h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Since I'm fifty, I've seen a fair share of economic ups and downs in America. Both my parents were Depression-era children on farms, and my sister and I were taught to be frugal from a very early age. Similar big bank meltdowns and oil crises in the Seventies and Eighties taught us well.

Consequently, I have no credit cards or open house accounts. If I want it, I have to save for it. This takes away the "gotta have it now" mentality, and helps set reasonable goals for saving.

Only now it seems we're being penalized for being good savers. I just watched my investment account lose 27% of its value, and that is really depressing. It will no doubt slowly recover, and I have earning time left. What would a recent retiree be doing right now?

Our new instant media makes things even more confusing. It's like war taking place skirmish by skirmish. No one wants to pull back and take the long objective view. But, I think the long view is necessary in order to avoid the panic that momentary fright brings.

We are a tourist-oriented town, and we depend on the "disposable" income of our visitors to make a living. Luckily, our visitors seem to live two decimal places to the left of where most of us survive. It is now the beginning of our season, so we will learn soon what the long-term effects will be.

More than ever, h2g2's motto is central to our lives: "DON'T PANIC!"

I too am not much convinced by the whole 24-hour breaking news thing, a dramatic red marquee scrolling permanently across our TV screens (and minds). It's like everything on TV has to hit a certain really high pitch now on the emotional Richter scale. And you're right, it leaves not much space for a measured long view. Anyway, we wish you and your town well, KWDave. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

People respond in creative and inspiring ways in times of crisis. Not so long back when the Argentinian currency crashed people set up markets where they traded using a made up currency. They still had skills to offer one another and they still grew things so they used their made up currency to trade things.

All of a sudden values changed. People realised which skills and items were more important to them and the value of those went up while the value of other things fell.