Tiny Bubbles

Historically there have been bubbles. Not simply the Lawrence Welk kind of bubbles, but economic ones have ebbed and flowed throughout American history. The most renowned is the one that preceded the stock market crash of 1929. It caused a certain number of former wealthy people to perform swan dives from open windows. People love the illusion of wealth, status and aggrandizement, but have a problem when delusion is exposed.

In the 1970’s shortfalls in energy created inflated prices that were not only unrealistic but were manipulated by U.S. enemies. The 1980’s me-generation spent like there was no tomorrow on creature comforts, and redefined life in cultural America by standards dictated on Madison Avenue. The 1990’s Generation Xer’s brought us some significant bubbles in the technology sector; specifically the dot-com business. Much of the internet boom was performed with smoke and mirrors as entrepreneur’s extracted money from investors for companies that amounted to little more than a slick website, and stealth, Ferrari driving CEO’s

The 21^st century’s first bubble was the housing boom that began more than a decade earlier. Homes increased in value by hundreds of percentage points. When a modest 10% gain in value over a five year period would have thrilled our parents, the baby boomers came to rely upon unrealistic increases in home values. 300-400% increases over a short decade became the standard and owners viewed it as normal instead of an aberration. Folks began to gobble up homes to flip them for profit. A speculator could put in a little bit of work and that $300,000 home could be sold for $500,000 in a couple of months. Some markets were so hot that owners could list a sale and have a bidding war among numerous buyers. Sellers sometimes ended up with tens of thousands of dollars more than the original asking price. The improbable and unsustainable conditions guaranteed a sale in a matter of days rather than months as had been the traditional model for the housing market in America.

Surprise is a mild understatement to the wake up call many received over the past two years. A more appropriate way to describe it is foreclosure. The real estate market fortunes led to the banking bubble where credit principles were discarded in favor of the gluttonous consumer appetite. Everyone was making money and life was grand for banking and finance. Astute business men offered consumers the opportunity to borrow more than their actual homes (collateral) were worth; far from sound financial practice for both the borrower and the financial institution. Most are going to skate away having the period written off as “glee run-a-mok” instead of prosecutions for the casting off of personal responsibility and shaded deceptions that actually took place.

The latest bubble exists in the energy markets and at this writing the is bursting. Given the weak dollar some of it is understandable, but petroleum is overpriced by about 45%. Instead of $145 per barrel, oil should be about $80. The rest is market manipulation, speculation, hysteria and greed. Then again those are the usual traits that supply the extra hot air to inflate any bubble.

What the next bubble will be no one knows. We can only hope that people wake up. Realize that most things that seem too good to be true usually reveal themselves in time. We could use some level headed thinking instead of the usual emotional frenzy that accompanies these economic anomalies. That however, is as likely as a Lawrence Welk concert without tiny bubbles.

The Next Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

In the golden era of cartoons, a familiar story-line dressed a wolf in sheep’s clothing to fool those the animal was about to devour. That story line could have been taken directly from the political history of American Presidential candidates, and their success upon achieving the office. Few have been as important as Washington, as brave as Lincoln, or as determined as Roosevelt. Nevertheless, even these men spoke one game, and delivered another. Often the lupine behavior of those seeking office only appears after the country grants them the keys to the kingdom.

When President Bush leaves office it will not matter who becomes the next President. Both John McCain and Barack O’Bama will appear remarkably like George W. Bush. THEY ARE ALL THE SAME GUY!!! Once in office, the lofty personality highlighted by smiles and platitudes will fall away, and the grim face of governance will take hold. It doesn’t matter which party puts up the agent of change. Never failing, the hype is always bigger than the payoff. How much disillusionment must one nation suffer before realizing that the problem is as much in the electorate as it is in their elected officials? Not only is the government corrupt, but so are the governed!

Parts of the country are beginning to make some rumblings like kids commenting on those wolfish cartoons. We know the wolves howl at the moon, and we know what’s going to happen if we elect them. Someone to do the leading that is untainted is required because we are as much sheep as the wolf who disguises himself to live among us.

There is no room for the whimpering and whining of the thin skinned post baby-boom and me generations. The work that must be done to alter the course of this country’s destiny will not be handled by the likes of Baby-face Obama or Grandpa McCain. If it is to them that we are looking for the change, it will never come. Both men have blind supporters seeing truth in their own rose colored glasses. They spur on the misguided and flawed candidates. McCain was the only senator to escape a sting in the Keating 5 scandal. Yet the question remains, what was he doing there in the first place? O’Bama, the alleged agent of a new tenor in D.C., has actually run the other way from working with members not of his own party.

Might I remind you that the last person, who said Washington was broken, before these two gurus arrived on the scene, was George W. Bush. We have seen where such political posturing took us. These two very typical politicians, that the country has decided to delude themselves about, will offer more of the same. The more change that they espouse, the more they pander to the electorate, and stray from their own true agendas and values. We won’t really see those until they turn them into action after being elected. Good night America!

Wake up! We have met the enemy and he is us; dressed in a fine suit, well groomed, able to seduce people with oratory, and carrying a reassuring wisdom for our senses. The path we ride is the one we’ve been on since 1965, and its trajectory is angled down toward the gates of hell. Both of these candidates want to be “Choo Choo Charlie” on the “Damnation Express.” Unless the people change their values, the train will forever be driven by wolves in sheepskin.