SOUNDING OFF:

This national economic crisis has me confused, and I know I am not alone.

First we’re told Americans don’t save enough, that we’re out buying flat screen TVs and other consumer goods we don’t need instead of investing in our retirement funds.

Then we’re told that we’re not spending enough; climbing out of the recession depends on us buying stuff. In fact, in 2008 household debt shrunk for the first time ever.

Either way, we lose. If we buy the flat screen, we’ll get yelled at because we’re not saving for retirement. But if we save for retirement, we lose it on the craps table known as Wall Street.

I’m thinking that the flat screen option is the smart move. If Americans had continued spending, not only would we still have jobs, we’d all be watching the good news on a cool flat screen TV.

Then there’s the price of oil. When we were all buying stuff we didn’t need, China was one big factory and they got huge and powerful and had zillions to spend on the Olympics to let us know how huge and powerful they are. But their factories wanted more oil, which pushed the price up.

Now, we’ve stopped buying the stuff we don’t need and what has happened? Not only has the price of oil dropped like a stone, China’s economy is in the tank. So, unless I am missing something, Americans are still controlling the world economy. We decided with our pocketbooks how big China was going to get and how much we’d like to spend for a gallon of gasoline. So much for having lost our superpower status, eh?

Next is the housing “crisis.” There was so much demand that people decided three hours on the Riverside freeway each day to drive to and from work in Orange County was worth living in Menifee or Temecula.

So what happened? The money people screwed it up again. The money people, the same ones who lost half your retirement funds, got greedy and started building and selling houses to anyone with a pulse.

Instead of working within a system that had been successful for decades — a system that required us to put down 20% on a home and proof that we had the income to make the payments — they opened the door to those who could do neither.

Then, when the price of oil went up, it affected the bottom lines of the companies that were employing the people who could not afford their new homes. So, those people got laid off and the economy went into a tailspin.

Once again, however, it is the average American who will pull the nation out of its woes. We are the ones who will start buying flat screens again, which will put Chinese workers back in the factories and drive up the price of oil.

And we’ll refinance our homes thanks to the low interest rates and pull out some money to buy stuff we don’t need while we forget about saving for retirement.

Then all will be right again.

STEVE SMITH lives in Costa Mesa.