Democracy for Vancouver

just holding our breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast thinks the great mass of Americans have been dumbstruck by the massive bailout of Bear Stearns:

The silence from the American people surrounding the collapse of Bear Stearns and the shoveling of taxpayer cash into the hole left after the implosion to back up the purchase of the rubble by yet another shyster operation is yet another example of the Tipping Point of Evil — the point at which things are so bad that the American people are rendered dumbstruck into silence.

But I think it’s actually deeper than that - at least it is for me. I have never had such a powerful, palpable sense of economic doom in my entire life, not even when my newspaper was undertaking massive layoffs, I knew my job was toast and I had no idea where I’d go or what I would do.

I was born lucky. My Dad is a successful attorney, so tight economic times may have made us drive instead of fly on summer vacations, but I never lacked for anything as a kid. And, if times got really tough for us now, I’m sure my folks and J.’s would lend a hand - though even the thought of having to ask for such help makes my stomach cramp.

But this is the first time in my adult life that I’ve felt truly scared for how the overall economy is going to affect my little family: our retirement accounts, our college savings, our ability just to get the bills paid, and our very jobs.

So, no, I don’t think the greed of Wall Street or the unfairness of the Fed bailing out banks but not homeowners has stunned anyone into silence.

We all just holding our breath, hoping our world doesn’t collapse around us.