Around 1916 School Children

school portrait around 1916 in South Dakota
town of Tyndall

Priorities And Triage

Santa Monica Blvd. near Bundy around 1950

Might it be a good idea to balance income and spending?
But if no one borrows what happens to people with money to lend?

Our economy is definitely out of balance. The biggest culprit appears to be government.

Government spending is way out of line with income. This is generally understood to be true.

In real life people must set priorities for the expenditure of time and energy and money etc.

You can't have everything you "want."

That is the new ethic, or old ethic, we must discover or remember.
We can be fine with what we have. But we must set limits on expenditures.
We need really good managers. People who know how to set priorities and work efficiently and economically.

It is really very simple.
"Don't throw good money after bad."

WINNERS AND LOSERS

"Think again of the insured house. Many institutions hold insurance on the house; on the other side are insurance companies and the like making an opposite bet. If the house is destroyed, one group of institutions wins and the other group loses. Considering all institutions together, no money was truly lost — it's what economists call a zero-sum game. In good times, risk hungry banks loved this game, but now they have become risk averse, and the game seems to have changed. So how can many of the banks simultaneously claim enormous swap losses with no bank claiming significant profit?
Here are two possibilities: either the vast majority of all swaps — not just AIG's — are held by investment banks, or a significant portion is held by other financial institutions like hedge funds." Ari J. Officer in Time Magazine

YES WE SHOULD FIND OUT WHO THE WINNERS ARE
YES WE SHOULD REGULATE THIS STUFF
YES NOTHING HAS REALLY BEEN LOST

Usually I am against changing the rules. This time the rules are corrupt and must be changed.

Around Los Angeles

People in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater. 3/14/09



"The Spirit of Los Angeles" Statue at "The Grove"
3/14/09

The Big Truth

God is not against anything.

Everything is fine.
Everything is good.
Very good!

We spring directly from the void.
Nothing causes anything else.
We are free.

All possibilities exist.
It is all spirit. It is all mind.

We are here to enjoy the plenitude.

Frontline Value Use Loss Energy

Once I was told that money is stored energy.
Money has the potential to buy things, to command labor.
People save money for retirement.
You work for money and then you stop working and live on your savings.
If you lose your savings, you will have less to spend in retirement.

What about a house.
You live in a house. The value of the house is that you live in it. How much does it really matter what the price tag on the house is?
It is said that a lot of wealth has been lost because of the decline in house prices. On the other hand a lot of wealth was created when house prices went up rapidly.

What has really been lost?

The houses are still there.

There is also a lot of talk about financial losses.
Those losses are suspect to me.
I believe the money was passed around or redistributed.

If someone bought an asset at a high price, someone else sold it to them. The seller had a gain. It is balanced.

Trading things does not really create wealth. It is an illusion.
You can lose or win, but it balances.

Real gains are like this.....
I plant a seed. It becomes a tree. I invent something useful. It makes life easier. I build something useful. I create something useful. Those are real gains.

From The Front

Went out to dinner last night. Restaurant was full. Saw many new cars in the parking lot.
Good economic news is trickling in. Obama starting to talk more optimistically.
Truth is, things are fantastic.
Opportunities abound.
The good guys are winning now.
The crooks are on the run.