Reporter's Note: I write a letter to the president every day. It can interfere with shopping, but that's not such a bad thing.

Dear Mr. President,

Well, the long holiday weekend is drawing to a close. We now have less than a month until Christmas, which means a lot of us will be growing ever more involved in the whole shopping/buying/wrapping/giving business in the next couple of weeks.

That or in several weeks we can get involved in the whole panicking/running/buying whatever we can find/giving Uncle Chuck a Chia Pet business.

I realize that the economy certainly needs a boost, so probably you are hoping for a lot of enthusiastic buying. But I'm not so sure how that will work out. Arguably one of the reasons we got into this mess is that we were too fired up about our purchases. We bought houses, cars, electronics, clothes, and Furbys as if there were no tomorrow. Our debt piled up, or savings dwindled, and when the rainy days came we had nothing to carry us over.

So while I hope that we have a good shopping season, I tend to think that it might be better if we also show a little restraint. After all, how many more flat screen TVs can we watch anyway? Might be better to have some money for such things down the road, rather than scrambling to spend it all now.

Call if you have a moment.

Regards,
Tom