My 3cents.

Please don’t mistake my attempt to see an upside as taking joy in what is happening …

But there are going to be upsides –

- more local food and a focus on “local” (“victory” gardens are coming back)
- Neighbors are actually going to know each other – and the sociological benefits of this are tremendous.
- A renewed focus on intrinsic value of homes rather than solely “equity”.

I would argue that the “wealth” that has been lost was never there at all. I wrote in 2006:

A sign of the out-of-balance perspective is a ditech commercial where the borrower says, “I just refinanced and got rid of all of my credit-card debt. If feels great to be out of debt!” If this isn’t a sign of a market screaming for normalcy, I don’t know what is.

Cycles are natural, and every up must have a down.

People want success and properity and not failure because it suits them. But failure and recession is a necessary evil and part of life.

During the boom I saw older neighborhoods see renovation take place as first time buyers lowered their sights and non-profits invested in these neighborhoods with funds from philanthropists. Now I see these same folks watch their hard work and both real and sweat equity go down the drain and the non-profits struggle to stay afloat.

I believe that good things can come out of bad situations, but I don’t believe seeing 45% of the world’s wealth disappear in the last 18 months as something that should be characterized as a good thing.

Not at all.

The other good thing is the amount of Realtors is decreasing.

Oh yea, one more thing the Automotive Industry NEEDED restructuring and were not capable of doing it themselves.

No business is entitled to success or continuation … and painful as it is, I sincerely believe that we will be better for it.

That restaurant’s vacancy creates an opportunity for someone else.

God willing, I’ll be on the other side.