Speaking recently before the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke presented a sobering view of the economy. Mr. Bernanke said if, and the key word here is IF, the actions of the new administration are successful in bringing back financial stability and restoring consumer confidence, 2010 may be the year of recovery.

 

Obviously he could not make any rash promises. The point of contention is that the rescue packages and stimulus plans are a great leap into the unknown. Everything sounds good in theory, but how it will actually work in practice is something that people can only predict, not guarantee. Even as Mr. Bernanke appeared before the Senate, reports of falling housing prices and collapsing consumer confidence kept getting worse.

 

New York seems to be one of the most affected states, with bankruptcies and foreclosures on the rise. Bankruptcy law firms in Long Island NY are receiving and ever growing number of calls from people looking for protection to help them retain what little they have left in the face of this disaster.

 

The fact remains that while all the long term plans for economic revival sound great, the average American family is not looking towards the next year. Rather, they are wondering how to survive the next month. Certainly, lower gas prices have helped and elevated levels of consumer spending have kept the economy afloat, for the most part. But foreclosures and bankruptcies continue to rise. Gas prices have maintained low price along with other day-to-day expenses. The logic is, money saved on day-to-day expenses should be used to pay off mortgages and other debt, but this does not seem to be happening. Perhaps this is because we, as a society, are very dependent upon credit.

 

With people caught between a rock (bankruptcy) and a hard place (foreclosure) it’s not easy to decide which way to go. And with no immediate resolution to our economic woes, unpleasant decisions need to be made and made soon.

 

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under Financial Market, General Information, Long Island Bankruptcy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.