It’s really easy to lose perspective in an economic downturn, particularly when the government under the president’s directive is behaving like a nervous ninny.

Honestly, we need something to happen… Unfortunately, I think Congress and the White House are chasing the wrong economic philosophy. The president COULD see to it that the 14,000 page stimuls bill wasn’t so loaded down with pork. Congress COULD take legitimate action towards freeing up credit and responsible use of TARP funds. Instead, we’re worrying about executive compensation, cramming incredibly partisan legislation through the legislative process, all the while screaming “the sky is falling, the sky is falling.”

In the end, things are going to be fine… as long as we let things be and free up asset allocation. Remember, this is NOT the first time we’ve faced a recession. In fact, over the last 100 years we’ve faced 21 recessions( see Seeking Alpha for more information). The market needs to reestablish an equilibrium, which will only happen once the necessary information is made available and assets have liquidity to move around. In the mean time, look at some of these historical quotes on economic downturns in order to gain a little perspective:

“The truth is that Wall Street gamblers are one of the causes of our frequent business depressions” –FLoyd Parsons, October 1923

“There are two great dangers to the continuance of prosperity. The first is the false idea that business is still governed by a cycle of boom and depression, and the second is that the leaders of business will think that the country is broke because some of their friends are. And also there is the danger that many executives who have been playing the market instead of working will not know how to get back to real work.” –Samuel Crowther, January 1930

“Those who favor a deficit as an alleged anti-recessionary measure tell us that it will be ‘temporary.’ But there is no such thing as temporary large-scale deficit financing.” –Senator Harry F. Byrd, October 1958

“Prosperity is when people buy things they can’t afford; recession is when they stop doing it.” –H. E. Martz, February 1963

“A recession is when your neeighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. And panic is when you wife loses her job.” –Winston Pendelton, November 1990