No more CNN for me

I've officially banned myself. It just makes me upset and ends up ruining my day. Nathan was up a little early this morning and the channel was already set to CNN (and I didn't change it). So I listened for about an hour or so of how awful our economy is and how the stock market has been crashing these last few days and how all these major corporations are getting bought out by the government and what this means for us. Oh goody.
Somebody please tell me how we got in to this mess in the first place? I know that economy's are cyclical and everything that goes up must come down and it will go up again but this seems worse than downturns we've had in the past. I have to say that its very nice of these other countries to be feeding us more money that we can't afford but really! In the last couple weeks we're over $300 Billion more in debt from just company bailouts alone. I guess my question is - when is our government going to declare bankruptcy? Who is going to bail it out when it realizes there is no where left to turn? We're building ourselves a house of cards that will collapse eventually. It just scares me. Maybe I'm just a pessimist and everything will turn out ok, it just seems to me that we're putting a bandaid on a broken leg.
My favorite line this morning was some reporter lady who was on the stock exchange floor who said that this major downturn over the last few days was supposed to be a 'message' to Washington that they wanted leadership. Both in the White House now and in the coming election. Ummm.... who exactly is that going to be?? Economic leadership??? who has the understanding to run a company? balance a budget? hmmm... none of them? Our candidates are Senators. They are not Governors or CEO's. Some of them I agree with a little more on how they spend money, but I'm not going to get in to that right now.
Sorry for my ranting. Now you know the reason for my new rule: Not allowed to watch CNN before breakfast.
...ok, editing to add something. A friend pointed me in the direction of this post. Its just a random person commenting on a news article so take it for what its worth, but its exactly how I feel, and he makes some excellent points. It also makes me scared to death. (especially the end of the 2nd to last paragraph) yikes!!!!!

All these bailouts are tantamount to robbery of the American people by our own Treasury. It is the greatest rip off in history being done right under our own noses and no one is saying anything to stop it.

All the bailouts will fail. The debt bubble is too large and will deflate no matter what the Fed, the Treasury and Congress do. Bush is such a coward he would not even have a press conference yesterday after getting updated on the situation. He is so stupid he probably didn’t know what to say anyway. This administration is largely responsible for what we are facing now by ignoring domestic issues in favor of a needless foreign war. Don’t forget that when you vote in November.

The bigger question is this: WHO WILL BAIL OUT THE USA? Our debt (government and private) is so large it is impossible to repay. So my thinking is the government will continue to bail out companies like AIG just to buy time. After all, the numbers have become meaningless.

Here are some basic facts that dictate why there will be no housing or economic recovery anytime soon.

1. Our society is consumer driven to an absurd degree (70-80%). Less than 10% of our economy is manufacturing based and is shrinking daily. We do not have the manufacturing means to support ourselves. We must import just to survive.
2. Unemployment is growing and is substantially higher than government figures show. The use of the birth/death model has completely understated unemployment to make the economy look better than it is and this was done by design by our government.
3. Incomes have not grown for the average American in real terms in decades. We are already getting poorer.
4. We have used up ALL our credit. Home equity loans, car loans, credit cards, etc. Nothing is paid for. We not only borrowed against current and future earnings but also equity that no longer exists.
5. We, as consumers, have saved nothing for years and therefore have no cushion to fall back on in hard times.
6. Pensions are either nonexistent or under-funded.
7. The economic boom in the USA from 1982 to 2006 was achieved through inorganic growth. That means through mergers and acquisitions and stock buybacks rather than product development and innovation, which is organic growth. Organic growth is self-sustaining while inorganic growth is not.
8. By displacing jobs overseas, our companies depleted our own economy of the consumers it desperately needs to sustain itself.
9. Our government is completely out of touch with reality and has failed the American people. Moreover, their excess spending crowds everyone else out of the credit market.
10. There is no accountability.

All of these issues must be addressed before a sustainable recovery can begin. Our system is fundamentally broken. The virtuous circle created by Republicans Greenspan and Reagan is now the vicious circle. As the famed Austrian economist Kurt Richebacher said a few years ago warning about this calamity to come, “Every market excess must be followed by a market correction of equal or greater magnitude.” The recent market excess was the biggest in history.

We know the credit crisis is far from over. Hang on to your cash, sell your stocks and get out of debt. No one knows how it will play out but these 3 precautions will help you survive.