This NY Times video piece on how three small businesses in that region are weathering the economic downturn really spoke to me. You can see a certain pain of responsibility and worry in the owner's faces.
I knew running LRRD wouldn't be easy, but this downturn was a nasty surprise. A startup in good economic times is hectic, stressful, and difficult. Kate reminds me that this will really test us and teach us, and she's right (a woman in the video sums that up nicely).
The bicycle builder's story was particularly interesting for me. High gas prices made bike sales skyrocket last year; and now he's suffering because some of his main buyers are the big automakers, who "aren't buying anything now."
I'm not happy our world is going through this, and hope we'll avoid another one with lessons learned. We can't led unfettered greed run our economic system. From one of my favorite political blogs I learned that the WaMu failure occured after horrible abuses of the lending system. This article will shock you.
When I was buying our building in 2007, a bank officer in Carbondale, after hearing I didn't like the appraisal, said, with no hesitation, "Call her and tell her to change it."
That was the mood and ethic that led us to this.
(Photo from Worksman Bicycles)Labels: economy, Kate, NY Times, video
