Just Let Me -- G -- Indoctrinate You!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

It's a Bump in the Road Thing

Dear America,

oi vay

so I have attempted to start about nine times already.  my mind is a blur and a buzz all at the same time -- it's kinda weird.  so warning -- I have no idea which way I'm heading...which is funny, reading that back, as I never really have a plan.  ah details you probably never needed to know, right?  too late now.

perhaps it is just one of those days where we flit and flutter around all of it with no rhyme or reason, since that seems to be the order of the day everywhere we turn...

in D.C., where they bounce from twitter twits to debt ceiling to Medi-scare to economic advisers jumping a sinking ship ...

...to OPEC, where they leap from thinking more output, more supply, falling gas prices to nah... thought about it.... things are fine the way they are, let's regroup in a couple of months  -- and all happening sometime between my first cup of coffee on the day and my third (and I never usually go for round three.  that should say it all right there)...

...to the president, himself, building his entire presidential legacy jumping from one overreaction to another.

Apparently, this is what we get after convincing the majority that he was willing, able and fully prepared to meet the demands of a new age -- in economics, energy, jobs, free market, health care  (throwing in Math and Science Innovation, too) -- convincing the majority of Americans to elect him in the first place.   It's funny, he said he had all the answers; he knew exactly what Bush was doing all wrong.

It's strange then, only to have this very same man keep reinventing his administration as he goes along, or stick to his tired and well worn refrain of blaming Bush altogether; and don't take my word for it, look back for yourself, it is always one or the other. Just grasping at straws, really -- throwing money at it (cash for this, cash for that) or making a regime change (Czar for this, Czar for that).  But all the while, when he fails, he blames Bush.

This is a common reaction for those not really in the know, those showing 'little to none' in the experience column; especially if adding in the total disrespect factor for our free market.

This is what the free market does to people, it makes people crazy, unglued, frustrated with the lack of follow through; all the more reason to make every attempt to try to understand it.  No. Scratch that.   It is more than that; it's not like understanding in theory is ever enough; it is more about total respect, and keeping allegiances to it, than anything else.

But our beloved free market is on borrowed time these days --  as we witness every day, everyone and their mother, seem to be running around like the sky is falling (or is that the debt ceiling).  And all that does for us is leave us dazed and confused.

Hello! 

This my friends, is the yin and the yang, the ups and the downs, the joys and the sorrows, the good and the ugly, of the free market -- welcome to the show.



But the very last thing we should try to do is try to change it; you know, considering it is the only vehicle ever made delivering any hope of possibility.  anyone could do it.  anyone could go from rags to riches.  the possibilities were  are endless.

Let me jump to 'my thing' right quick; the thing is, there is no way of really knowing the free market by book -- this is precisely why this president is having such a helluva time. He can't quite get a grip on it; it's true understanding seems unattainable, and not of this world; so unhinged by it's lack of conformity or conventionality, it seems to give him double vision.  And quite frankly, he is plum near out of patience with the whole darned thing.

Even his own Chairman, of the president's Council on Economics Advisers, Austan Goolsbe, can't handle the slip and slide economics we seem to be in; he wants out.  The black board is calling him back, as he plans to to resume his mad-hatter professorial position; it would seem he can't stand another waking minute living economic policy in the real world of the Free Market; he is choosing to take shelter with other intellectuals, going back to hiding out with economic theory, according to the economic thinkers not doers, and basically, retreating -- for, not unlike our president, he had no idea what formidable an opponent he was up against.

And to think, we seem to be more distracted these days by the big weenie of weinergate than another one bites the dust within the presidential panel of economic advisers -- which. let's be honest, is the real meat, if not the bread and butter, of growing out of our economic doldrums.

I thought you said you had a plan, Mr. President? I thought you said you wanted this job and that you were ready for it.

But let's not let Goolsbe's resignation speak for the president; what did Obama say just yesterday?

While Yahoo! News presents it's Top Stories on the day, including, "Obama expresses concern about slowing economy" -- the quote of the hour happened to be this: "I'm not concerned about a double-dip recession."

Which is it -- concern or no concern?

But having said that, this is what we get from a president in the know?
This is what comes out of his mouth?
What do you read, Mr. President? (just a question Katie Couric asked of a presidential contender, is all) 

You must know, the current poll numbers suggest,  69% of Americans have little-to-no faith in the direction this country is headed -- with nearly the same number thinking, you, Mr. President, have little-to-no experience in the economic clue department.

But this is what we get when merely a "community organizer," albeit with a fairly decent resume (on paper), gets into the big white house, isn't it? isn't it?

It's not just happening on the economics supply side either, when addressing the nation in a short, impromptu, press conference alongside Angela Merkel, the president said this:  "I think it's just a matter of time before he [Gadhafi] goes..."  Isn't that almost exactly what you said over sixty days ago, Mr. President?  You know, back in the day, when getting congressional approval seemed trivial -- you never gave it a second thought, did you?

But honestly, do you have a plan on this one?  As the Libyan run around is fast becoming a standard operating procedure for you. But maybe nobody is questioning your overreaching authority because you happen to be a democrat -- or is it because you are black?  hmmmm.

Now, as far as economics, I am no expert, there is that.

But in my experience -- and much like the trappings of a real war I would suppose -- there are many variables with regards to the in's and the out's of an economy that must be taken into account.  Some things are hard to predict; some things work like clockwork; while at other times, act nearly possessed.

Sometimes theory is translated into the real world without a hitch, other times, something so catastrophic and unpredictable happens that changes everything; and, like always, the ebb and flow of supply and demand,  trying awfully hard to maintain control, makes things appear almost chaotic -- when in fact, things couldn't be further from the truth.  Every zig and zag ripples into the whole big picture; only over time, can you see the pattern; only in hindsight, can you recognize the values.

In reality, it is when we are right smack dab in it, most vulnerable to our blurs and buzzes going berserk, is when novices and bookworms are most susceptible to, what I like to call, a purple haze taking over; they lose whatever logic and sensibility they may have started out with, only to quickly deteriorate into a rush of hallucination and fear into the unknown.

This creates the very conditions especially unwelcoming for those running in circles inherently running counter to the forces and potentialities of a truly free market.  For they cling to their automatic responses, knee-jerk reactions, giving way to juvenile compulsions to invent stimulus, man made interventions and manipulations, which only make way for even more over indulging, giving way to doing just about anything to take away the loathsome fear of living through the present moment with any real pain, to ultimately, swiftly, move forward; they need to control something, otherwise, they begin to second guess themselves, wondering if they are responding the right way, questioning their own abilities, and really, when you get down to it, really just wanting and hoping for everybody to like them.  In a word, they freak.

Cool heads prevail, in love, in war, and in Econ 101.

And more than that, for a free market to truly reap it's just rewards, it must be left alone as much as humanly possible -- it must be free to be you and me all the way, in good times and in bad, when happy or sad.

And more than that, it can never be fully understood in theory only.  For let's face it, all things considered, it is fairly easy to stand at the podium capitulating to the masters, pontificating on ideologies, and indoctrinating new generations by the book.

It is a whole 'nother level to actually get in there and do it yourself.

Anyone with real free market experience understands this; anyone who has ever been fired gets this; anyone who has had to let someone go gets this; anyone who has had to make a payroll every other week gets this; anyone who gets fired, immediately, for indecent exposure gets this; anyone who drives a truck on the interstate everyday gets this; anyone who must find a way to make something, and profit from it's sale, while supporting an office of sales people who all require a company car or at least a daily gas reimbursement gets this; anyone who understands energy independence, and the connection with respectable gas prices, respective of drilling for oil and gas here -- to expand our resources here -- gets this; anyone who understands there is a direct correlation on the growth of government and the take away of real jobs gets this; anyone who understands that it is LESS taxation that creates MORE freedoms and MORE jobs growing an even larger Free Market gets this.

While,

history proves,

the best American Presidents have been those who respect the Free Market in it's entirety with the least amount of manipulation. The best American Presidents have allowed the market to run free, for better or worse.  And as a country, when we do that, hands down and history shows us, everybody prospers, everybody wins.

The thing is, even the capture and ultimate demise of Osama bin Laden looked good on paper; but it was only the clear and present danger of actions on the ground by real live Navy Seals that made the whole thing turn out looking like anybody could do it.

But things happened, didn't they?   Things like a great big helicopter getting shot down and being taken out of commission, that required heads on the ground to overcome and deal with things as they come, and make due no matter what.  Those kinds of instincts are not taught in school, even in Seal Base Camp 101; it is only through a compilation of what is regarded as sound military strategy learned in a book, added to hardcore war college on the ground, learned only by real experience, over time, in real time, added to a practiced skill of  keeping a cool head under extreme conditions and unbearable stresses without falter.

The capture and killing of Osama bin Laden could have gone either way; but it didn't.  Why?  Boots and brains meeting up in real time on the ground, and forced to go with the flow bearing new conditions unexpected. If they sat there reading a manual under the heading 'what do we do when the helicopter breaks in two', a delayed response would have killed the deal.  If they sat there doing a flow chart analyzing the data and applying the new set of variables, they would have been the ones ambushed.  If they merely threw money at the guy at the door to let them in, it, too, never would have worked.  And here's the best one, if they just sat there hoping for his capture --  not moving their feet, not applying what they know, not doing a darned thing other than sit and hope -- still, another outcome surely would have been made known...and not of the happy-go-lucky kind, I can tell you that.

I am concerned that our president is not concerned about a double-dip recession this morning. I am concerned that even a so called Constitutional Law expert has no real experience when it comes to the business of economics.  Can you tell?

Shouldn't you be concerned, Mr. President?
Shouldn't you be taking a closer look at what YOUR policies have done to perpetuate an ugly, um, how do you say, "bump in the road" -- a blip on the radar, a burp of indigestion, a blur of unhappy endings to a policy gone bad.  plop plop fiz fiz doesn't matter what we call it, does it? The uptick just ain't happening.

The thing is, after flashing a bevy of psychedelic maneuvers, you are turning out to be quite the buzz kill, that's all.  And I gotta tell you, most Americans were not expecting it.

Oh, and one more thing, based on recently released data, apparently there are 4.6 million Americans competing for your job.  How do you like that for a quick, free market analysis of real world concerns?  And the way things look from here, I do believe anyone stands a chance.

Something to think about the next time you are on the links...what, will that be Sunday?

Make it a Good Day, G

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