Individual Blog

#1

Economic Crisis in the U.S.

According to CNN, in New York, on Wednesday, Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich warned Americans not to be overly optimistic that the U.S. economy might rebound by the end of summer. "'More realistically, we are going to go into 2009 with a serious recession,' Reich, now a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and author of the recent book 'Supercapitalism,' said on the CNN program 'Issue #1.'"

Reich was also quoted in the article as saying, "You've got food and energy prices, fuel prices going way way up...You've got wages stuck. You've got people who are losing their jobs. You've got housing prices going down. I mean, it's pretty bad."

In my local politics class, my professor spent almost an entire lecture on the United States' economic crisis to demonstrate how it ties in to local politics and California's economic crisis. He pretty much pinned the crisis on credit and the houssing market.

This is a serious issue.

In a country where a person cannot buy a house without "good" credit, where have the days of saving money for things gone? Who needs to save anything when pretty much anyone can be approved a credit card? Since I turned 18, in 2005, I have been sent a countless amount of pre-approved credit cards in the mail, none of which I have used, and I wonder why our country has made it neccessary to rely on credit.

I am terrified of the day impending day when I have to buy a house. What will the market look like then? Also, I will probably have to invest in a good bicycle to get to work in, if I am lucky enough to have a job, because by then gas will be well over $5.

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