The economy is, to a large extent, a mind game. The less people think they'll be making a good living, the less they're willing to spend. And the less they spend, the less money flows in the economy. It's a vicious spiral. Acting quickly helps to prevent the cycle from spiraling, and if the bailout's increased credit availability restores confidence, even a bit, then the economy has a chance of accelerating back to a stable state.

In this sort of situation, speed is good.

Tips for staying successful and sane
Psychologically, though, it's really important you don't freak out. Stay calm. Freaking out hurts, physically. It also hurts the people around you and it interferes with your ability to think. Ever watch a James Bond movie (or MacGyver)? When things got dicey, our favorite heroes stay calm and get resourceful, not crazy.

Stay calm and get resourceful.

There's a point in your mood where you have the choice of going full-goose bozo or simply letting it wash over you. There's a point between stimulus and response where you actually make an internal decision to freak out, to ride the emotion. Make the choice to stay off the ride.

Once you're calm and in a resourceful frame of mind, the next thing to do is think. Expect things to get better and start preparing yourself.

Start thinking about what you should be doing. If business is still churning away, do a better job and charge less. Ask your customers what they need from you and do your absolute best to get them what they need. But be careful about just offering discounts willy-nilly -- doing so could devalue your brand after the downturn is over.

If you're between jobs or things have slowed down too much, focus on building infrastructure. For an individual, that usually means training. Most of our readers are techies, so you folks should use this time to learn or improve your skills. Pick up a new programming language. Learn a new technology. There's so much free information available on the Web, including full academic course programs, there's no excuse for you to not continue your training during slow times.

Be smart about what you spend. This is a big thing. I'm not going to tell you to stop spending. In fact, a bad economy is often a great time to buy stuff cheap. But I'm going to suggest a practice I've often used during the leaner times and it's always worked: only buy what you plan to use soon.

It's that simple. Don't buy stuff you intend to warehouse, unless it's explicitly for investment purposes. If you like to knit, buy only the yarn for the projects you're doing now. If you like to collect things, only buy new items that totally float your boat. Don't fill out your collection now. With eBay and Amazon, stuff will always be there for you.

On the other hand, be sure to buy stuff you really need. Don't skimp on the medications you need to stay healthy. Take vitamins. Try to eat real food, food your grandmother would recognize (that rules out everything I ate between 1992 and 2001).

If you're a business person, keep marketing. I know that's going to sound self-serving from someone who makes part of his living selling advertising, but it's important. If people don't know you're out there, you won't sell stuff. And you need to sell stuff.