Is recession such a dirty word?

Within the last few months much concern has been raised about the United States current and future economic situation. It seems that the country is in an economic slowdown and that we are heading into the dreaded "r" word, recession. The media portrays our current financial situation as a countdown to an economic "doomsday" in which the mighthy United States finally becomes irrelveant in the global economy and fades out of greatness once and for all. This being said as finacial guru Dave Ramsey points out on his radio progam, more questions should be asked about what party affiliation these media outlets have instead of thinking about a "recession" i.e. if you go to http://money.cnn.com/?cnn=yes you will find a rather pessimistic look on our economy which is known to be a libearl news outlet and if you go to http://www.foxbusiness.com/ you will find a rather optimistic view on the economy from a typical conservative news outlet.



All that being said it has got me thinking a lot about a recession. Now, I am a Biblical Studies major at Manhattan Christian College, so I will admit now my understanding of economics is limited to a semster of Macroeconomics. But as I started to think about all the potential disastourous effects this recession could have if indeed we are really in one(which I believe is sketchy) I began to wonder, "would a recession be all that bad"? But in order to pose that sort of question, another one should come first which is, "how did we get here to begin with"?





Many economists would probably agree that a major contributor would be the collapse of the housing markey, and credit crunch. Banks and lending companies were offering sub-prime loans to anyone. People wanting a new home were able to get financing with little to nothing down on a home by signing up for a variable a.p.r. Some would even take advantage of offers such as 2% loans or 0 % loans for x amount of time only to switch to a different lender once the offer was up. Many were captivated by the idea of "flipping" homes since it was a "sellers" market, it seemed instantly everyone either became a real-estate agent or landlord, hoping to take advantge of all that money! It was a great time for the economy. Banks were loaning out money, people were able to finance, there "dream home" with little to nothing down for 30 to 50 year mortgages or perhaps even, "interest-only" loans, and everyone seemed to be happy. The problem the business and consumers had bitten off more then the could chew. Essentially the lenders got greedy, and the consumers got well consumed with the "American Dream". As the interests rates went up on these sub-prime loans home owners were unable to pay for their posh homes and were foreclosed on.



The banks suddenly had a lot of property without any buyers....which lead to profit loss, and "credit crunch". This not only happened with homes, but cars, rent to own stores, and other business known to feed on the finacially disadvantaged and desparate.

Their has also been a rise in prices of commodities such as oil, corn, wheat, beef, etc. Which has set off inflation, and reflects itself in a raise of prices; eggs, milk, and bread cost quite a bit more then what it did 5 years ago.



So what can be drawn from all this? When people talk about the effects of recession I thought "you mean we will have to spend within our means, and start consuming less......and this is a bad thing?" Now I need to clairfy something, I know that their are people whose livelihood is at stake. A recession usually means high unemployment rates and bankruptcy's which aren't a good thing, and strain many hardworkers who do not deserve such a fate. But what needs to be looked at here, is how greedy and hungry Americans got for wealth and goods. We began saving less, and spending more. It is a common concernt that our generation is living a lifestyle that took our grandparents a lifetime to acquire. Their is a real sense of entitlement to owning things, and we have bought into the idea that not only do we need "stuff" but we are entitled to have it.

Food for thought.

Is it my public education?

Now don't get me wrong I am not bashing public schools here. I am more less using my public education as a scape goat as to why at times my blogs may appear to be so rough around the edges. As I shuffle through blogs I find most to be neat and tidy, lacking few grammatical errors and flow together nicely with well through out complete sentences. While I will try my best to present you with an essay that is put together and composed nicely their are no gurantees. If you are looking for a blog that could be described as a well tuned machine, I am afraid you have came to the wrong place. However, I will try to keep it engaging and thought provoking none the less!

A new venture 5 years too late.....

After talking to my good friend Simon Bates, and finding out he has joined the massive cyber town- hall that is the "blogging world" I have decided to join myself. I can no longer sit by subscribing to blog after blog and not somehow try to leave an insignificant micro footprint on the blogging landscape. What I love about blogs is this: that the millions of people who create and post on these electronic journals share one common belief.........that there opinion absolutly matters!! And why shouldn't they!

The blogging phenomena is here for a reason; whether it be to share conspiracy theories, or the beef they have with microsoft vista, or apple iphones, people share information on viritual chalk boards in which they allow readers to review and critique. The blogging world is a large coffee shop or in some cases giant protests where people share ideas and plea for others to change. Blogs meet a fundamental need I believe all humans share, the need to create, and share. And so with this being said I humbly submit this first entry to you.

My blog while touching on various topics will focus mostly two things, culture and spirituality, and when I say spirituality I mean Orthodox Christianity. For that is one of the few areas that both my heart and mind find common ground. I will also include blogs that I delight in myself and encourage others to go to. Enjoy, and visit here again!