Market Crash: Calm in the face of the storm
I pulled together this column for tomorrow's paper:
We can pretend our kids don't feel it, but they do.
They see it in our faces. They hear it in our voices. Just as they did during (gasp) 9/11.
The comparisons to that fateful day are increasingly inevitable as the nation, the world cope with what is fast materializing as the worst economic crisis of our time.
The relentless stock market plunge is only part of the problem. The real issue is the sense of loss we all feel right now. A loss of control. An inability to do anything about it.
It's a troubling message to our kids, who look to us for leadership.
Edna Herring, superintendent of the Rialto Unified School District, drove that home in a conversation with me yesterday. The fact is, children are smarter and much more perceptive that we often give them credit for.
So what do we do about it? How do we put this in the proper perspective for ourselves and our loved ones?
It starts with the long view. We've survived a depression and numerous recessions, and we will survive this.
Every decade or so, it seems, we get a major stock market meltdown - the Black Monday crash of Oct. 19, 1987, the post-9/11 sell off, and now the bloody October of 2008. In each of those previous downturns, we came back stronger than ever. Even now, you've only lost if you choose to sell.
That's little comfort to those who rely on their savings and investments for retirement income, but even there, the temptation to sell may be more likely to take you down a darker path.
And yet, with something as emotionally driven as the stock market, it's easy to get pulled into the frenzy. Here, too, the comparisons with 9/11 are apropos. As tragic as that day was, we managed over the course of the next several days and weeks and months to channel our emotions into something positive - a united front that we've sadly gotten away from.
Witness Tuesday's presidential debates. The fear and anger surrounding this most critical of elections is understandable, given the times. But when it comes from one or both candidates, we're in trouble.
They need to instill a greater sense of hope. That's what leaders do.
We need to do the same with our kids. That's what parents do.