Research is part and parcel of my new job and as I was researching in the world wide web, I stumbled upon this article on the Wall Street Journal website where there was an article on the improvement of the US economy. In that, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said that in overall, the U.S. economy is improving but still fragile. He also said that the he was confident that we (America) will return to a sustainable fiscal path but it would be unwise to be “Panglossian” or naively optimistic about the whole financial state.
In another article I found that the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in his prepared testimony for Congress’ Joint Economic Committee had said that among the enormous costs of the downturn is the loss of some 5 million payroll jobs over the past 15 months. However experts predict that job losses and the unemployment rates will come to a sustainable level. Obama’s government is undergoing a tough, challenging phase and they are working on this, so let us give them some credit for their planned bail-outs.
So my question to Mr. Lockart is “Why not?”
Why not we stay Panglossian?
With a slow and steady resurgence in various sectors like manufacturing, real estate and every thing else, this the time when we can actually breathe a bit easy. America is a great country with the largest economy in the world and also by PPP. To top it all, we have the second highest income per hour worked in the world. Everything is close to perfect so why are we being so frugal?
The world is not coming to an end. This is the time of economic re-birth world wide. I am beginning feel that the recession is becoming more of a mind thing than of a money thing. Let’s cut the recession drama down a bit and try and stay a bit more optimistic. Panglossian, maybe. 
PS: The word Panglossian derives from Pangloss, the optimistic tutor in Voltaire’s Candide.
Here’s a situation. The month is coming to an end and you are eagerly awaiting your paycheck. This is when your boss walks in and says that all the company’s paychecks will be delayed for a week due to some God-only-knows reason. How would you react?
What the fish? Why the fish?
I know how that feels because I’ve been there and done that.
But, seriously, what would you do apart from cussing about the delay? Or, rather, what should you do?
A paycheck delay could mean disaster for many people. Many people live paycheck to paycheck. There are bills to be paid on time to avoid late payment charges and a you-are-in- deep- s**t situation. When I was single in the big city, I wasn’t in great control of my money and been in that situation many times. But I became more responsible after I got married and became a mom. I didn’t have a choice but to become more responsible. And that is how I came up with my 10 Cindimandments (read Cindy’s Commandments) that can used universally.
Here are some of the things that you could do, till that paycheck comes by. What I mean to say is here are the 10 Cindimandments that will deliver you from being flat broke.
Tell your landlord that your paycheck is going to be delayed and so will be the rent. Tell your bank, tell everyone if needed. Telling the truth might actually help than sneaking out of your house before the landlord wakes up from his beauty sleep.
Volunteer to do some extra work outside that might earn you some money. Mow your friend’s lawn, have a car-wash Saturday, work in a neighborhood grocery store for a couple of hours. Are you getting the drift? There are a million tiny ways to make some extra money during that tight week.
Don’t take your car out for a week. Ask your husband/wife/mom/dad/brother/friend/anyone to give you a lift. Of course do be so blatant and be up on their faces. Be polite is asking them and be ready to take no as answer too. Better still take the bus or the subway if your office is only a couple of blocks away from your home.
Think twice before buying anything. Stick only to the absolute essentials for that week.
Switch off everything that you can switch off before leaving your home. We take everything for granted these day, especially when we are quite aware about the global warming threat. Switch off your laptop, your TV, your DVD player, if nothing is inside your refrigerator, switch that off and before I forget, switch off that damn bathroom light. On a more serious note, you could end up saving a lot of money on electricity this way.
Curb that thought of pubbing with generous amount beer on Saturday nights. Just hold your horses till you get your money into your account. But if you must, try and go there only during the happy hours.
If you have a baby sitter, give her/him a week off. Invite your mom over to take care of the baby. But you have to be sure that your spouse is absolutely OK with having his/her mother-in-law in the house. Make sure that this doesn’t blow into a ‘Monster-in-law’ situation.
If you have children and you drive them to school every morning, you might want to consider car-pooling with other kids’ parents. However, I wouldn’t strongly recommend this because having someone driving your kids to school is a matter of trust. Do so, only if you are 110% sure that your kids are in safe and capable hands.
Stay positive. Keep smiling. And stop frowning because that is no way to live.
It has been just 60 days since Mr.Barack Obama took charge as the new President and the nation seems already displeased with him. I don’t know if we are being restless by expecting a man to pull the country out of a financial crisis caused by years of financial mismanagement. Or did we get carried away by those ‘yes we can’, rhetoric and expected too much out of him.
The new president already seems to be dipping in popularity charts and NY Times even had a page 1 story on Mr.Obama’s increased grey hair in just 44 days of taking over as President.
Coming to the point, Mr.Obama’s Tuesday night press conference did not appear to cut much ice with the media and people waiting for a ‘change’. The NYT describes his address as “sounding like the teacher speaking in the stillness of a classroom where students are restlessly waiting for the ring of the bell.”
The outrage over the huge bonuses that AIG officials paid themselves was a moot point in the press conference. AIG is 80% owned by the government and received billions of dollars in federal bailout money, even as the executives paid themselves huge bonuses. When asked why he did not go public with his outrage on learning about the retention bonuses at AIG, the president has responded, “I like to know what I’m talking about, before I speak”.
Large business corporations made windfall gains when the economy was on a boom all these years and shared the bounty among themselves. Now when the economy is on a tailspin, they rush to the government with bailout pleas (sometimes in plush private jets).
Blogger Hazzard calls to scrap bailouts and let things fail, because “there are hundreds and hundreds of financial institutions out there that made good business decisions. It’s time that they got to reap the rewards of managing their business in a responsible way”. Now, isn’t that what free market economy is all about?
