Safe Online File Sharing & Storage. Store/Share/Access For Only $7.95/m (Not Yet an eBay User? Register Now -- It's Easy and FREE!)

Call it a recession or not — it’s starting to really hurt people, isn’t it?

I have only one very small investment in stocks. In what's left of a dividend reinvestment plan I wanted to try a couple of decades ago, I still own just over 5 shares of Wendy's stock. Too long a story for this, but I want that noted when I talk about stocks and/or the stock market. (My 5.? shares of Wendy's are currently worth -- I just checked this online -- approximately $115. Of course, to cash in on that fortune I would also have to pay 1) some sort of broker's fees, and, 2) a ridiculously high tax rate.

My son, however, who is single and has a nice income, has managed to invest several thousands in well-thought-out portfolio over the last 7-8 years. I'm proud of him, and happy for him.

I'm less happy for him when he tells me that several years of careful, thoughtful stock investing has left him currently just breaking even with the money he's invested: No gain, no loss -- just pain at watching the market juke up and down like a bad boy on crack. Or, as he put it when he came by the house last night: "Wall Street will never put a price on a company's stock based on the company's true value and stability." Or something like that.

I know there are people out there suffering in real ways much more seriously than my son does over his stock investments. Many are out of work, have lost or are loosing their homes. I'm even hearing stories about people who have taken their family pets to the local shelter because they could no longer afford the rising cost of pet food. That's not just sad, that's pathetic.

I just heard our President (well, I didn't vote for him, but nevertheless ...) do his best to ease fears about the economy at a speech in New York City. I wasn't listening closely (after all, I gotta work and make a living, too), but he opened the speech with two comments on the economy: 1) After 56 months of job growth, we have to expect a few stumbles, and, 2) the rebate checks soon will be in the mail and will have a major impact on helping the economy.

So, what do I think about that? First, I doubt any of the 63,000 Americans who lost their jobs last month for whatever reason are comforted by his "suck it up" attitude about job losses, and, 2) I really hope those checks will indeed help when they finally do come in the mail. But I doubt it.

Ah, well, what do I know. I'm just a guy who reads the papers.
[tags]stock market, economic downturn, recession, economic hardships, job loss, tax rebate checks[/tags]