Everybody’s got an opinion.

We’ve hit bottom We haven’t hit bottom. The market’s optimistic. The bankers are panicking. Wall Street has to get bailed out. Main Street must be saved.

I find myself awash in a sea of pontificating experts and I’m totally convinced that nobody knows nothin’.

We are on a bucking horse and the people on the other bucking horses all around us are screaming instructions: “Pull the reins!” “Hold on tighter!” “Relax! Relax!” “Use your spurs!” “Jump off!” “Stay on!” as they try their best to hold on themselves.

My philosophy? Oddly, not that much different from what it is during good economic times. Pay attention. Plan for hiccups if you can. Assume nobody knows a thing and go with your own sense of what will work — for you.

Maybe if we stop hyperventilating and start functioning again, we can ride this mess out intact. And set things up so no company ever again gets “too big to fail.”