Glen Of Scotland

Mounting Evidence

Economist Irvin Kellner has compiled a list of evidence that the worst may be over for the economy. If you are needing some signs of hope, then click here.

The Federal Reserve Chairman also reiterated their forecast for the economy to recover later this year and grow next year. Of course it won't be smooth all the time, set backs will occur and real estate and autos and banking will be laggards.

Keep the hope!

Do not try this at home

Read the story here

Fear and force

Very often when people are using a lot of fear and then force to get things done, they usually have something to hide. When you are on the receiving end of this energy and emotion you tend to get caught up in the drama of it all and tend to be unfocused.

This goes on in households and places of employment every day, our governments of last year with the bank bailout, and this year with the stimulus bill have mastered the art of this.

In the rush to get the stimulus bill passed a couple of weeks ago our new president surprisingly left all his hope aside and focused on the fear, and force to get the bill passed without delay. That is a red flag if ever there was one. Now we do need a stimulus bill, of that I agree, one that big is highly doubtful, it could easily have been delayed by a couple of weeks so that people could read and understand it, the bill started and 650 pages and grew last minute to 1047 pages.

The congressional budget office which is objective and non partisan, calculated that of the $787 billion, just $184 billion will be spent this fiscal year. Wouldn't it be nice if they would ask for what is really needed as an emergency and pass that quickly. It would still create the jobs etc without the fear rhetoric that took place.

One thing not being focused on in all of this, a forecast from the Federal Reserve that the recession will end late 2009 or early 2010. Interesting that one forecast that would provide some hope for people is not getting any attention.

When you understand why and how people use fear and force, it has no power over you.

Increasing

Last week the government announced that retails sales for the month of January increased by 1%. This was the first increase in 7 months and the largest increase in 14 months. The increase was apparently a surprise to economists and others who had expected a decrease of .8%.

These are the same people who are talking up the doom and gloom scenarios, I wonder why they keep getting it so wrong? I wonder why people put so much stock into what they are saying?

I hope people wake up soon and realize what is going on, yes there are particular problems in particular segments that will take some time to balance out, yet there are bright spots and recovery. Less doom and gloom chatter would help too. 

Quote

Here is a quote from an article in Newsweek magazine, written by  Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III, the pilot who safely landed the plane on the Hudson river after engine failure.

"During every minute of the flight, I was confident I could solve the next problem. My first officer, Jeff Skiles, and I did what airline pilots do: we followed our training, and our philosophy of life. We valued every life on that airplane and knew it was our responsibility to try to save each one, in spite of the sudden and complete failure of our aircraft. We never gave up. Having a plan enabled us to keep our hope alive. Perhaps in a similar fashion, people who are in their own personal crises—a pink slip, a foreclosure—can be reminded that no matter how dire the circumstance, or how little time you have to deal with it, further action is always possible. There's always a way out of even the tightest spot. You can survive."

You can read the whole article here.

Koala Love Story

You may have seen the photo of the Koala bear who survived the fires in Australia, the firefighter called her Sam. Well Sam found a boyfriend called Bob who also survived the fires and if you click here, you can see the photos.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This will bring a smile to your face

Take 2 minutes to watch this video:

Grow Your Own Fresh Air

Here is an interesting report from India and what they have been able to do with indoor pollution with plants, specifically 3  different plants. Note the health improvements which are quite remarkable given the average of 4 plants per person. You can read all about it here.

Quote

Once you've decided that you want something, the opposite of it is going to be very much a part of your awareness too.

Abraham

Did you know?

Andrew Carnegie launched his first steel mill during the Panic of 1873, he became very wealthy and successful. Hewlett Packard, which is still successful today was launched toward the end of the great depression.

I wonder what visionary company will start during this cycle.

It's interesting to read about the 1873 panic, seems like we go through these cycles of boom and bust, I'm sure back in 1873 people didn't think it would ever end, yet it did recover.

Getting Better

In another sign of things improving, attendance was up at the movies in January, making it the best ever January box office of $1.02 billion an increase of 18.57% over last January.There were no big blockbuster movies out, just some good movies. It seems that if there is something of decent or  good quality out there, people will go out and pay for it.

Yes I know people are still losing their jobs and homes, they were when the economy was really good too, people lose in good times and bad, there is not much attention paid to it when times are good. Now the media is over compensating and reporting the bad and very little of the good.

A glimmer of hope

Well before the recession hit the headlines, there were several things indicating things were not quite right with the economy. It was very clear that people were cutting back on dining out at casual restaurants, which was very noticeable on the weekends. It got the the point that you could easily just walk into most restaurants on the weekend, be seated and see plenty of empty tables.

There is a glimmer of hope that things may well be changing, for the last two weekends the restaurants around town have been packed, some you couldn't get a parking space and each had a wait to be seated, I know the horror of it all!

Obviously this brought great joy to the managers and staff, it may just be temporary, however it's a glimmer of hope that things might be turning around. That's a good thing and if it continues I see a lot of people and companies being caught short, creating more opportunities.

Keep your eyes open, watch for the signs.

Update:

Make that 3 weekends in a row, the restaurants are packed, service is slower as they are not staffed up for this. Also did you see the stock market dropped 149 points on Friday and Amazon which had increased sales and profits was up 17%, Frontier Airlines also had their most profitable December ever.