rude awakening

We've been pretty lucky so far with this economy. My hubby is still working. We personally know only two people who are unemployed. Houses seem to still be selling, although not as many as have realtor signs on their front lawns.

More and more businesses seem to be closing up, more plywood appears over windows of both homes and businesses, and more grumbling comes from employees of various establishments stating that they see business dropping off significantly and questioning how long they will have their jobs.

It finally hit home (for me, anyway) how bad the economy is when we tried to refinance a loan to consolidate bills. We have excellent credit, job stability, etc. We were turned down--for the first time since we were teenagers! I was in shock. We were approved with the second company we applied through, but our appraisal was about $60,000 less than I expected it to come in at, even with the sluggish market. Yikes!

Didn't Congress tell us that they had to bail out the banks in order to free up money for lending? That didn't happen. The banks that received bailout money seemed to be the first to jack up interest rates and throw every fee they could at their loyal, paying customers. (You know--us taxpayers who involuntarily gave them money for their bonuses, incompentency, and poor judgment.) Which is why we wanted to refinance in the first place. What happened to freeing up money to lend? What's the deal with skyrocketing the customers' rates while getting handouts themselves?

Thanks Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Frank, etc., etc., etc. We're indebted to you; and so are our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren....