In mid-September of 2008 the United States entered a financial crisis that has been called the worst since the Great Depression. The warning signs of a coming financial meltdown were evident, even at the end of 2007.

 

On the positive side New Hampshire is entering this period a little stronger than New England or the U.S. The New Hampshire unemployment rates are lower and job growth is better than the regional or national average.

 

Still, dark days are ahead, reminiscent of the first OPEC oil embargo in the mid-1970’s when then-credible projections called for the world to run out of petroleum by the year 2003. Except that this time we seem to be facing a financial world that will run out of cash. Clearly the world did not run out of oil, and the world will not deplete the supply of financial resources now. As energy markets did forty years ago, financial markets will reassess, restructure, and readjust to a new reality.