What it was like the day of the crash

Today we saw what began on September 15, 2008. The great depression of the 21st century has begun.

My day was fairly normal. We have long since been out of the markets, and have foregone much of the normal insurance - working as an independent contractor, I was hoping to get my invoices collected today. But knowing that there was pressure on the client, I chose not to bring it up. My check was ready at 3:30.

My wife wanted to get free frequent flyer miles for our Delta Skymiles account, so after the children had all gone to school she dawned upon me that we would meet with a financial advisor today from Ameriprise. What was fun about the meeting was that , apparently, the gentleman with whom we would be meeting - would sign a voucher for 25,000 miles. Works out to about 250.00 an hour for the meeting. Close enough to my billing rate.

We spoke of plans, both personal and financial. He mentioned that this year, he hopes to get negative 13 percent. On our way home my wife - who has of late been sort of devolving into a strange kind of tirets syndrome of attacks against my character, blurted out that I had stolen all of her test cellphones she was using to develop her code on. And that I had stolen them.

We fought. Which is also all too common. I have been pretty good about getting the fights mellowed out by calling the "30 second" rule. Its where you simply listen, for 30 seconds - to the other person. Then, they , in turn, listen to you. That calmed us down. It really works. Try it

I had a build to take care of today. But after the morning, I played WoW a bit before I headed off to my office. And never got around to doing the build. In some ways, its a tactical delay - I am trying to get another set of updates into the code. But in other ways, its just plain insanity.

The children have gotten two new little kits, and are pretty happy with them - when they got home, they played with them. At the dinner table I calmly explained to my family what changes are coming as a result of what the markets are doing.

I tried to teach them about derivatives, but its a hard concept for 11 and 7 year old minds to grasp... "Its where you are buying a share of what you think a stock will do .. um... I mean, suppose a stock goes up. Ah..You get to buy a chance to make money on it if it does. " ... crickets..

So I simplified it " It means that they're taking a lot of money and doing things with it that have no laws to keep them honest ".

I helped my children with their homework later that night while my wife fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. Carrying them to bed, I thought it might be a good idea to post what it was like for me - even though I have long since been out of the markets (with the exception of perhaps the children's stock funds) ... to experience the great crash of 2008 and the first days of a great , worldwide global depression.

You see, it happens slowly in modern markets. There's too much automation. Automatically buy if it drops. Automatically sell if it rises. Etc.

Its time. Just remember where you were. It actually really happened on 9/15. The GOP this year will be yelling "Drill Baby Drill". Their stocks have tanked so far they're going to need a drill just to be able to get that cool little vaccuum tube down there so they can get enough grocery money out of it all before they're completely broke.

The sky was grey. The air was cool. There is a sense here that something is happening. Something larger than all of us.

Change is coming.