The Right People for the Job

As we continue to suffer through this economic recession and wonder how we will pull ourselves out of it, we should take pause to ponder who are the best people to lead us out of the darkness.

A Golf Analogy: If Tiger Woods slices a drive into the woods and the ball has a difficult lie and is behind trees and bushes, his state of play is certainly challenged. At this point in the game, who then is the best person to try and get the ball back out of trouble and on the green? Should we bring in new "consultants" and forest experts? Or perhaps, should we just give the club back to Tiger and let him get us out of trouble? Tiger is the golf expert, and he is obviously the best man for the job.

As such for our economy. Instead of hiring political experts and recession "czars", we should form a panel of the very same Wall Street and Banking experts that got us into this mess to begin with. They are the financial experts. They have a better understanding of the game than anyone. So, just like Tiger having made a mistake and shanked the ball in the woods, so Wall Street has made a mistake and shanked our economy banking system into trouble. They are not "criminals" .... they just make some mistakes ... and they are learning from those mistakes.

Therefore, no one better to "get us out of the woods" than the very same experts that got us into it. A think tank should be formed from those Wall Street executives, which can brainstorm and discuss ideas to advise the White House on navigating our way to the "green".

And maybe we can all get out of this apparent disaster and save a bogey.

Meet Me in Person

It's Really Just A Collective Consciousness

"The Horror ....... the Horror ....... the Horror ...."

Hearing the news today, I am reminded of Col. Kurtz from Apocolypse Now.  With the current news, it is easy to feel like you are sitting in his cave den in the jungle listening to his mantra of becoming "one" with the horror of life.  Not to worry, America will soon rebound from these doldrums and surge again with new ecomonic growth.  Just like we recovered from the "disaster" of Vietnam.  In actuality, this thing we call the "economy" is really just an illusion.  It is the collective consciousness of the people who produce and purchase goods and services.  If that collective consciousness thinks positively, then consumer confidence improves, lenders start lending, people start new businesses and hire new people, and end-consumers start buying again.  If it thinks negatively, then further recession.  We are just having one hell of a hangover from the economic "party" we've been having for the last number of years, and the headache has us in a bad mood.

So, let's stop worrying about the horrors of life, and start viewing the world with a positive attitude, and our collective consciousness will manifest itself into a rebounding economy.

Don't Be Fooled By A Speculative Market!

The behavior of the stock market is practically omnipresent.  Not just a salient topic of the financial news outlets, but now a hot topic of all news media.  It's wild girations and reports of relative value created and destroyed can be panacea to an otherwise dull day of happenstance for eager news outlets.  And news today is, of course, more entertainment than anything.  We want more drama!!

Be careful of what you "think" the market is telling you.  With the recent rebound of the market (21% rise in the DJIA to 7,924 since March 9), it is easy to think we have hit bottom and the good times could be back again.  Remember, the stock market has multiple "layers" to it.  At the base level, long-term investors invest in low relative value and scalable business models.  Then there is an overlying speculation layer, which is more remeniscient of a casino gaming table.  Speculators make short term trades on news and other events, which are really just psychology and emotions.  I believe the recent upward behavior in the market is just that ... investors trading into stocks on (1) some positive sounding economic news like new home sales and industrial purchases, (2) the illusion of a near-term impact of the various stimulus plans and (3) the following of an uptrend due to hype and enthusiasm.

Our ecomonic problems remain, and companies still cannot get the growth capital they need, and the housing market still shows a high supply/low demand imbalance, and the stimulus plans will take a year or longer to take effect.   Get ready for the speculators to start taking profits, and for the trend followers to turn and ride the other way.  

If you've been betting on black ... it might be time to bet on red.

Clean Tech Can Save the Economy

Economic recessions like the one we are in now are like a multi-car wreck on the highway.  When we are in it, all we can see is disaster, and all we feel is fear.  It takes new mechanisms to get us off the road, into the hospital and back home.  Mechanisms like paramedics, ambulances, tow trucks and police.  Likewise, we need new mechanisms to lead us out of the car wreck of the economy.  

New technologies to innovate and develop, which can create new demand and new companies and new jobs.  We as a country can then sell those technologies abroad, rebalancing the trade deficit.  America's strong economic growth has always been driven by technological advancement.  Clean Technologies represent a significant opportunity for a surge of new technological advancement.  The renewable energy playing field is wide open and has applications for every country around the world.  

The "Clean Tech Revolution" will be the movement that takes us out of this global economic depression, and the country that leads that innovation will become the new leader of the global economy.   I think it should be America.