As we wrap up 2008 it is about time to close the office for the final time this year. Every year we reach this point, closing the books on another year with HSBC, and before that Household International. 2008 seems like a very bad year, when compared to the other ten years since we began.
It is hard to categorize 2008, as mortgages go to foreclosure, credit card rates increase, credit limits decrease, and the economy stumbles. As I look out my store windows on Main Street the sun is starting to set on the final day of 2008. Maybe it is what I don’t see that sums up 2009. No cars, no traffic, and no people.
We are a small part of rural Midwest America. For the most part we are unaffected by foreclosures, but we saw plant closings and job losses in 2008. Our small town is touched by personal financial losses and shrinking 401K plans.
There are no mortgage brokers in town any more. Only the banks make home loans, and they want twenty to thirty percent down and good credit. Realtors and car salesmen think they have jobs, but they really don’t.
Our friends over at Mortgage Blues wrote a year-end article about people who look out for themselves while denying the obvious. It seems there are a lot of people looking out for themselves, and many others are just praying that gas prices don’t go up any time soon, while praying for food prices to go down.
Let the lawyers do what they do best in 2009, while customers protect what they can. Now is not a time to point fingers or place blame. It is the end of 2008. At least we made it through the year.
What will we have in 2009? What was taken from us in 2008? Do we have our dignity, or did we lose part of ourselves in 2008? Where does America stand at midnight, December 31, 2008? Did our government sleep while coyotes ran free through our flock?
Last Sunday my wife and I drove past a field. I saw a dog approaching one of the cows in the field. I told my wife that the cow was ready to kick the hell out of the dog.
My wife replied that it was not a dog at all, but a coyote. I was watching the road, and didn’t see it at first. My wife said the cow probably had a baby on the ground, perhaps a newborn calf.
What amazed me was the life and death struggle, in plain view of everyone, and in view of all the other cows. None of the other cows came to help. They did not know, or did not care what was happening. It was not their fight, their baby, nor their business.
That also pretty well sums up subprime, predatory lending, and the credit card business for 2008 as well. For those who need help we certainly hope you receive it. For those who can help, we certainly hope you see fit to do so.
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