Hi, everyone, I'm new here. And I just wanted to say that our economy is the cause of so many people's problems. I'm speaking from a personal perspective. My husband and I went from making $75k a year to $15k a year. We own a small business and have been in business for years. We have NEVER seen it this bad. In our 12 years of being together, we've never had to ask for financial help and have recently had to lower ourselves to asking relatives who don't have it (or in one of their cases won't lend it) and the banks won't help because they're hesitant to give out money right now because of the economic status. I've had to sell some of my things just to get by and we're barely doing that. Our daily business has dropped so much that my husband is going out to look for a 2nd job. Our kids are in 2 different schools and on 2 different calendars or I'd be out there looking, too. I'm a bookkeeper for our company and have watched the numbers dwindle and more and more of our vendors are calling, wondering where their money is. Well, it's hard to bleed a turnip. We have thousands of dollars that our commercial customers owe us that aren't paying so therefore we don't have the funds to pay it ourselves. And it's like pulling teeth to get funds from big chain corporations. I'm not asking for anyone to help us because I'm sure that my response would be in vain but if anyone feels the urge, my email is blessedfour@comcast.net. Thank you!

Is it just me or does it seem like the government, the people who are supposed to represent us the American people, are sitting back and doing nothing? This so called economic stimulus package is not coming until May and it is not going to be enough to suddenly bolster a fading economy. We are supposed to be the world's superpower and we have so many people struggling just to get by. I have witnessed many people lately losing their jobs due to layoffs, factories closing, etc. The factory my mom has worked in for almost 20 years is closing down the end of this year. Crude oil prices have soared thru the roof, causing our gas to soar as well which has a ripple effect and impacts our natural gas heating prices, cost of goods such as groceries, clothing, etc. My brother is an owner/operator truck driver and knows firsthand the way this chain goes into effect. Why are we allowing OPEC to back us into a corner on the crude oil prices? We have plenty of resources within this country (Alaska for example) where we don't have to solely rely on them and then maybe they would see that they cannot dictate to us how much to pay and lower the prices. What are our leaders doing to help us?