In today's economic turmoil, a brochure in Mike Langevin's Edward Jones investment office in Grantsburg says it all.

"Ride out the bumps and focus on the long term."

"The thing on people's minds is the economy," Langevin said.

"With the TV media being so immediate, what you are seeing is a lot of panic and it tends to get overblown," he continued. "In most cases, it's unwarranted."

Christine Erickson, branch manager of the U.S. Bank in Grantsburg agrees.

"When the big banks folded, no one lost any money," she said. "The depositors were protected — it was the stockholders in those banks who lost money."

As part of the $700 billion bailout package signed into law by President Bush, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation raised its level of depositor protection from $100,000 per account to $250,000.

"That level is not forever," Erickson warns. "I think it ends in December next year, but it's meant to reassure people their money is safe."

She said she and the rest of the bank officers have spent the last several weeks calming people concerned over the latest national and world monetary events.

"It's easy to reassure people because we still have money to lend, we are taking in deposits and we are still conducting business as usual," Erickson explained.

"We haven't had any runs on cash whatsoever," she added.

But panic is what is driving the economic nosedive.

"People tend to sell their investments when they are panicked," Langevin said. "We are urging our clients to hang on during down markets and have confidence the market will improve."

In fact, the stock market bounced back Monday with over a 900-point surge.

Langevin insists now is a good time to buy in the market and warns that extreme behavior like fleeing to buy cash instruments, like a certificate of deposit, isn't a logical step.

But that's why investment companies are seeing increased business.

"People are valuing the need of a financial advisor," Langevin concluded. "It's pretty tough to go it alone."

While most eyes are looking to the dollars and cents side of an economic downturn, Burnett County Sheriff Dean Roland sees things a bit different.

"I've already been doing some research on the Internet to see what sort of crimes we can expect," he said. He is, of course, referring to the Great Depression.

"Robbery and theft were some of the biggest crimes of that era," Roland continued. "Those were the days of Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone, and Machine Gun Kelly."

He said with more people out of work, extra time on their hands and still trying to provide for their families, it creates an opportunity for what he refers to as 'stupid' behavior.

"When people get anxious about tomorrow, it changes their psyche," he explained.