I heard my husband’s gasps Sunday night as he read the news online, but I had no idea how bad it was until Monday morning when I saw The Wall Street Journal. The top headline, which ran across all columns, screamed at me “Crisis on Wall Street as Lehman Totters, Merrill Seeks Buyer, AIG Hunt for Cash” before I’d even had time to finish my coffee.
Yikes! Just when you think things can’t get any worse, this comes along.
It’s certainly been a gruesome year financially with fuel prices rising, the housing crisis and now this growing chaos in the financial sector. And that’s on top of the wars, Hurricane Katrina disaster and other major problems we’ve been facing over the past few years. Kind of makes all that worry over Monica Lewinsky during the last administration seem like nothing, doesn’t it?
Just what all this unrest on Wall Street will mean for the communications sector is hard to tell exactly. But it ain’t good. However, I think better things could be on the horizon.
Despite the gruesome financial picture and the country’s other struggles, I am optimistic the financial markets, and the country as a whole, will be re-energized this fall following the presidential election. Like most, I believe a new administration will bring us – and the financial markets – new hope for our lives, our businesses and the economy. I hope I don’t sound too much like a politician in saying that, but that is truly what I believe.
Of course, the arrival of a new administration won’t fix everything, particularly if it continues on the same path we’ve been on. But a change in the White House certainly could instill the sense that some kind of positive change is coming. And that, I think, could go a long way toward more optimism and the improved health and wellness of the country as a whole.
