The Economic Pain Spreads
19 September 2008 9:40 am by Taylor Marsh
Guest post by Pamela Leavey
It’s been really hard all week to take my eye off the economic news. I’ve watched the economy worsen over the past few years from the perspective of a small business owner. I’ve seen clients lose their businesses, while I have struggled to keep mine afloat. I have no love for the corporate ho’s who would drive small businesses and Mom & Pop shops out of business if they could.
It’s been a rough week for many Americans watching the Feds bail out the giant corporate banks and the stock market tumble. Now, “the latest outgrowth of the housing crisis” and the massive “breakdown on Wall Street, threatens to gradually corrode economic activity on Main Street, mainly by disabling the credit on which so many everyday transactions depend — but also by frightening people.”
It is frightening. I was already worried about the economy before Monday’s news took my stress level up a few notches. I have no faith that the Bush administration will quell the pain and I have no faith that a McCain-Palin administration will serve the little people of America any better than Bush[Co] has.
Here’s the latest on what we have to look forward to in the wake of this Republican created financial nightmare:
Lenders of all types had already been raising the bar for borrowers, turning away all but the best customers. This week, they became even less willing to part with their money, further crimping budgets and family spending.[...]
Though less visible, the credit squeeze, if it persists, will force businesses and consumers to cut spending more than they already have.
“We have moved into a decline in consumer spending, which normally happens only in a major recession,” said Ethan Harris, chief domestic economist at Lehman Brothers. He calls the experience “a slow-motion recession in which economic growth will be near zero for an extended period of time.”
The Fed and the Treasury are now offering to “”work with Congress” on a bailout plan for the big corporate banks. This could easily become the “biggest bailout in United States history.”
It’s bad enough that our president couldn’t even bring himself out of hiding for days after Wall Street started going belly up, but I have to say, I’m really glad that the economic advisors on John McCain’s team won’t be involved in the pow wows to fix this mess.
McCain and his team of economic advisors are all “fundamentally wrong,” and offer only more of the same. Keep hammering that home to everyone you know. We can’t trust McCain-Palin to righting the eight years of wrongs committed by Bush[Co].
