The Leap

What do you do now?

The following link is for a Wall Street Journal article that I think you will find informative. 

What You Need To Know About Gold

For those of you who enjoy this article and would like to learn more investment options in a down economy I think you will enjoy a book I have just started reading. The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets by Peter D. Schiff is excellent.

Peter D.Schiff was right in 2006 when he forecasted a major recession coming.  All the "experts" thought he was crazy.  Watch the following video clips as Peter told everyone on all the major news programs what was coming.  It is nine minutes long and he was spot on the money!  This is worth watching. 

Excellent blog post today by Seth Godin!

What are you good at? By: Seth Godin As you consider marketing yourself for your next gig, consider the difference between process and content. Content is domain knowledge. People you know or skills you've developed. Playing the piano or writing copy about furniture sales. A rolodex of movers in a given industry, or your ability to compute stress ratios in your head. Domain knowledge is important, but it's (often) easily learnable. Process, on the other hand, refers to the emotional intelligence skills you have about managing projects, visualizing success, persuading other people of your point of view, dealing with multiple priorities, etc. This stuff is insanely valuable and hard to learn. Unfortunately, it's usually overlooked by headhunters and HR folks, partly because it's hard to accredit or check off in a database. Venture capitalists like hiring second or third time entrepreneurs because they understand process, not because they can do a spreadsheet. As the world changes ever faster, as industries shrink and others grow, process ability is priceless. Figure out which sort of process you're world-class at and get even better at it. Then, learn the domain... that's what the internet is for. One of the reasons that super-talented people become entrepreneurs is that they can put their process expertise to work in a world that often undervalues it.

ABC News: Nobel Prize Winner's Recession Solution

ABC News: Nobel Prize Winner's Recession Solution

Five Trillion more in government spending might be needed according to this Princeton Nobel Prize winning economist?  We have Keynesian economics on steroids! The economic principles that most Americans understand in their daily lives should remain the same at the national level.  If your friend is going bankrupt and comes to you for advice how likely are you to say, "Well Joe, what you need to do is max out all your credit cards, assume more debt and keep spending your way out of this situation.  Sooner or later things will get better."  It doesn't make sense for your neighbor and it doesn't make sense for our government at the national level. Our government can get away with it because they can legally print money to cover the cost where Joe can not.  However, sooner or later WE have to pay that debt. The problem is the people writing these checks today know they aren't going to be on the hook to pay for it.  They will be long gone and our children and grandchildren will be left to clean up this mess. 

The Japanesse went through a massive real-estate crash in the 90's which showed more devastation than a normal stock market crash.  We missed the warning signs or thought that somehow it couldn't happen to us.  They tried the same approach of massive government spending to "spend their way out of the problem" and but according to the experts, "ended up with a mountain of debt and a lost decade of little or no economic growth." (George Melloan, WSJ)

As long as we have people like Paul Krugman of the New York Times saying that the Great Depression lasted 10 years because the government didn't spend enough and we have a government listening to Keynesian economists we are going to get massive deficit spending for years to come. 

What we need is personal responsibility and fiscal restraint from our neighborhoods all the way to Washington.  The sound economic principles that most people understand on main street need to be adopted by those residing on Pennsylvania Avenue.  I remember an old saying, "If the people will lead, the leaders will follow." 

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Are we seeing a modern day "Atlas Shrugged?"

One of my favorite books is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.  I really think this is a must read for anyone wanting to gain insight into our current economic situation. This article comes from the Wall Street Journal and is written by Stephen Moore. I am sure you will enjoy it and for those of you who have not read Atlas Shrugged I am sure this will tweak your intrest further.

'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

Wall Street Journal

By STEPHEN MOORE

Some years ago when I worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, we used to label any new hire who had not yet read "Atlas Shrugged" a "virgin." Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement. If only "Atlas" were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I'm confident that we'd get out of the current financial mess a lot faster. To read the rest of the article click this link.

Tax Breaks Not Bailouts for Newspapers?

Here is an interesting article that just came across Reuters that relates to a post I put up a few days ago. This article highlights the problems major newspapers are having around the country and why many of them are not asking for government bailout dollars like many other struggling US companies.