The United States is officially in a recession and the train is moving fast down the track - out of control! The President and the Legislature tried to get things back on course with the tax rebate checks. That did not work. Several large financial institutions were given a boost to kick-start the economy. Not sure where we are with that one.  It’s too soon to tell. So here we are at the 12th hour and the  $800 billion dollar  bail out was just recently approved by the two houses and the President. It seems the bail out is more like a skunk in a perfume shop than something legislatures want to take ownership for.  That’s  very scary!

To the average Joe , the bail out may seem distant and not directly related to their livelihood but it is. It could destroy each of our lives as we have come to enjoy it .  The old expression,” it all rolls down hill?”  Well, we are at the bottom of the hill this very minute. It is extremely dangerous for individuals if the economy  can’t be fixed soon.

The “economic mess” we are in, directly affects the basic things we include in our daily activities.  According to the Boston Globe, the  cost of wholesale food prices are still rising. The price of eggs rose 60 percent from a year ago. The cost of pasta products rose 30 percent since last year and the cost of produce rose 20 percent since last year this time.

Now as the inflation rate increases, that is what it cost to produce consumer goods, the rate of increase of personal income for the average  Joe is at a snail's pace with the inflation rate. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, 438,000 jobs have been eliminated since January this year. Most of those jobs were in professional and business occupation. With that, the  cost of petroleum products is showing no positive signs of leveling out.

So now we have a scenario.  People must continue to  live with the economy  bottoms up. That means we have to find a way to do the basic things such as eating , going to work and keeping a roof over our heads. What will the average Joe do ?  The answer is this…only buy or pay those bills that must be paid. Stop spending money on fun things like a new car, new house, or going to the movies. Hold tight to the money we do have. What does that mean for the economy in general? It means a recession!

A recession is when people stop freely spending  money. They hold onto their money for necessities.  As a result, the market place begins to shrivel-up. There are more products available than demand. The housing market is an example of that. People could not keep up with the interest rates on their homes so they either walked away from their responsibilities or they went into foreclosure.  In time the ratio of product, consumer spending, market production and the ratio of supply and demand fall out of  order. Things begin to fall apart. That is what the President and the two houses are trying to prevent. They are trying to put the economy back on track with the $800 billion dollar bailout plan. It  is to our best interest that  the plan works. If it does not , we will be in a depression. A depression means millions of people will lose everything they worked so hard for. And the country would be in economic collapse. If  the country goes in to economic depression, it will spread around the world to other countries.