The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

At least, that’s the way I’ve been feeling for the last two weeks. Every morning, I wake up to news stories on the radio predicting the collapse of the U.S. economy and life as we know it. Pretty soon, we’ll be rationing rice and rioting in the streets. I hope and pray that what I just typed is pure hyperbole and nothing more, but the last two weeks have me on edge largely because it’s so hard to understand what’s going on. What does it mean when someone says the market lost $850 billion dollars in a single day? How do you interpret the ups and downs of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and what is the Dow Jones Industrial Average anyway? Thankfully, I have found an outstanding resource to educate myself on the nation’s economic crisis. NPR’s money blog is dedicated to providing up to the minute coverage of the nation’s market woes in straight-talk English for those of us who didn’t graduate from the Wharton School of Business or receive doctorates in economics from [insert fancy school name here].

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money

Be sure to check out the September archives section because what you see on the home page is just the tip of the iceberg. There are links to articles from various newspapers and magazines, podcasts from NPR programs, and answers to questions posed by regular Joes and Janes like you and me.

And since this blog is about all-things Dallas, here’s a link to a story on Mayor Leppert’s speech to the Dallas Regional Chamber addressing how Dallas will weather this financial storm (courtesy of Dallas Morning News).

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/100108dnmetleppertspeech.c928393b.html