A Crash Course in Economic Crashes
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The first time I was in a car crash, I was 6 or 7 years old. That's a long time ago. But there are certain things about it that I remember quite vividly.
My father was driving. The road was icy. We began to slide. This was in the days before seat belts, and cars had bench seats, upholstered but not shaped for each individual bottom. My father shot out his right arm and pressed me against the seat back to keep me from flying forward if, indeed, we were going to end up hitting something.
What was most extraordinary was how long it seemed to take. How time slowed while we slid forward and sideways, heading onto the shoulder, then past it. It seemed as if we had all the time in the world, yet there was nothing we could do to get off the ice, alter the trajectory, slow down ... nothing ... until we crashed.
As I read the economics news, I'm having that exact same sensation that we're in a slow-motion crash. Each week, sometimes daily, we slide by a new warning sign, another wreck that's already off the road. The new one is Lehman Brothers. Before that, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Before that, Bear Stearns.
The first time I was in a car crash, I was 6 or 7 years old. That's a long time ago. But there are certain things about it that I remember quite vividly.
My father was driving. The road was icy. We began to slide. This was in the days before seat belts, and cars had bench seats, upholstered but not shaped for each individual bottom. My father shot out his right arm and pressed me against the seat back to keep me from flying forward if, indeed, we were going to end up hitting something.
What was most extraordinary was how long it seemed to take. How time slowed while we slid forward and sideways, heading onto the shoulder, then past it. It seemed as if we had all the time in the world, yet there was nothing we could do to get off the ice, alter the trajectory, slow down ... nothing ... until we crashed.
As I read the economics news, I'm having that exact same sensation that we're in a slow-motion crash. Each week, sometimes daily, we slide by a new warning sign, another wreck that's already off the road. The new one is Lehman Brothers. Before that, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Before that, Bear Stearns.
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