Thoughts On Finance

The promise of big change was the winner of the election last night, as recent polls showed that for about 75% of American’s their biggest concerns were the economy.  For most of us we realize that the economic situation is serious to say the least, and the hope of change is probably the reason for Barack Obama’s success in the election.

Many American’s remain hopeful that the economic situation can be turned around by a new President, but I think that we are all acknowledging that change will not happen overnight.  This was especially noted by the votes for Obama which came from states like Rhode Island and Michigan who have unemployment rates that are above 8.7% to date.  These people are really feeling the need for change, and are hopeful that the change to a Democratic government will provide just that.

The bottom line is that we can’t afford to keep letting the economic situation get worse, and overall as a country I don’t think that the people were impressed by the recent government bail outs.  I didn’t really know much about this, and thought like many that this seemed to be an unnecessary step.  After listening to a few financial analysts on the subject I came to realize that if we hadn’t done these bail outs we would have definitely sunk the economy into the deepest depression in our country’s history.  By injecting these monies into the banking industry, our government did not improve our financial standing, however, it did stop us from having people starving in the streets, and so from that understanding at least the whole thing makes sense.

No one knows what the future holds, however as an American, I am also hopeful that Mr. Obama can hold up his promises and make some much needed changes in our country.

Many small businesses will be hard pressed to survive all the financial turmoil in this current economic situation that we find ourselves in.  Many small businesses don’t provide necessary products and services but luxury ones.  Things like getting your hair and nails done, eating out, and having your clothes dry cleaned are happening less frequent as more and more people are cutting back, so these small businesses need money to keep themselves running and to be able to keep their employees working.  The problem is that normally they would just take out a small business loan to keep themselves a float through the tough times, but with the banking system in turmoil more and more banks are reluctant to lend money and without a source of income for just a few weeks there will be many people laid off and many businesses will be forced to close their doors for good.  The main problem with this is that for the most part the whole economy is slowing and therefore there will be no other jobs for these newly unemployed people, especially in the specialty areas where they have most of their training and experience.  This will create a major unemployment.