Sojka's Call

An old New England saying is that a farting horse never tires . Could it be true for the economy as well? I was reminded of this saying when reading the article below by First Trust Advisors. Maybe the fits and starts and hiccups the economy is seeing should be seen as good news and we should change our focus. What do you think? The Plow Horse Rolls On Turn on the television, pick up the newspaper, search the Internet and you will find story after story about Greece, JP Morgan, austerity, the labor force, student loans, California, the G-8, or the Facebook IPO.  Just about every bit of the coverage is negative. 

It’s Real Growth, Not Just Sugar  Check out the link above, the data Wesbury presents and his argument about the role of new technology. My intuition says he is right but I have been fooled before.

The following is an article from the John Maudlin website on the current political and economic deadlock in the US specifically, but, that is gripping most of the western world. It is most likely too much for most people to think about since it will take longer than 5 minutes to read and digest. The comments on Maudlin's website are interesting as well. With a couple exceptions, the comments posted so far about the article display the very gridlock gripping our country that the book attempts to find a way through. Are the entrenched thought patterns most people have so comfortable that trying something new on for just a few minutes becomes painful enough that they must lash out emotionally? Personally, I found the discussion about inductive and deductive reasoning very interesting. After working 30+ years in manufacturing plants mostly at an engineering and management level, i saw the problems of using data to solve problems. Over and over, in lengthy meetings, people would sh...

The Op-ed piece below from David Brooks articulates want he believes Independents want. His points at the end about less government intervention in the economy and reduced government deficits are most likely true. I am not so sure about the strategy for a politician winning back the Independents. Most Independents don't want to be "won back". They are going to stay Independent once they make that decision to go that route. And, I believe the Independents of this country are going to start voting for Independents. Look at the Lieberman example in Connecticut. He won as an Independent though his long standing as a Democrat certainly made him well known to the electorate. Look for more well-known politicians and celebrity/business icons moving into politics to do so as Independents. Be ready to fully embrace the good ones and work for them. It is the only way to shake up the current too-cozy, two-party, too-awful-to-talk-about political system today. Post your commen...

Received this interesting analysis of why some countries are rich and others are poor from a friend who lives Fiji. The little Powerpoint slide show was meant for circulation on Fiji. However, I think the checklist should be reviewed to see how the United States is doing regarding those nine (9) essential items the author identified. Could the United States' current economic woes be related to us not executing those basic principles as well as in the past? How many of these principles does our government exhibit in dealing with its' citizens and other countries? What do you think? To reflect and... Act. The difference between the poor countries and the rich ones is not the age of the country. This can be shown by countries like India & Egypt, that are more than 2000 years old and are poor. On the other hand, Canada, Australia & New Zealand, that 150 years ago were poor UK colonies exploited to provide cheap food for England, today are developed countries. The differ...