No Sprightly Mazurkas Any Time Soon

THE CENTURION CHRONICLE
Vol. III – Issue #30 – Oct 2008

NO SPRIGHTLY MAZURKAS ANYTIME SOON
(mostly just D-compositions in D-flat minor)

Though I’m by nature an optimist, the economic and financial disaster facing us today is just too grim to deny any longer. We’re all in for a lot of hardship and pain, and there’ll be no sprightly mazurkas to dance to anytime soon. So, let’s be honest with ourselves about it. No sense in sugar-coating things….just to kid ourselves into believing otherwise.

Unfortunately both of our majority party candidates, various government officials, and many members of Congress, all seemed focused on trying to do just that. Perhaps hoping, thereby, to calm our fears, steady our nerves, and otherwise make us believe they not only have the means, but the also the smarts, to get us out of this fix.

Reality tells us otherwise. You don’t have to be a Ph.D in economics and finance to understand that, what we’re seeing today, is just the front edge of a coming economic storm not seen since 1929. A storm most folks today either have never heard of, have long forgotten about, or, consider as an event in very distant pre-history….and thus beyond their comprehension and understanding.

But, some of us do remember it, and what it was like, if only through the dim lenses of childhood. A time when our parents, and grandparents had to literally learn how to make do with very little. A time when everyone considered the least indulgence as a great luxury. A time, even, when the most menial of jobs seemed like a sinecure, since it meant being able to put better food on an otherwise hardscrabble table, pay the rent, and take care of other necessities. As a popular book of the times put it: How to Cook a Wolf….when it’s sniffing at your door!

So, we grew up with that specter dogging us into our teens, as we headed for a future our parents and grandparents would never really know. That specter colored and influenced the way we thought about work, money, savings, etc.. It made us cautious, and wary, of displaying unbridled greed, or taking high flying gambles and risks to achieve riches.

These lessons of the past, however, were quickly forgotten. We’ve spent the last fifty years or so, flying high, getting fat, and following the mantra that greed…is good. The good times have been a-rolling for two generations now (why else the tag… BOOMERS?). Now, our come-uppance is past due, and it won’t be gentle.

As any true mariner knows…fair winds and gentle seas don’t last forever, and, perfect storms can come out of nowhere, with very little advance warning. But, there are always warnings. Those that heed them, battening down hatches, dogging down passage ways through bulkheads, and otherwise preparing for them, are usually those who ride things out and survive such storms. Those that don’t……don’t.

Well, the warning signs about this crisis were out there. Most folks weren’t paying attention, and that’s where we are today. There’s still some time to prepare for the harder blows to come. Government efforts to “lighten ship”, are merely efforts to delay the inevitable. No one should be deceived by such efforts (even if these seem to brighten the horizon for a while). The economic and financial storms are still out there, and growing, to be more violent in their impacts when they’ll finally reach us.

That’s the reality of our situation today. Each and every one of us should be preparing for it, as best as we can. If it can’t be a lifeboat, or even a small dinghy, at least have some sort of financial life vest in hand. Something to keep afloat till all of this blows over. And it won’t be for a short time. We may have to hang on, treading water, for quite a while. Three years if we’re lucky, five years, or more, if we’re not (the last such storm lasted ten years).

That’s the reality we face today. So let’s all be wary of any political leaders who claim to have the perfect answers for dealing with such a perfect storm. They’re not telling us the truth. There are no perfect answers. It will take a lot of effort, a lot of brainstorming, and a lot of resilience and tenacity, and, yes, faith, in ourselves, and in our country, to get through such trials. But we will come up with solutions to this crisis that are based upon common sense, that are practical, and most important, that are just.

CENTURION