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To steady economy, reach deep into pocket
© St. Petersburg Times, It will forever be one of life's mysteries to me that the only times spending money becomes the patriotic thing to do, I don't have any. The last time I was asked to go out and spend for my country was in the 1970s recession when Richard Nixon said buying a car or a refrigerator would be good for the country. I was living in the woods in a trailer, which already had a refrigerator, going broke after a bad marriage and driving a 6-year-old car that had been wrecked and was so hard to take around a left turn that it was easier to make three rights and go around the block. After spending two hours waiting in line for gasoline, I could go to the store and come home with $60 worth of groceries in the glove compartment. I felt bad about not being able to help out, and spent what I could when I could, but it wasn't much. This is a different time and a different test. This time the marketplace itself (literally) was a target of an act of war, and it is plain that disruption of our economy was one of the major goals of the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I firmly believe that this is the best time in the world to show economic confidence by buying stocks, and I am a little worried that major buyers, the ones who have the greatest stake in the survival of our economic system, have been sitting on their hands for most of the past week. My checkbook balance will attest that I am no financial genius, but if I had money I would be buying stocks like crazy at the low prices available, and holding them in the hope and belief that when things topped out again, I would be in fat (restrain yourselves from fat jokes please) city. But, alas, no cash, no flash. I am putting what I can into a mutual fund and into my own 401(k), even though I watch its value diminish every day, but there have to be a whole lot more drops in this bucket before we see blue skies again. It also seems ironic that Floridians are being urged to spend as much money as possible on restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions to keep our economy afloat. I was ahead on that one. I already did. That's why I'm broke. My fiancee and I decided to change our honeymoon plans from Ireland to St. Pete Beach and felt sorry for ourselves for almost five minutes before realizing how many people throughout the world would love to have that kind of problem. As everyone should, we will do what we can in the spending department because you don't have to be a genius to see that this war is probably not going to have the type of positive economic impact others have had. It isn't going to put that many people to work and, as we are warned by our leaders, it isn't going to produce the type of live television and headlines that have inspired market bounces in the past. Apparently, it is going to be up to us little guys to make things better. And, while I am on the subject, all of us need to take a breath. With all of the uplifting signs of patriotism and national unity in the past two weeks, we still find silly things to squabble about. A Lake Padgett East Estates widow who used to own a flag shop, hearing of the local clamor for flags, opened her garage and sold her stock, causing a ruckus among members of the homeowners association. A Spring Hill mom complained that her child's private Christian school confiscated red, white and blue ribbons attached to his backpack, and ran athwart of school authorities. A Tampa police officer was disciplined for wearing a black band on his badge in honor of his fallen New York colleagues. Employees at a library were asked to stop wearing "I'm Proud to Be an American" stickers. And so on. There is an understandable element in each story. People who live in deed-restricted subdivisions and send their kids to private schools agree implicitly to obey the rules. Cops are supposed to obey regulations. But we live in a different world now than we did two weeks ago. Focus, folks.
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Times columns today Mary Jo Melone Jan Glidewell Darrell Fry John Romano Elijah Gosier From the Times North Suncoast desks |
