News
The new year may well be every bit as difficult as advertised. But I’m betting on some pleasant surprises, too.
Remember when 9/11 was supposed to change everything forever? Only it didn’t.
Instead, surprise, surprise, that recession receded and we went on a five-year boom from there.
Who predicted that? I’ll tell you: Precisely no one. Back then, it was all doom, doom, with a little gloom thrown in for the optimists.
How soon we forget.
We forget when our economy is rising like helium that booms end. We forget when business seems to be made of lead and plummeting that corrections inevitably go too deep and bear the seeds of recovery.
The poison pill mortgage investments will work themselves out. Autos will be built again in America, if perhaps not by the “Big Three.” Credit will thaw, houses sell,
developments get built, shoppers shop and America’s engine fire up to life.
And maybe the cycle will renew sooner than that herd of expert doomsayers might think. Few last summer saw oil ever again falling below $150 a barrel, after all.
I don’t mean to be overly cheerful. The forces pulling us down have the feel of gravity. We’ll pay in full for abusing economic tenets we only thought we had cleverly dodged.
And we’ll soon see whether giant bailouts help or bury us deeper in the morass. That executives who presided over astounding failure receive publicly funded bonuses in the millions is not a great sign.
Personally, I don’t think these firms are too big to be allowed to fail. Forget propping them up. Let them topple and burn, clearing room for new seedlings to grow in their place.
We’re a resilient, resourceful and industrious people at root. We’ve endured true Depression, world war, civil war, and even pulled off a revolution successfully against the empire of the time.
The tech bubble burst did not end the Internet. Terrorists did not deliver lasting fear. People will buy homes, even second homes again, banks will lend again -- they have to, eventually.
Those economic fundamentals will swing our way again, buoying us where we’ve plunged too deep in our fall.
Sooner or later we’ll pop back up. I wouldn’t be surprised at sooner.
Don Rogers is the editor and associate publisher of the Vail Daily. He can be reached at 748-2920 or drogers@vaildaily.com. He welcomes your comments.
Remember when 9/11 was supposed to change everything forever? Only it didn’t.
Instead, surprise, surprise, that recession receded and we went on a five-year boom from there.
Who predicted that? I’ll tell you: Precisely no one. Back then, it was all doom, doom, with a little gloom thrown in for the optimists.
How soon we forget.
We forget when our economy is rising like helium that booms end. We forget when business seems to be made of lead and plummeting that corrections inevitably go too deep and bear the seeds of recovery.
The poison pill mortgage investments will work themselves out. Autos will be built again in America, if perhaps not by the “Big Three.” Credit will thaw, houses sell,
developments get built, shoppers shop and America’s engine fire up to life.
And maybe the cycle will renew sooner than that herd of expert doomsayers might think. Few last summer saw oil ever again falling below $150 a barrel, after all.
I don’t mean to be overly cheerful. The forces pulling us down have the feel of gravity. We’ll pay in full for abusing economic tenets we only thought we had cleverly dodged.
And we’ll soon see whether giant bailouts help or bury us deeper in the morass. That executives who presided over astounding failure receive publicly funded bonuses in the millions is not a great sign.
Personally, I don’t think these firms are too big to be allowed to fail. Forget propping them up. Let them topple and burn, clearing room for new seedlings to grow in their place.
We’re a resilient, resourceful and industrious people at root. We’ve endured true Depression, world war, civil war, and even pulled off a revolution successfully against the empire of the time.
The tech bubble burst did not end the Internet. Terrorists did not deliver lasting fear. People will buy homes, even second homes again, banks will lend again -- they have to, eventually.
Those economic fundamentals will swing our way again, buoying us where we’ve plunged too deep in our fall.
Sooner or later we’ll pop back up. I wouldn’t be surprised at sooner.
Don Rogers is the editor and associate publisher of the Vail Daily. He can be reached at 748-2920 or drogers@vaildaily.com. He welcomes your comments.
