50Micron.com

..for one day and the world blows up.  Yesterday, I walked into a bunker in Culpepper, VA and was more/less completely out of circulation for most of the day.

I come out, get in the car, turn on the radio, and hear “…dow dropped over 750 points today as the House of Representives failed to pass the 2008 rescue package.”

Holy crap.

I’m still employed, this is a good thing, and the amazing part is that the recruiter calls have actually picked up in the last two weeks after a period of being dead.  Not that I’m in the market, but it’s good to know I have somewhere to fall if all hell breaks loose.

I’m going to go to ranting about politics for one post, and one post only.

This bailout isn’t a good thing, it’s not comfortable, and it’s not something I’m looking forward to.  But it needs to happen.

Kind of like having an infected leg.  If it’s too infected, you have to cut the leg off.  You don’t want to, it’s life-altering, and it’s going to hurt like hell – but to not do it means you’re going to die.

If the financial markets aren’t bailed out, credit will stop.  Businesses and private citizens will no longer be able to get credit for anything.  Small or large, whether it’s to renew the lease on your car, purchase a new car/home, or like me, front money for travel.  It all just stops.  Certain evidence has shown that this started happening months ago.  (American Express determined about 6 weeks ago that I was no longer a good risk, despite the fact that I paid every bill on-time and in-full.)

If this happens, money stops moving.  Anyone who has taken Econ-101 knows that when money stops moving, the economy crashes harder than we’ve ever seen.

Hopefully we’ll see some change in the next week or so.  Because sometimes I think that limbo is a much worse place to be.

Gas prices are down though, so maybe there is a silver lining.