Economy In Peril

It’s quite apparent by now that our nation is in a recession. Although, what are the causes of this slump in our country’s economy? In Whitney’s blog **Stars and Stripes** she addresses this issue fairly well, concisely commenting on the nation’s troubled economy while forming a solid argument for the possible causes of the nation’s ill-fated debacle.
In reference to the points she makes about the reasons for why our economy is in a recession I certainly agree. But when it comes to her solutions for solving these problems I definitely have different ideas. She argues that one of the major factors contributing to the nation’s slow moving economy is the ever-increasing price of oil. Furthermore, she points out the fact that the extremely high oil prices have a negative “trickle-effect” on the economy. These are very well chosen statements that I certainly agree with. The United States is without a doubt much too dependent upon oil. Also, the consequences of the high cost of oil are endless, considering every single thing you purchase is affected by transportation costs, which is obviously affected by the price of oil. In addition, as Whitney has stated the housing market crisis and increasing unemployment rate are definitely contributing factors to the nation’s stagnant economy.
The part of her blog I disagree with is her commentary upon the situation. She says that she wonders why the government doesn’t have a backup plan, and thinks by now there would be file after file of fool proof plans. That’s not a very pragmatic outlook, and unfortunately the solution isn’t that simple. There is an accumulation of different reasons why the economy blunders from time to time; and each reason is complicated and difficult to resolve. In essence, there really are no “lessons” to be learned because the situation is so different in each case. For example, the causes of the Great Depression in the ‘30s were dramatically different than the reasons behind our current economic crisis.
Even though I don’t particularly agree with some of Whitney’s statements, I still believe she has written a well constructed weblog. She developed a well thought commentary on a leading issue in politics and structured it nicely. It’s an important issue that does need to be dealt with to the best of this country’s ability in order for our nation to re-attain an economically prosperous society.