I will get on with this article,

because time is money and that is what everyone is thinking about today:

money. Seems there is all this nervousness over where the economy is heading

and whether or not we are all going to still have money to burn, like

it's been for a while. I think I am dead on the money to say everyone

is confused.

We all still have jobs (unless

you work for a dot-com company) yet, our whole economy is like a 15-year-old

girl when it comes to confidence. She can look good, be dressed great,

feel great. Yet, one person says to her, "What's with those shoes?"

and suddenly there is a crisis. She goes home, flings herself on the bed

in a deep depression as her world quickly falls apart.

Though everyone is doing better

than anytime in history, we watch the Nasdaq, the news and a little elf

named Greenspan to tell us how we are "looking." For the love

of money, we don't need to panic. A zit is not the end of the world.

A fool and his money are soon

parted. What does that say about all those losing money in tech stocks?

I don't know what has been

colder this winter, the weather or the cash register. It was only destined

to happen. My opinion is, what remains to buy? As time magazine quipped,

what is left to get after you have purchased your SUV, your DVD or your

MP3? Our economy has hinged too long on the "next big thing."

That is all retailers concentrate on. Is it The Gap? Old Navy? Tickle

Me Elmo? The Self-Lubricating Ratchet Wrench? I wish they would just bring

back that good old, dull, standard of yore, SERVICE .

E-commerce has failed miserably

in all the areas where they forgot this essential concept: People don't

buy the product, they buy the ambiance. Sure, people will shop for awhile

at Amazon.com, but that can't compete with going into a Barnes & Noble

and actually holding and touching those glossy, heavy, cardboard-covered

things that have pages or whatever they are. I'll lay money on it.

Come on, we are still makin'

the moolah, bringing the dough, earning the assets, cropping the cash,

reaping the rubles, harvesting the bread. No time to get nervous yet.

But what if times got hard again? Would we have to live off of nothing

but bread and bottled water? Would we have to return Blockbuster videos

on time and not spend $18 on fees to rent a $3 movie we kept for eight

days and never even watched? Would we have to stop lining our trash cans

to keep them clean, stop throwing away a used pair of contacts every day,

stop straightening straight teeth?

Do you know some people buy

a brand new box of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda, bring it home and then

pour it down the drain? People in uncivilized, Third-World countries have

to first let their baking soda sit in the back of the refrigerator for

three months before they can do that. We are just so spoiled.

If money is the root of all

evil, banks must be the branches. Toilet paper companies must be rolling

in the money, while leather-fastening companies are strapped for cash.

I've run out of space, and

I know some would pay me to stop anyway. But then, I guess that would

be... hush money.

[Visit Billy Murphy on the

Internet at www.ebilly.net.]