Taken from about.com
Question: What is a Depression?
Answer: A depression is a severe economic downturn that lasts several years.
Question: What is a Recession?
Answer: The official definition of recession is when GDP growth is negative for two consecutive quarters or more.
In my opinion I think we are in for at least a year of recession but I don't believe (and hope) that a depression is ensuing. I think that this time is basically an economic correction for all of the stupid business practices of the past.
What stupidity am I referring to, thanks for asking.
1. Sub-prime lending! The banks are getting EXACTLY what they deserve. They have leached off of the lower income earners and the low-end middle income earners for to long with adjustable rate mortgages, interest only mortgage, etc. They went to Vegas with the creative financing and they just crapped out. There are banks out there that did not get into the sub-prime market and they are doing well, maybe not excelling but coasting.
2. Outsourcing! Yes outsourcing. IMO we have outsourced the spirit of hard-work in America. We have sent all of the "hard work" jobs outside of the US in the name of capitalism, I AM A HUGE PROPONENT OF CAPITALISM but I believe that this issue is now coming home to roost. The problem with outsourcing is that you outsource US dollars at the same time and unlike keeping it "made in the USA" those dollars disproportionally don't make it back to the US. A few of those dollars do but not enough obviously.
Now that I've laid out my doom and gloom let me layout the sunshine and what I HOPE will happen.
First, I hope that the black hole called "national banks" will be filled by local/regional banks and they will become more popular as they carry the common man by resurrecting the banking industry back to a time when you went to church with the teller and she knew each of your children's MIDDLE name. A time when banks weren't just about increasing the bottom line.
Furthermore, I hope that companies will come to realize that the impact of outsourcing (recalls, frustrated customers and product attrition) is far reaching and they are losing more money by outsourcing than they are making. That's a basic financial principal right there, earn more than you spend. After they realize the impact I hope they begin to bring those jobs back where they belong, here in the greatest country this world has ever seen.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, where a man like me can post his opinion and those that disagree with it will flame his inbox for his opinion.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
September 29, 2008
September 23, 2008
The Ant and the Grasshopper!!!
The ant and the grasshopper This one is a little different... Two Different Versions! Two Different Morals!
OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.' Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake. Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2008
OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.' Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake. Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2008
September 11, 2008
Boys will be boys!!!
My absolutely amazing and RED-HOT SMOKING wife sent me a link last night(this morning) for an article from the NewsWeek website about Struggling School-Age Boys. Below is my response and genuine feelings about the situation, let me know what you think! I dare you!
Hey love, I read a couple of the comments after the article, they are below(comments not included), and they summarized exactly what I was thinking. Boys NEED to be boys...they aren't wired to "sit still and don't move" for extended periods of time. I'm not sexist when I say this but why do you think that most men gravitate toward math and science. Math provides a problem that can broken down and the various parts analyzed and the same is true with science, the only exception is science in that we learn to make things go BOOM! I remember playing outside with my friends where we talked about and made up wonderful stories of how we could help save the world with Superman and beat up the joker with batman, that was my creative outlet. Also, I remember dismantling a Casio keyboard and my mom being so angry that she couldn't speak. I don't think she was upset so much by me taking it apart as much as the pieces that were left over after I put it back together. The cliche "boys will be boys" is more than a cliche, it's FACT. This is evidenced in our own 2 year old son who has been beating people up and jumping off of things before he could walk. He wasn't taught to do those things nor was he taught to find pleasure in doing them, he just DID. I would go as far as to say that the cliche should be amended to "boys NEED to be boys" in light of this article, not to mention the fact that so many boys are struggling with gender roles, the fact that boys are discouraged from acting on their natural tendencies and the violence in the world. I don't believe that violence will be completely eradicated until Jesus returns, however, I believe that some if not the majority of our violence results from a boys natural desire to "control and subdue" his surroundings (those that are under his control) not being properly focused and/or in most instances discouraged and repressed. If you completely seal up the valve on a pressure cooker and not allow the pressure to be bled off and more importantly be directed in a safe direction it will eventually explode and potentially cause harm to someone, boys are no different! Now I'm not saying that all boys are this way, I'm not God that designed and wired them. God created us all uniquely and for a purpose and for some boys/men that purpose requires tendencies contrary to what I stated above, but I believe that this contradiction is the exception to the rule.
Hey love, I read a couple of the comments after the article, they are below(comments not included), and they summarized exactly what I was thinking. Boys NEED to be boys...they aren't wired to "sit still and don't move" for extended periods of time. I'm not sexist when I say this but why do you think that most men gravitate toward math and science. Math provides a problem that can broken down and the various parts analyzed and the same is true with science, the only exception is science in that we learn to make things go BOOM! I remember playing outside with my friends where we talked about and made up wonderful stories of how we could help save the world with Superman and beat up the joker with batman, that was my creative outlet. Also, I remember dismantling a Casio keyboard and my mom being so angry that she couldn't speak. I don't think she was upset so much by me taking it apart as much as the pieces that were left over after I put it back together. The cliche "boys will be boys" is more than a cliche, it's FACT. This is evidenced in our own 2 year old son who has been beating people up and jumping off of things before he could walk. He wasn't taught to do those things nor was he taught to find pleasure in doing them, he just DID. I would go as far as to say that the cliche should be amended to "boys NEED to be boys" in light of this article, not to mention the fact that so many boys are struggling with gender roles, the fact that boys are discouraged from acting on their natural tendencies and the violence in the world. I don't believe that violence will be completely eradicated until Jesus returns, however, I believe that some if not the majority of our violence results from a boys natural desire to "control and subdue" his surroundings (those that are under his control) not being properly focused and/or in most instances discouraged and repressed. If you completely seal up the valve on a pressure cooker and not allow the pressure to be bled off and more importantly be directed in a safe direction it will eventually explode and potentially cause harm to someone, boys are no different! Now I'm not saying that all boys are this way, I'm not God that designed and wired them. God created us all uniquely and for a purpose and for some boys/men that purpose requires tendencies contrary to what I stated above, but I believe that this contradiction is the exception to the rule.
September 9, 2008
President Who?!?
I’ve decided that I really don’t care who becomes president, I’m going to focus my attention on those that REALLY make a difference…the Senators. The president may be the front man but his authority (THANK GOD) is limited by those in the Senate. An ideal outcome for me in this election would be that the majority of the Senate would be made up of the opposing party. Both presidential candidates are saying that they would be willing to work for “change” on both sides of the aisle, I say prove it. Let’s face it both parties are really good at ONE thing and that’s pointing out the faults/flaws/problems of the other party. With opposing parties in the white house and the senate they will be to busy opposing one anther that they may not get anything done, so that means that this country may not get any better but atleast it won’t get any worse. At the end of the day I want my money that I work hard to earn to stay in my pocket to support my family and to be released only as God directs. Does that make me stingy, I don’t think so, because I know that God is a giver and He would have me to give abundantly and frequently. My goal is to become one of those “evil” rich people who is taxed unfairly only so that I can give it away directly to those that are hurting and not sponsor a friggin bridge to nowhere or provide health care for those people that are to lazy to work.
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