Sunday, August 7, 2011

upgrade, downgrade

The "downgrade" part is that on Friday Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit rating of the United States, meaning that this country no longer has its AAA status.  The stock market is going crazy and economic news generally isn't good, so that leads some to wonder if we are back in a recession -- to which I say, what makes you think the 2008 recession ever ended?  Just because corporate bottom lines improved doesn't mean that the financial health of the general population improved at all -- and the corporate numbers mostly look better because big corporations are sitting on tons of cash and not hiring.

None of which do I want to think about.  I'm on vacation, and I won't be watching Brian Williams all week.

Our flight to Philly yesterday was good... I was upgraded to first-class, and that always feels good, of course.  The family visits are going great, and last night we went to one of the local bars in downtown Millville to hang out and also hear James and his friends sing some karaoke.  Today is a big-bash barbeque, and it sounds like 45 family members and friends might show up for that.... so I'm off to cook some burgers.... There will be some relaxation coming up later in the week.  Let's hope the whole country relaxes a little.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Michael's family is 1/5 of that number!