I’ve had this one bottled up for awhile.  The post of the year goes to Steve Thomas.  It was in response to a post I put up on the economy and, as the days have gone by, Steve’s advice has become better and better:

 “There comes a point in every storm, we’re all we can do is lash ourselves to the mast, let the storm blow itself out, and hope the ship doesn’t sink in the meantime. I read in the WSJ yesterday that developers are looking for their bailout. Where does it end? I think the main problem IS government intervening on such a massive scale. The market hasn’t a chance to work. I agree, the housing market needs to bottom out and stabilize. People who shouldn’t have purchased homes in the first place will most likely lose them, but we should remember it was government intervention and lack of oversite that set the stage where these people could purchase homes, not to mention a lot of greed on behalf of the lenders. I think in the long run, the country will be better off. Lending standards will lossen over time, but not to the point where people can carry as much debt, especially unsecured debt. Household debt is shrinking marginally. Let’s hope this trend continues. We each have a responsibility to right our own ships, get our own finances straight. Then we can hold the Fed and State Gub’ments accountable too.”

Sadly, there’s not a prize other than my unending respect…:)