Wall Street's Worst Week EVER!

When I get home in the evenings, the markets open in the U.S. I watched most of the market action this past week, except when I was at FHE or studying Russian with the other seniors. The only word to describe it was 'brutal'. The G7 meeting revealed more than what was written on their summary document...nobody knows how bad the economic crisis is and nobody really has a plan to fix things. On a brighter note, they are willing to try just about anything. On a dimmer note, it just shows how desperate the situation really is.

So, we will hold our breath and see what happens this week. Here is a summary of what I remember:
1. Goldman Sachs traded at $75 a share on Friday. They are supposed to be the brainiacs of Wall Street. In fact it was touted at the beginning of this crisis that they had made big money betting against what they were selling to their clients! They were just a few months ago trading at $250 a share. That's a loss of 70 percent of their stock value from peak to trough.
2. At one point on Friday, the Dow was off over 6,000 points or 42 percent of its 52 week high, which, by the way, was one year ago to the day!
3. I own municipal bond funds that are now paying over 9 percent tax free dividends. You guess how much they had to fall for this to be the case!
4. Some stomachs will turn when September statements are read, but that won't seem so bad when compared to the first week of October!

To get my mind off the markets we had meetings all weekend long. Saturday started off with a YSA Conference Planning Committee Meeting. Young Single Adult representatives from all over the Area convened in our conference room for their first planning meeting. Three joined by video conference and one by telephone conference. I was their technical support person. I just worked in my office while they had their meeting. Their only need was an extra set of dry markers for the white board.

We watched General Conference last weekend, but saw the re-broadcast of the Priesthood Session on Saturday night. Chris went over to Sister Yorgesen's to learn a new crochet stitch, while Brother Yorgesen and I were at church. Unfortunately, Chris's glasses weren't up to the task and she had to abandon the plan. The stitches were just too small to see. But it was not all a loss, the Yorgesen's invited us for dinner! Pork chops, scallopped potatoes and homemade pudding. A nice way to end the day.

On Sunday, I catered lunch for the Area Council Meeting and served as scribe during the meeting. I served a Russian salad that I have learned from the sisters in our office and it was a big hit. We also had sandwiches (different cured meats and cheese), potato chips, cookies, sliced apples and fruit juice. They will remember the lunch a lot longer than they will remember the meeting minutes! This was the first meeting with the Area Presidency since they returned from General Conference.

Tonight we spoke with Nick and Lore, Sarah, Eden and Zack. We left messages for our friends Gil and Debbie, Chris's Dad, and Jason. We spoke with Jessica yesterday. My mom and dad are next. Chris's mom and Jack are in Maine.

I hope we all have something to celebrate by the end of next week. It would be enough to know that the sky is not really falling!