This Monday morning, four years ago, you may have chatted with friends about Tina Fey and Amy Poehler who appeared as Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton to open Saturday Night Live that weekend. It was so good I wanted to see Tina Fey come back every weekend till the election so I could laugh some more.
It was September 15, 2008. By evening it was apparent that something was going on with the economy and it was pretty bad.
The stock market was down but it had been up and down before. Down 504 points sounded like a big number. It gained a little bit back on Tuesday, but then it was down another 449 points on Wednesday.
Without much advance notice, it seemed like Wall Street was hitting a wall. AIG? What was it and how did it cause so much mayhem? It said it needed a $40 billion dollar bailout. Or $80 billion. If I could get a $40 billion bailout I might like to have two as well. Why not? I mean Jeez fellas. How in hell?
The week rolled on. They built a house of cards on Wall Street and it was all crashing down. It was based on the real estate market housing bubble. Build it they did and it's funny how no one wanted credit for it when it collapsed. There was plenty of blame to go around though.
It was a good week for my vocabulary. I learned "credit default swaps," "subprime mortgage backed securities," "derivatives," and "securitization."
Of course, it would all get sorted out and it would cost huge sums of money to fix. Those Wall Streeters enjoyed good times raking it in. Did they ever think of sharing any of it with you or me? No, it doesn't work that way. But they sure were nice enough to remember us when they lost their shirts and needed a friend to bail them out. 800 billion? A trillion? How many zeroes is that?
The economic disaster circled the globe every day. The markets in Asia reacted to the markets in the US, the European markets reacted to the Asian markets and the US markets reacted to both the European and Asian markets, creating a feedback echo that couldn't be turned off.
Much has happened since those days. Looking back now it seems a tsunami came out of nowhere and swept over us, changing the landscape forever. Some people got slammed pretty hard. Some were luckier. Everyone was affected. It was the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
The United States has been through tough times before. Somehow the right people have always been there to clear a path away from trouble. Quite a few times I've thought how lucky it was to have President Barack Obama at the exact moment when he was needed. How fortunate to have his temperament and character, his intellect, and level head. I don't think people realize how much America has benefited from his example of grace and cool, but I feel it.
Coinciding with the 4 year anniversary of the 2008 economic meltdown, the stock markets have recovered and various indices are reaching long-term high water marks. The NASDAQ Composite, for example, is at a 12-year high. Whether the market's performance benefits everyone who may read these words isn't what I want you to consider when you look at this chart. President Obama was handed a disaster and it was his job to repair extensive damage to the economic system. Did he do it? I believe he did. Unequivocally and absolutely. Get out the vote and elect him to another term along with Democratic Party Senators and Representatives.