Personally, 2008 looks like it's going to be the best year yet by far for me and my family economically. As for the current problems in the economy, it mostly has its roots in the housing bubble bursting and the subprime credit crunch. Also keep in mind that it's not just a Republican issue by any means, considering that Democrats control the House and Senate. A number of people trace the problems back to Greenspan's policy of keeping the interest rate at the bottom of the bucket for an extended period of time. And looking forward to our next president, I see one candidate who has a much stronger financial track record than anyone else out there and he happens to be a Republican; Romney. With what he did with the deficit in MA and his turnaround of the SLC Olympics, not to mention his extensive record in the private industry, I don't see anyone else running who can hold a candle to him in that area. He's been accused of being a flip-flopper, but the only area where he's really shifted is the abortion/stem cell arena and he made that change years before he ran for president. So many people criticize our current president (including me on a lot of issues) for not being willing to change, but when someone else does it and lays out distinct reasons for doing so, he's attacked for making that change.
Now as for game consoles, I've been toying with the idea for awhile now about getting a new one. It's a dead heat between a PS3 and a Wii. If they had BluRay it would be no contest. I like a lot of what I see about the Wii, but I'm also thinking about getting a BluRay player and I don't see any sense in paying for a seperate one when for a few bucks more you can have one in a PS3. And I don't see any reason to by 2 new consoles at this point. I don't consider myself a gamer really, but I have 3 teenagers in the house and I do like to dink around myself sometimes. Fortunately, I'm not trying to buy one in the middle of this xmas madness. With 3 kids a game console will be a family thing, not a present for any one kid, so it's not fodder for a present right now and I can wait until the market settles down a little. No doubt there are people willing to pay a premium for a Wii this time of year, but not me. My "play" budget is pretty well tapped out at the moment from what I've bought for the holidays.