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2008 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Teams

Don't know if you saw the opening of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing (if your'e "one of the nine"--see full text of article below), but here is an account from one of US sailing team members and their team leader, Dean Brenner.  Good stuff!

Link: 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Teams.

Words are my life. When not working with our Olympic athletes, I teach and coach public speaking and writing for a living. And I don't own the vocabulary to describe what yesterday's Opening Ceremony was like. So since I need some help with my words, I'll quote team member Andrew Campbell: The Opening was one of those "Forrest Gump" moments when you look around and ask yourself how and why you are there.

Consumer Spending and U.S. Gross Domestic Product

Stopped in to speak to a buddy of mine I have known for years.  He's a commercial real estate broker and has done very well for himself.  One of the things I love about the guy though is that he always has his ear to the ground.

He mentioned a couple of things that really perked my ears.  First was that the American GDP comprises 70% consumer spending right now.  So 70% of our economy rests on our ability to buy stuff.  I wanted to validate that myself so found the link below. 

Regardless of your feeling about whether we need to buy as much stuff as we do, generally, that number points to a precarious situation.

But that's not all:  there is another fact which I have yet to validate which is that between about 2002 and 2005/6, we homeowners pulled a lot of money out of our homes through HELOCs (Home Equity Lines of Credit).  How much do you think we pulled out?  If you think 10s or 100s of millions, you're still off by a full order of magnitude.

A trillion dollars.

If that's true, you don't have to look far to see what was propping up this economy for the last few years.

So now banks aren't loaning like they were which means said Consumers are going to have to find that "70%" money somewhere else, if we're to avoid a massive correction.  Don't you think?

I think we could use with a little less spending (consuming) anyway, but the real point in all this I think is that we had to pull a trillion dollars out of our homes--use borrowed money--in order to do that spending in the first place.  If those same people who did all that spending had a personal policy of not buying something, barrinng life-threatening necessities of course, without first earning the money by exchanging their own goods or services with someone else, we wouldn't be in this mess, or at least not as deeply in it.

It'll never happen, but rhetorically speaking, it would be nice if we could not count purchases toward the GDP if they were made with credit or borrowed money.  Because it isn't real productivty.  It is to the seller, but the buyer hasn't DONE anything for the right to own that thing or service.  It's saying "I'll take this good now but actually pay for it with my own productivity later...or maybe never!"

 

I'm not casting any stones here.  I've had my share of consumer loans.

But what are we really measuring with GDP if we aren't measuring today's Americans actually doing the do of working and making some of value to someone and exchanging with them?

I don't have all the answers here, but I do think we're in for a pretty big correction in the near future and, frankly, I'm not sure it won't be a good thing for the long term, if the government doesn't use it as an excuse to monkey with the free market system.

Meanwhile, I'm getting my own consumer spending, etc.., under better management
using a system called Mvelpopes.  You can read about it here.

Link: Hoover Institution - Facts on Policy - Consumer Spending.

Personal consumption accounts for 70 percent of gross domestic product. The gross domestic product (GDP) is the generally accepted measure of the size of the national economy.  It is the sum of investment, personal consumption, government spending, and net exports.  Personal consumption, at 70 percent, is the largest component of GDP. Other components of GDP include     –Investment: 17 percent     –Government spending: 19 percent     –Net exports: –6 percent General consumer spending

    * According to the 2004 Consumer Expenditures Survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average consumer household spent $43,395 in 2004.
    * Spending on food, housing, and apparel account for almost 50 percent of total expenditures.
    * Housing expenses constitute the largest portion of spending, accounting for roughly one-third of the total.
    * Other major categories of spending:
          –Food: 13 percent
          –Transportation: 18 percent

Holiday spending

    * According to the National Retail Federation, total holiday retail sales for 2006 are expected to hit $457 billion. This is about a 5 percent increase from last year.
    * In the 2006 holiday season, the average consumer will spend $791.
    * A little more than 20 percent of the annual retail sales occur during the months of November and December.

The Crisis Is Upon Us by Ron Paul

This isn't about politics, it's about our basic liberties in America.  If you cherish them, I greatly urge you to read this article from which I'm including the excerpt below.  Thanks to my brother, Chris, for sending me this article.

If you agree, please pass this on to your friends, perhaps before you pass on one of those "send this to all your friends in 5 seconds and you'll have good luck..." emails.  Let's make our own luck--and liberty--by reviving some of the key principles upon which our freedom rests in the first place.

 

This post may appear to run counter to the previous post which was posted as a note of hope.  Ron Paul addresses deeper issues in his article, though--threats to our right to freedom and some answers to questions which go beyond just the rising prices of gasoline, which Paul proposes is just the beginning of a deeper issue. The good news is, we can do something about this if we act on it now.  Find out how the going may get tougher and what you can do from your responsibilities as a citizen of the our country.

Link: The Crisis Is Upon Us by Ron Paul.

One of the best parts of accepting self-reliance in a free society is that true personal satisfaction with one's own life can be achieved. This doesn't happen when the government assumes the role of guardian, parent or provider, because it eliminates a sense of pride. But the real problem is the government can't provide the safety and economic security that it claims. The so-called good that government claims it can deliver is always achieved at the expense of someone else's freedom [emphasis mine-Hans]. It's a failed system and the young people know it.

Restoring a free society doesn't eliminate the need to get our house in order and to pay for the extravagant spending. But the pain would not be long-lasting if we did the right things, and best of all the empire would have to end for financial reasons. Our wars would stop, the attack on civil liberties would cease, and prosperity would return. The choices are clear: it shouldn't be difficult, but the big event now unfolding gives us a great opportunity to reverse the tide and resume the truly great American Revolution started in 1776. Opportunity knocks in spite of the urgency and the dangers we face.

Can We Really Do Anything About The Economy?

Some thoughts while starting the day today--thoughts about this "down economy" we are in.

I travel a lot and have the opportunity to speak with business people from all around the country.  When the subject of this economy comes up, there is something I have noticed that is almost universal in individual attitudes to this subject: people talk about it like the economy is something out of their reach completely, something over there. 

To some degree that may be true.  Surely there are other forces at work.  But is the economy something we can control?  Or should we all just throw up our hands and ride it out, hoping it doesn't have a bad ending for one and all?

To answer that question, I think we have to take a peek at this question:

    Of what is a an "economy" composed?  What is an economy?

One definition I like comes from Merriam Webster:

"A system especially of interaction and exchange <an economy of information>"

If we use that definition, we can take a look at almost any area and essentially see how much exchanging and interacting is going on.    That might apply to a whole country or a even just a household.

It also implies something else.

On Ron Paul

Poli-news blurb of the day...

Link: The Blog | Mark Jeffrey: Ron Paul: Internet Celeb? | The Huffington Post.

Ron Paul is not a marginal figure. Instead, he is (gasp) a frontrunner. That's right: he's apparently got more cred online than any other candidate.

Sky News - 'Five Years Left To Save The Planet'

This is a specious statement, IMHO.  There's just too much omitted information, such as the report itself.  Instead it's a bunch of alarming statements.  This isn't science talking, it's just emotion and/or political maneuvering.  If not, show us the report.  Upon what is it based?  More modeling?

Link: Sky News - 'Five Years Left To Save The Planet'.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warns governments have until 2012 to "plant the seeds of change" and make positive moves to limit carbon emissions.

Ron Paul #1

Link: Ron Paul 2008: Ron Paul #1.

Congressman Ron Paul now has the most YouTube subscribers among the Republican candidates for president.  During the last 24 hours, Congressman Paul passed Mitt Romney to take the #1 spot.

Ecolonomics

The topic "green", meaning the use of enviromentally-friendly products in the home or business, is gaining more and more attention these days.  And it's about time, too.  If we're lucky, we might yet reverse Earth's ecological tailspin, set into motion by our collective disregard for what is right not just convenient for ourselves this very instant.   

The good news in all of this may be there is probably tremendous opportunity in the green movement.   

A World Made of Cities

A fascinating commentary on the urbanization of the world's populations.

Link: O'Reilly Radar > A World Made of Cities.

So besides solving the population problem, the growing cities are curing poverty. What looks like huge cesspools of poverty in the slums are actually populations of people getting out of poverty as fast as they can. And cities also have an environmental dimension which has not yet been well explored or developed.