Monday, October 13, 2008

In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash

Anxiety, that’s what millions of Americans felt when the U.S. government agreed to bail out Wall Street, at a cost of $840 billion dollars.

I thought there would be a run on the banks like in the movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life”, or maybe people would start jumping out of tall buildings or the sky would fall. I waited for something to happen, and while the Dow on Wall Street continued to fall, the sky did not.

I know, because I looked up and watched as the sky went from blue to a peaceful purple, just like a hundred other nights, with just so many stars and planets out in space.

It’s been over a week since the historic, unprecedented Bail Out of Wall Street and nothing seems to have changed. McCain is still losing to Obama and the American people are still living beyond their means, that is they're still using credit cards to shop and the economy didn't get better, but we thought it would.

$840 billion dollars doesn't buy what it used to buy. Maybe it’s the price of war, or the price for outsourcing American jobs, or maybe it’s inflation. I'm reminded of the cardboard sign that use to hang on the wall in my neighborhood store:

"In God we Trust, All Others Pay Cash."