The stock market was down more than 500 points before 9:30 a.m. One ABC reporter announced that the 20% loss this week was the definition of a stock market crash. The President is to make another short speech shortly in an effort to alleviate the panic selling that has consumed the stock market this week.
Ordinarily, watching the market for many of us is a matter of seeing numbers rise and fall on a board. Certainly there are effects that touch Main Street, but usually over time as a result of a trend and not enough to cause panic on Elm Street. These times are different, almost surreal.
A little over a week ago, a Mohawk Carpet plant closed in a neighboring state, close enough to make us take notice, but still across a state line placing a little distance between “us” and “them.” Day before yesterday a Shaw Carpet plant closed, laying off 600 people. Again, the plant was in Georgia but close enough to the state line to make us take notice. Yesterday, the Tecumseh manufacturing plant, the primary industry of a neighboring county announced it was closing. The workers had no expectations of going to work only to be given pink slips before they had unpacked their lunches. The Tecumseh closure effectively wipes out the incomes of one rural county.
Many smaller home owned stores and factories have been closing the doors systematically for months. Now, we have lost our anchor manufacturing plants. Unemployment is skyrocketing in our area of the south. Food prices have increased in the direct proportion to the drop in the stock market.
And, Sarah Palin and John McCain are talking about Bill Ayers? Desperately out of touch!
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