Milestones: July 2, 2008 - Santa Clara Weekly

A lot of people are talking about the economy and the talk centers on how bad it is.

Funny, and didn�t we go through a similar period with the .com meltdown a few years ago?

The stock market has gone in the tank, credit is tough and we have talked ourselves into a recession.

Gas, fuel and groceries are rising faster than yeast on dough and uncertainty is the compelling consensus at the moment.

What a time! Depressed asset values coupled with sector inflation spells trouble right here in River City.

While cash has always been King, credit ranks right up there as second in the jungle.

The problem right now is that a lot of people are running short on cash and the normal sources of credit like homes, businesses and property have shrunk.

Home loan lenders have gone from being ridiculously easy to ridiculously difficult.

A year ago you could refinance your home with a no doc loan.

Now if you want to refinance you have to prove you can actually dance.

The pendulum has swung as usual and gone too far as usual and lending companies have become overly cautious as usual. All this is not unusual.

Certainly this puts the squeeze on the little guy first and then, if credit doesn�t loosen up, starts climbing the food chain.

Quite honestly it is not your $600 economic stimulus check from the government.

The Feds should ease credit requirements right now.

They want the economy to turn around and that means consumers have to buy goods and services. To buy goods and services they need cash or credit. If they can�t get cash or credit, how can they buy goods and services?

Because members of Congress are guaranteed their income in good times or bad, and this is an election year, and Democrats want change, there is no incentive to really do anything for our economy until after the election.

So, you can pretty well lay odds that we will go into winter wearing a warm coat and praying for an early spring.

�� Meantime, it would be a wonderful thing if you went out to a local restaurant, had a nice dinner, and left a good tip having talked about and made plans to remodel your home.

�� You see experience, the Master Teacher, tells us that circumstances are always in flux, uncertainty has been with us since before Moses, and the future will always arrive fully clothed.

�� Being alive presents the challenge of dealing with problems, and it seems that most problems arrive on two feet, often our own.

�� There is always a way to solve a problem and it is not a sugar daddy or the good fairy. It is really our attitude in how we react to what is happening around us.

�� Don�t forget to have dessert and put it on your credit card.

Miles H.� Barber can be reached at Scweekly2004@yahoo.com