in the middle of the night

While it may be a bit extreme to characterize our current economic difficulty as a coming long, dark night of the soul, we do appear to be facing an extended period of economic disruption, decline and possibly even entropy.

Our present dilemma was a long time in coming, and it will require considerable time to unwind the excesses of: easy money, low investment risk premiums, excessive leverage, and asset bubbles, not to mention our national “have it all now” attitude.

The combination of frozen credit and declining consumer spending is now rippling through the economy like the aftershocks of an earthquake. While the severity of the damage will vary widely and seemingly unpredictably, no industry or economic sector is likely to be completely immune.

As we each take shelter as best we can, we should remember two things:

1. The economic shaking will not cease until the dragon’s energy is spent.
2. Nothing lasts forever – not even earthquakes.