A Sea of Red Ink: Are we drowning or swimming?

Paul Krugman argues that we are swimming and will reach shore as long as the sharks (politicians) don't pull us under. Krugman sees red as life giving, while conservatives, who splashed merrily in it when they controlled the White House and congress, are claiming otherwise.

Back in the late fifties, my dad bought a house, and he needed a loan. It was the only loan my dad ever had in his nearly 90 years. Eventually, he paid the loan off, and he owned the house, which was worth considerably more than he paid for it, including interest. In fact, it's worth well over ten times what he paid for it.

On the other hand, we all know of those folks earning 30K a year who bought a house with a subprime loan for 250K or more and it turned out the house was only worth maybe half that much. So how do the numbers look for our present economy? Are we in debt too much to survive? Krugman doesn't think so, but then there is the concern about whether we can actually pay the bills or not. Do we have an income and is it sufficient to pay the mortgage?

This Day in History:

Today marks the 46th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech, delivered from the Lincoln Memorial, and ranks with those moments when your kids ask you, "Where were you when …?"

I was on the couch in my parents' living room, about to begin my senior year in high school, resting after morning football practice in preparation for the late afternoon practice, while I watched the speech on our black and white TV. It was the most moving speech I'd ever heard.

I like to point out to people, that when they have the opportunity to watch the speech pay attention to the uniformed police officer standing next to Dr. King. Watch the man's expression throughout the speech.