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A Wild Ride

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THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: December 27, 2008

When the year 2008 dawned, we all knew the White House was going to be up for grabs. That guaranteed things would not be dull. The past year definitely wasn't boring, but not for the reasons people thought at the start of the year.

As the year dawned no one really imagined a first-term member of the U.S. Senate would win the Democratic presidential nomination against the well-oiled and sharp-elbowed Clinton political machine. And few foresaw that senator becoming the first African American to win the White House in a campaign in which race was mostly a nonissue.

Only people in the arcane world of high finance had heard of a credit default swap or could tell Lehman Brothers from Bears Stearns - or Yogi Bear. We also doubt anyone was wondering "who's going to bilk supposedly sophisticated people out of $51 billion right under the noses of federal regulators this year?"

Then there was the Energy Patch-2008 Edition. Who could have imagined oil hitting $147 barrel and gasoline soaring well above $4 a gallon even though there were no major disasters along the production and distribution chain? Then who saw the collapse back to sub-$40 a barrel crude and $1.60-a-gallon regular? Only the people whose crystal ball showed the tsunami about to sweep over the U.S. housing market and the world's financial system, that's who.

We don't know about you, but that was more than a year's worth of excitement for us.

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