Financial Shakeup this weekend

[Phokaioglaukos]

Don't hold back so much, guys. Tell us what you really think.

The US economy is 60% consumer spending and the savings rate is a negative number (we're spending our savings--not saving at all!). When The value of most people's principal asset (house) declines for the first time in memory and the cost of borrowing spikes, we're set for a major recession that will readjust the entire economy. It will not be pretty.

How many of you have cut back on non-necessary expenditures? We sure have.

Where is our economy going? You may recall that President Bush got rid of his economic adviser Lawrence B. Lindsey back in 2002 after, among other sins, he claimed that a war in Iraq might cost as much as $200 billion. At the time, White House staffers sneered that Lindsey was being alarmist. Hardly. One commonly cited estimate of Iraq's cost, based on an August 2007 analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, is $1 trillion, and that's probably on the low side.