Watching the stock market lately is like watching a train wreck — you know that there will be lots of carnage, but you can’t help but look at it. In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, the Dow has lost 1000 points over the past three days, despite the government’s best efforts to stop the bloodletting. And the prognosis for the future is bleak. When the economy crashed in 1929, the country was littered with “Hoovervilles”, tent cities named in honor of the sitting president, Herbert Hoover. Don’t be surprised to start seeing “Obamaburgs” popping up next year. It is just that bad.
On Monday, I decided that I had had enough and sold most of my securities. In the amount of time it took to hit the “Sell” button, my stocks lost value. Things were just dropping that fast.
These tough times do not bode well for Nowata County. with credit drying up quickly, there will not be enough buyers to buy all of the properties on the market. What does that mean? Property values will crash. They are starting to already.
Lower property values means less tax revenue for the county, less tax revenue means less services, less services means more people will sell, further deflating property values. It is a vicious cycle. We must all pray that the county can survive. My prediction? After all is said and done, the county will lose a good chunk of its population. It will be challenging for the next commission; you can’t do much with nothing. Kind of makes me glad that I didn’t win.
