Hello Mr. Wolf, won't you please sit down?

[Rob Tucker]

Years ago I adopted what I thought to be a rather brilliant strategy for defending my financial interests - it largely has worked extremely well for me, perhaps until now.

My strategy was: Do not do any business with any New York City based firms. (Won't bore you with the obvious reasons I came up with this.)

What bums me out now is that while I have not personally lost a nickel in these current events the scale and scope of the malfeasance and corruption is well capable of taking me off at the knees simply because a lowering tide lowers all boats.

Here in Puna my business is at a standstill because my clients are not getting loans. So I am actually particularly interested in how the meltdown will affect us here in Puna. For my purposes I am investing as much time and cash as I can muster and putting it into my farmland to bring it to production. I may simply be forced to change careers - which doesn't bother me too terribly - I expect changes.

Not being a sophisticated investor though I wonder if for most local folks a strategy of investing locally is a better idea. Should we form our own micro bank?

As for understanding the economy enough to predict where we will be a year from now is a tough bet. I expected the current meltdown a decade ago and the rickety wagon just keep on rolling. One immediately is faced with the simplist of questions: Are you an optimist or a pessimist?