I am watching the debates tonight and was discouraged on the initial statements about the economy.  I would love to hear the candidates say that while the government will help people where possible that people made bad decisions and to some degree they will have to suffer the consequences for those decisions.  That is a bad way to get elected of course and so I won’t hold my breath waiting to hear one of them say that.

The fact of the matter is that much of the economic growth over the last couple of decades has been fueled by credit.  Credit that people chose to use (the excuse that a person qualified for it so they took it makes no sense – if a person doesn’t know what they can afford  then they shouldn’t go out and incur more debt).  We are suffering the consequences of that today as the market corrects drastically (the Dow has lost 1/3 of its value in the last year).  In these drastic times the government has to get involved.  But don’t do it by buying out bad debt - do it by investing in American infrastructure!  Invest in roads, energy, and technology!  Doing so will create all different kinds of jobs and help people to ride out the bad times.  Lifestyles will have to change for sure, but we will make it through and we will come out stronger if we invest.