Change

If you visit the “About” page of this site you will find its primary purpose is to help readers improve their performance and the performance of others.

I have found that I have strayed away from that “mission” and find myself posting more about the horrendous political, environmental, divisive, and corruption issues in the USA and around the globe.

I am tired of it. I feel that the negative “force” of these issues has caused the blog to stray from its original charter . And, there is sufficient, negative news out there without this blog republishing and commenting on it!

There IS content in this blog’s past postings over the years that addressed personal and work-related performance topics to assist with personal improvement.

I’m moving on to more enjoyable posting. I will not abandon the topic of “leadership” as I find it so elementary to everything.

7/26/2022

***** S&E *****

RECESSION VIBES

…just keep telling your friends there is no recession… and, there won’t be one !

From CNN Night Cap. 7.25.22
Here’s the deal: Even the world’s foremost economists are scratching their heads right now. Why are consumers spending so much money but saying they’re pessimistic? How can the labor market be so strong while output is dropping? Are we in a recession, or headed for one, and honestly how are we even defining “recession” these days? “If you’re not a little confused about the economy, you’re not paying attention,” tweeted Jason Furman, a former White House economic adviser.

In short: No one knows what’s going on, primarily because the pandemic took a wrecking ball not only to the economy itself but to the models that economists have spent decades developing to try to measure and report on, well, everything. In the absence of certainty, speculation is running wild. That has some experts worried we’ll actually end up talking ourselves into a recession.

Hear me out: There’s a pretty sound theory that the more we talk about the R-word, the more likely it is we’ll end up in one. It’s kinda like skiing down a mountain — the more you worry about running into a tree the more likely you are to bonk into one. Even a casual reader of news — or Twitter or Instagram or TikTok — is, consciously or not, soaking up concerns about inflation and a looming recession. When that unease takes root, it changes the way we spend.

If we believe rampant inflation is here to stay, we’ll lock in purchases sooner than later, which translates to higher demand and therefore higher prices … and so on. If we believe a recession is inevitable, then it hardly matters whether it’s technically a recession or not. When the vibe is off, the vibe is off. The White House is already trying to get ahead of potential bad news on the economic front this week, when the Commerce Department releases its initial report on second-quarter growth. In a blog post last week, officials sought to reinforce the idea that the definition of a recession isn’t as clear cut as you might think. “While some maintain that two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP constitute a recession, that is neither the official definition nor the way economists evaluate the state of the business cycle,” the White House wrote. “Instead, both official determinations of recessions and economists’ assessment of economic activity are based on a holistic look at the data — including the labor market, consumer and business spending, industrial production, and incomes.”

Translation: Even if the second-quarter data shows another contraction, that doesn’t automatically make it a recession. This is more than just a politically convenient fact for the Biden administration. In the United States, there’s an obscure cadre of eight economists who are in charge of declaring when we’re in a recession. And as my colleague Nicole Goodkind wrote recently, that group of eight known as the Business Cycle Dating Committee — which sounds like the worst matchmaking app of all time — abides by a relatively vague definition that allows for wiggle room: A recession, they write, “involves a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months.” It’s the economist’s version of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s famed “I know it when I see it” test.

It is like, build it and they will come. In this case, talk about it enough and it will happen, either way!

***** S&E *****

Log Entry no. 162: Bigfoot

Cooter, his two sons “No IQ” (NI), the oldest, and “Wanting IQ” (WI) headed for a week at a Tennessee mountain VRBO with the extended family to celebrate Whim’s 60th birthday. There were 10 in all. Whim, a great outdoors guy and hunter, believed in Bigfoot. Believed for decades. Whim had Sasquatch religion!

So there was a plan put in place for Whim’s enjoyment and surprise with a Bigfoot theme. Cooter, WI, and NI did the planning and purchased a head to toe Sasquatch costume. Head hood, body suit, hands, feet.

The Gatlinburg, TN VRBO sat on a hillside with a large, expansive rear deck, looking down into the woods; the woods came within 20 feet or so of the house and deck.

Cooter talked NI into suiting up in the Sasquatch outfit and walking through the woods to surprise Whim. It was all carefully timed. At 5pm, well into happy hour, NI was to appear walking in the woods, someone would yell, “Whim, It looks like Sasquatch is in the woods”. With that the group was to race out onto the deck. NI’s brother, WI, was loading up garbage bags with water balloons, 70 balloons, for the group to take down Sasquatch. NI had no knowledge of this. The group did.

It worked like a charm. Sasquatch (NI) appeared in the woods, the nine Bigfoot hunters raced out onto the deck, grabbed the balloons, and pelted NI, pinning him down, while the barrage continued. The laughter was so intense it was excruciating!

Whim, the birthday guy, aggressively participated and enjoyed the whole gag immensely. He was presented with the Bigfoot costume along with several other gifts to mark the occasion, his 60th.

Whim would tell you, Sasquatch is out there!

***** S&E *****

So Who Is Going To Fix It?

Unless you live in a rabbit hole, consider from a high level view, the wayward condition of our country, the USA. When a country lacks leadership it is like a sailing ship without a sail.

High level views are very valuable. It enables a person or group to step up out of the mire, the confusion, the mess, to view the issues, conflicts, and factors causing the problem and search for solutions to set a course of correction.

So ask yourself: who is going to set a course correction for the country and its many throbbing issues.

Who is going to fix it ? It is not Washington DC; they got us here, in addition to an apathetic citizenry.

So who is going to fix it ?

***** S&E *****

As a side note … if you want a better economy, and you are not working, and you’re able to work, you need to get out there and take one of the 100’s of 1000’s open jobs / positions. Here are your opportunities. Here are the industries. Make a contribution !

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t01.htm

There is not always wind, not always sun, but always TIDES !

The technology was new to me when I read about. I found it a possible significant solution for the world energy issues.

With this tech being around for years and very successfully applied in a few countries, and considering the renewable energy issue, and fossil fuel pollution situation, and the not so

unknown and now recognized impact of global warming, it is a wonder the world has not joined together and developed and applied this technology to a global grid to feed consumer energy needs. Of course that would have a great impact on several industries… maybe this great alternative resource is too painful to existing industries to broadly implement on a meaningful scale.

https://time.com/6189832/ocean-tide-energy/

***** S&E *****