Riding the Waves of Fortune

      For many people, the future looks bleak. Unemployment is sky high with no clear signs that it is going down.  Credit is tight so almost nobody can get a loan, and people who over leverage themselves are under a sea of red ink with their less than valuable homes.  The fear and despair has become so prevalent that many students and families are considering this a permanent malaise which is strangely reminiscent to the late 1970’s in which America was in a dramatic economic stagflation of high oil prices, little economic activity, and a lot of loss manufacturing jobs to Japan. Back then people thought that the American economy was in a depression. Even the President at the time, Jimmy Carter made his infamous “Malaise Speech” in which he described a “crisis of confidence”. However, after the malaise, the country experienced unprecedented growth in the 1980s and the 1990s.  This fear tends to blind a lot of people to put the economy in perspective.  Ever since World War II, the United States economy has gone through several major contractions or recessions from the relatively mild 2001 recession to the rather painful double-dip recessions of 81 and 82.  Even though people generally are fearful of recessions, they are necessary. Recessions’ help get rid of excesses in the market such as the housing market, and it also expedites changes in the market such as news papers moving from the printed word to the digital web. It also forces companies to become more efficient in their business operations. Try as we might, it will always happen, fortunes will go up and fortunes will go down. This is the case of the business cycle. One recession helps spark the next economic expansion, and no recession no matter how severe lasts forever. It is comparable to a passing storm; it creates havoc and leaves just as soon as it arrives while leaving a mess that result in a cleanup and reorganization.  As for the people who view their future as very bleak, they should take heart in that markets will recover, the credit markets will loosen, and jobs will slowly come back. It is just a matter of riding the waves of fortune.

Vocabulary Words

Havoc

–noun

1.

great destruction or devastation; ruinous damage.

–verb (used with object)

2.

to work havoc upon; devastate.

–verb (used without object)

3.

to work havoc: The fire havocked throughout the house.

—Idioms

4.

cry havoc, to warn of danger or disaster.

5.

play havoc with,

a.

to create confusion or disorder in: The wind played havoc with the papers on the desk.

b.

to destroy; ruin: The bad weather played havoc with our vacation plans.

Expedite

verb, -dit·ed, -dit·ing, adjective

–verb (used with object)

1.

to speed up the progress of; hasten: to expedite shipments.

2.

to accomplish promptly, as a piece of business; dispatch: to expedite one's duties.

3.

to issue or dispatch, as an official document or letter.

–adjective

4.

Obsolete . ready for action; alert.