'Mourning' in America: What must be done about a depressed nation
Washington (CNN) -- As the Broadway musical "Anything Goes" says, "It's always darkest just before they turn on the lights."
Recent polls confirm that the country is desperately looking for those lights amid continuing economic malaise. But positive signs are hard to find.
The evidence: an unemployment rate over 9%, the S&P downgrade of the U.S. bond rating, troop deaths in Afghanistan, soaring government deficits, a ballooning national debt, the dollar getting pummeled overseas, yo-yo gas prices and gridlock in Washington that has stalled virtually everything.
America, it appears, is stuck.
"Since the White House and members of Congress could not get it together, the United States gets downgraded," said Juneous Pettijohn, a CNN iReporter. "Let this serve as a lession! Let go of your EGOS and come together to get us out of this financial mess."
It certainly doesn't help the country's psyche when some economists predict that the U.S. could face a double-dip recession. The Fed appears to have signaled surrender by telling banks it intends to keep interest rates near zero for the next two years.
Read more: Fed keeps money cheap. What else is new?
And Wall Street reminds us every day that investors are anxious. On Monday, the Dow closed down more than 600 points. On Tuesday, it gained most of it back, up 430 points. On Wednesday, it fell more than 500 points at the closing bell.
"The Dow goes up; the Dow goes down. ... It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, really, and the more uptight we get, the more likely we are to not take risks -- that's being bearish, right?" asked iReporter WJ O'Reilly.
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_allpolitics/~3/3lVrL0xi8gg/index.html
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