The sky is not falling, it’s just stumbling a little

Currently, I am looking for a vacant lot to build my Hooverville.

For those who aren’t familiar with that era in history, when the stock market fell in 1929 and officially kicked off the Great Depression, people who lost their homes built shacks to live in. Those shacks were referred to as Hoovervilles because some blamed President Herbert Hoover for the Depression.

Nobody quite knows what is going to happen with this nation’s troubled economy. Except that Wall Street will probably bottom out again at some point. This is why I believe in being safe and investing in a Hooverville.

Even though the bailout bill was passed Wednesday, there is more confusion in the Senate about where the economy is going.

According to reports from http://www.news.yahoo.com, things are not nearly as bad as they were when the stock market fell during the depression. For example, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has not fallen the 20 percent that it did during the Depression.

However, as if college students did not have enough to worry about, there is a question of where student loans will be obtained because of all the insurance and financial companies that have failed. I do not personally have student loans, but I feel for my classmates who might not know where their financial funding for school will be coming from next.

Going along with student loan funding, there is always the problem of graduate school. Depending on where one wants to go to grad school, tuition can get quite pricey. Everyone is losing money, including businesses. This means there are not many jobs available since many companies have to cut back on hiring and job positions because of money loss. Finding a way to fund those extra years of education under these circumstances can be difficult.

These are dark times for broke college students-meaning all of us. Looking on the bright side, if we all move into Hoovervilles, at least we won’t have to worry about dorm and housing costs.

Everyone can read articles and information about how the economy is not actually so bad, but my point is that it seems like one company after another is failing or getting bought out by another company. The bailout will help a little, even though we will not fully know until it goes through the House of Representatives.

One possibility I am willing to explore is whether the title of the bill was the real problem and maybe that’s why it took so long/ In these times of independence, who really wants to pass something called a “bailout” bill. I personally don’t care too much what it is called, but for the people who believe presentation is everything-why not call it a “rescue” bill or a “we’re helping everybody out so they don’t get financially screwed” bill?

Speaking of companies being bought out, when I first heard that Citigroup bought Wachovia, I could not help but wonder what was going to happen with my Wachovia account-especially because there are Wachovia ATMs all over VCU’s campus and many students take advantage of Wachovia’s free checking accounts for students.

However, Citigroup was quoted in The New York Times as saying, “there will be no interruption in banking action.” I guess I won’t have to worry about hiding all my money under my Hooverville after all.

While the sky might not actually be falling just yet, the only thing I can propose is that we should all start building Hoovervilles. That way, when the sky does fall, we will all have one extra roof to protect us from the sharp pieces of sky.