Looking Forward, Looking Back

This morning on "Face the Nation," Bob Scheiffer looked back at the beginning of 2008. Who could have predicted then that John McCain would be the Republican nominee for President or that Barack Obama would defeat him? Who foresaw the worldwide economic collapse? Bob said, "I did not see it coming."

And he is an expert reporter!

One thing is sure: The economy is a mess, and when Obama becomes President in a couple of weeks, he won't be able to solve all our problems in months, maybe not even in years.

Why am I so pessimistic? I, too, can look back.

I am a child of the Depression. My grandmother's house was near a railroad crossing where freight trains, puffing steam and whistles blowing, slowed down as they approached the station in downtown Fort Worth. "Bums" jumped off at our street, and shaggy men, dirty and unshaved, with ragged shirts and torn shoes, showed up at my grandmother's back door. She made sandwiches for them. They sat on the step outside the screen door as they ate. They always said, "Thank you, m'am."

Those were tough times. Hopefully, we now have "big government" -- which the Republicans despise -- but which will prevent such desperate times coming again.

In college I took Economics 101. That did not make me an expert. But I have done some reading. Also, I had experiences. Lots of experiences. With the stock market. With jobs.

Many years ago I did temporary work in Chicago. I was an excellent typist. I typed correspondence and reports in corporate offices of major businesses: banks, insurance companies, and others. Those executives thought I was part of the machine, without a brain. My observation: The heads of most firms were so isolated and insulated from the real business of their companies that I wondered why the economy did not collapse then. Maybe the execs at Ford, Chrysler, and G.M. would have understood the problems of the auto industry if they had spent more time driving cars -- including their competition from Toyota and Hyundai -- rather than flying around in their corporate jets.

No prophet me: It took twenty-five years for the economy to come crashing down.

Maybe Obama's team will find quick solutions. Let's hope so.

I doubt it. NO EASY ANSWERS TO COMPLICATED PROBLEMS.