The Curse of Interesting Times

The older I get, the less I enjoy the last month before an election. Can't. Stop. Heart. Racing.

News this morning is troubling.
Stolen elections. These stories increase every election cycle --disturbing in itself-- but this is really bad.

Market's in a panic, and therefore Conservatives are too. Everywhere I turn for solace (political solace, I mean. My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth), folks are throwing up their hands.

I don't know anything much about economics, but isn't it just possible that what's happening in the world's markets is the crisis Bush et.al warned us of (and certain folk said was just panic-mongering?) And by the same token, since the rescue plan has been passed but not yet effected --that'll take 30-60 days-- and Bush got worldwide interest rates cut, isn't it possible it'll work and things will be a bit more stable in a few weeks?

That's what VDH says, anyway.

First, it is not clear that panic, hysteria, and the “Great Depression” will continue to be the headlines and lead-ins each night for the next three weeks. We may be soon reaching a bottom in the stock market. Sometime in the next few days, wiser investors should see that trillions of global dollars are now piling up and could begin to prime the economy — and that still valuable stocks, for a brief period, are up for sale at once-in-a-lifetime bargains. With the sudden collapse of oil prices, the West has been given a staggering reprieve of hundreds of billions of dollars in savings on its imported fuel bills. That economy too will result in more liquidity at home. Given the shameless behavior of Wall Street, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it will be unlikely that we will revert soon to the Wild West speculation that had for the last six years refashioned the once pedestrian notion of a house into either a politically correct entitlement or a Las Vegas poker chip to be thrown down on the roulette table.

It is still possible that, by the week before the election, there will be a sense of respite rather than continued anger and panic — and any day in which hysteria is not the topic of the day benefits McCain.

Taking a deep breath.