Folks, It’s Not the Collapse of Civilization

The News & Advance
Published: July 17, 2008

You couldn’t help but be spooked by the news Sunday afternoon that the federal government and the Federal Reserve were stepping in to shore up mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The move by Washington says pretty clearly that the subprime mortgage crisis hasn’t run its course.

And the bad economic news continued as the week wore on.

Wachovia, the nation’s fourth-largest bank with a major footprint in Central Virginia from the days of Central Fidelity Bank, reported it would be drastically increasing its reserves in the face of a rise in non-performing assets. Shares of the Charlotte-based bank took a beating on Wall Street in the wake of the news.

Then came word from the federal government that inflation spiked sharply in the last reporting period. That was hardly new news to anyone who had been in a grocery store lately.

The national housing market continues to stagnate and weaken, though in some areas such as Central Virginia, it seems to be treading water.

General Motors, the world’s largest automaker, announced a series of drastic steps to address a collapse in the U.S. market: cuts in pay to salaried workers, increased buyout offers to hourly employees, a suspension of its quarterly dividend for stockholders and a frantic effort to retool plants to produce more small, fuel-efficient cars. Everything’s on the table, said Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner.

Then, on Thursday, it’s all topped off with former Vice President Al Gore, speaking in Washington, declaring that America must abandon electric power produced by fossil fuels by 2018, concentrating on wind, solar and other renewable fuels. (No mention of nuclear, Mr. Gore. What’s up with that?) In typical Gore-ian fashion, he declared “The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. The future of human civilization is at stake.” Nothing like a little demagoguery, political grandstanding and fear mongering.

Yes, the economy is in pretty poor shape. Yes, this nation needs to face the fact that “drill here, drill now, pay less” is not a substitute for a 21st-century energy policy.

But brace yourselves for this: The sky is not falling, civilization as we know it is not crumbling and the world will not end tomorrow.

The United States faces serious challenges in the months and years to come, but in order to meet and overcome them, it’s necessary that our political and business leaders coolly and methodically develop national strategies and policies. Grandstanding and fear mongering do no one any good.

The 2008 presidential election is shaping up as one of the most important in recent history. The next president is going to face threats to the nation’s security, both economic and military, as severe as those posed by the old Soviet Union. He’s going to have to be a calming, reassuring leader who’s going to have the difficult task of talking bluntly to Americans about the extent of the threats the nation faces.

But you know what? The nation has faced serious challenges in the past and prevailed; there’s absolutely no reason to believe we, as a people, won’t rise to the occasion this time as well.