Nothing like kicking off the new year on a positive note. And, I can assure you, what you are about to read is anything but “positive.”

In fact, when it comes to the ever expanding subprime mortgage fiasco,the fun, say some experts, is only about to begin.

Before 2008 slips into 2009, some 1.8 million homeowners are projected to go into foreclosure because their low interest rates, used to lure them into making a purchase they clearly are unable to afford, will morph overnight into much higher rate mortgages.

A counselor to President Bush is even saying, “There’s more to be done we think on the housing front to address the concerns people have about the housing markets,” Reuters quotes Ed Gillespie as saying aboard Air Force One.

Gillespie’s advocacy of more steps to be taken by Congress and the President comes at a time when just about all economic signs look bad.

The subprime mortgage crisis, remember, stopped being a subprime mortgage crisis a long time ago . . . We are now right in the middle of a credit crisis of global proportions causing more and more people to utter that word that dare not be spoken: recession.

Like all new years, 2008 gives us all an opportunity for self evaluation and motivation to take the bull by the horns and try and change things for the better.

This is an attitude that will come in handy, I predict, in the days,weeks and months ahead, as the nation and the world try to emerge from this credit debacle reasonable in one piece.

Good luck and Happy New Year!