Mandy's Mercurial Monologue

8/14/2011  As I read the headlines this morning that foretell a likely downgrade of America's credit rating, I could see that image of the cartoon people from airline instruction cards, bracing themselves for impact. We all need to prepare for a bumpy, economic, emergency landing. So, what do we do? I've lived through more than one economic downturn in my life, the most extreme of which were overseas. I had the cushion of hard currency as an exchange student and as an international worker; the people around me had the cushion of having prepared, put by (horded), and using their means frugally. Let me say here that I really don't expect some post-apocalyptic nightmare scenario to materialize with people starving in their basements, having eaten their family pets, and killing their neighbors over stale croutons. What I do expect we could see is more unemployment, more uncertainty, inflation and possibly shortages of foods and durable goods. It is possible we could see