A little optimism won't hurt you

I looked at my Smith Barney account the other day. YTD, my wealth is down over $100k. That hurts, and it's scary. The 'crisis' is all around us, we can't make a move without seeing a 500 point drop here, or a bankruptcy there.

With all that, there is reason for optimism. This isn't the first person saying this, but it's the first one I came across today when looking for a link.

Galambos has been thinking for half a century about why economies thrive or fail. Besides his project of editing President Dwight D. Eisenhower's papers, he is one of the country's leading business chroniclers, having written or co-written numerous books on pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, business ethics and other subjects.

"I'm optimistic about the economy other than housing and finance," he said in an interview at his book-and newspaper-festooned house in Guilford.

"That does not seem to me to be running out of steam. I still think companies like Hewlett-Packard, companies like Intel - I see those kinds of companies grinding ahead. Wal-Mart and Target - I see them still on track. So the core of the economy seems to me to be still successful, still moving forward. The question is, can we pull up" out of the dive.

It is important to note that we are living in a vibrant economy. There are people making things, providing services, buying things, and buying services. That isn't going away. We still need computers, and drills, and TVs and sheets. I still need someone to fix my car and clean out my gutter.

So hang tough, we will get through this, and end up better off than we were before.

Just be cool.

(Assuming the government doesn't screw it all up, but I think we can stop them)