Before the bubble burst, I honestly had no idea what would happen. But now that's behind us, and you know what? It was bad, no doubt, but it could have been a heckava lot worse.
We have an economy that is shedding jobs instead of creating them. There are a lot of difficulties out there, and, please don't anyone take this personally, but I just don't think we should ignore what has happened to people who, for example, took a risk and moved into a dot.com career, only to see it blow up.
That's painful, really painful. This is a difficult time for millions of people. Not just here, but globally.
More to your point: We have a stagnant economy at the moment. Fuel prices are retreating, but utility rates are not. There are reasons for concern. But I'm 500 percent more optimistic about the future, today, than I was a year ago.
Why? Because so many unknowns have been answered.
As Greenspan once said, "As the problems arise, we'll address them."
Yes, there are problems. Yes, they are being addressed. The current climate will change. In fact, it already has changed considerably since April, and I'm optimistic and bullish about 2002.
But then, I don't live in California.
PB |
