Will common sense return?

Amid the staggering market losses and the frightening prospects of life with an economy that has no $700 billion lifeline, we’re left with many more questions than answers, and a surplus of anxiety.

We will not attempt to offer speculation on what will happen next, on who really ought to be held accountable in one of the great government and economic dilemmas of this or any generation. Not today, anyway.

The message here is more about an expectation that on the other side of whatever is about to happen to our financial systems that some genuine common sense rises to the surface.

And stays there.

Dependable leadership rests on common sense. Oh, there are many other traits of true leaders. But at the core of them all: common sense.

So much about this current crisis reflects a lack of common sense. It’s as if we learned nothing from the dot-com bubble or any other.

During that time of suspended reality, profits didn’t matter. Even revenues were optional for startup companies flush with venture capital and riding high on proceeds from initial public offerings that pumped in cash but did nothing to transfer ridiculous projected numbers on paper into more than “Monopoly” money.

If all of that seemed weird, that’s because it was weird. It was dumb. It defied basic business common sense.

You can’t build sustainable operations on wishful thinking or paper-shuffling alone.

Seems we didn’t learn enough from that experience. Whatever resurgence of business or political common sense that occurred in the recession that followed the dot-com bubble’s pop faded away.

We should remember, though, that the vast majority of Americans didn’t abandon their good sense. They marveled at the spectacle of sub-prime lending, of credit-card lifestyles out of control, but knew something wasn’t adding up.

Common sense made the steady middle-class homeowner realize that he should not take out second mortgages or equity lines to finance vacations or luxuries. Too much risk if something went wrong.

Common sense made the regular Joe wonder how people with modest incomes were able to obtain loans on $500,000 homes. Common sense made the Mom driving a Honda Accord wonder how so many others at the stoplight could afford payments and gas costs and insurance on so many gargantuan vehicles with pricetags over $40,000.

So where do we go from here?

Experience shows that those who return to the proven fundamentals during the most challenging situations stand a better chance of overcoming problems. We’re all mad about where we’ve come and how we ended up at this point of uncertainty.

Unfortunately, the most grounded citizens who have made solid choices through the most tempting times will pay a price. Yes, you are holding the bag.

It may feel as if you are being punished unfairly for the greed, hubris or irresponsibility of others. And you are. Who knows how far your taxes will rise, how low your investments will fall?

But also know this: Your common sense on an individual level may have literally saved the day. Without millions of individuals deciding alone or in consultation with their families that something didn’t seem right and deciding not to take mysterious risks, this crisis could have been unimaginable in scope.

The anxiety isn’t going away soon. You can’t predict what happens next in uncharted territory. Your common sense, however, sets the example for life after this mess and serves as the core fundamental that we can all build upon.