Is ANYONE paying attention?

I don't care if it's repetitive, I'm going to keep blogging about the sagging economy and its effect on ALL of us. Oil prices just hit a new all-time high, and much of the reason for this latest spike in prices is the continuing collapse of the U.S. Dollar: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080303/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices. This collapse affects virtually everything we do and buy, the price of oil just being the most obvious example. In a domino-like effect, this causes products we buy to become more expensive, as transportation costs rise. No matter what you buy, you'll pay more for it as well as more to go to the place to buy it. This higher cost is most evident in the cost of food, where such staples as milk, bread and fruit are more expensive than they were less than a year ago.

All of this ties directly into the fall of the Greenback, which itself is to a large degree based on our government's incredible state of indebtedness. People around the world (as well as here) have no faith in our economy to pull itself together. And don't get too excited about those "economic stimulus" checks that many of us are supposed to receive at some poin in the next couple of months. First of all, writing these checks will put the government is even more debt, which is the last thing we need. That will cause even further selling of U.S. Dollars, which will in turn drive oil prices up even higher, and round and round we go. Second--and this is a dirty little secret that the President, Congress and the IRS didn't share with anyone--did you all know that those checks will be considered to be taxable income? Yup, after taxing us to get our money, and then holding it, the government gives a tiny fraction of it back to us and is going to tax us on it again. Isn't that special? My advice to everyone is to NOT spend the money. Set aside a chunk of it for taxes, and then put the rest into a savings account. Believe me, you're going to need it.............