses, and we can't live within our budgets and continue to live on credit, it'll come back to bite us in the a$$.
Common sense says that you pay your bills first, set aside a few dollars for difficult times, and whatever is left over can be used for investment purposes or for helping others. Somehow we got it all turned around. Our government gives away untold billions to foreign countries to help them, buy their friendship, or just to take care of their political hacks. Businesses tend to look at investments first then operate as though they already have the money coming in from them. How do you make a budget when it's based on "ghost money"? Individuals tend to buy what they want first and what they need only as they have to have it. There's no such thing as "extra" money.
We all knew that this way of life (credit) could only last so long until we had to pay the "piper", but everyone kept living as though the money would never run out. Well, as chicken little said, "The sky IS falling!".
The Stearns bank is simply the tip of the iceburg. Chrysler is also wavering and appears ready to fall (again!). They were saved once in the seventies and the bad money practices were continued. All the government did was to put off the inevitable.
Now the government wants to prop up the economy by giving us all "rebates" on our taxes. For financially troubled people, again, all this does is put off the inevitable. If financial habits aren't changed, all that is being done is throwing money into the "poker game". The odds are against us.
I fear that the tiger is about to bite us back. The snowball effect of economic investment losses is beginning to roll and will devastate a lot of individuals and businesses. The Feds simply can't handle this magnitude of an impact. Getting back on our feet is going to take a long while.

CD