Yesterday I received an email from an old friend who works in banking—a commercial bank. These are the institutions that most people think of when they think of a bank. The government hopes to assure you they're safe—but more on that in another post.

In the meantime I'm passing along his email since we seldom get to hear from anyone on the front lines—

Handy,

I have been, in general, fully employed since 1963 and I have never experienced anyone being laid-off because business was bad until last week. My company is closing one office and laying off 10% of the workforce in the other two leasing offices and the bank's headquarters. Unfortunately the one of nine that went from my office on Friday was a great young man.

Bush really fucked up the economy for us this time and it has actually hit home for the first time in my life. I survived the slowdowns in every decade without really being up close to the pain. Spending, spending and spending money we don't have on a stupid war in Iraq is the primary cause of the problem though not the only one. Greed and indifference also played a role and most of it can and should be blamed on Bush and the Republicans.

PEACE!

Related post
The Depression Chronicles – 1: Bankruptcies (4/19/08)

Tags: news and politics commercial banking recession credit crisis credit crunch finance