Gloom and Doom ... and all that ...

I'm an optimist or perhaps more accurately just a cheerful person. Writing this blog can be a downer since all the news seems a bit on the gloomy and doomy side. The economic front doesn't look too positive as we grow the debt madly and the rest of the world talks about dumping the dollar as the international reserve currency of choice. The current option on the table is some sort of basket of currencies. One problem it would seem with all of that is that none of the currencies are backed with anything but good will and good will is increasingly suspect as a unit of value.

When it comes to the United States, we seem to be everyone's favorite whipping boy, even our president and first lady seem a bit cool towards the United States, jetting around the world apologizing for us at every stop. You usually don't reward the folks you don't like with good will.

But another factor would seem to be that a reserve currency has to be based on large global economies. Hmmm... that's a rather limiting requirement. We are the largest economy on the globe so in one sense it is hard to find a way to escape from the U.S. dollar. But in the meanwhile we've been intrinsically devaluing it as we print more and more, create larger deficits, unlimited future entitlements, and sell treasury bonds (unbacked except for our "good will") to everyone who will belly up to the bar. I think the string on those strategies is about run out.

Then we're doing other really dumb things, like pretending we can simultaneously provide health care to everyone and cut costs at the same time. Is there anyone with an ounce of sense up there in Washington? I'm beginning to doubt it.

Meanwhile the cap and trade bill is being touted as part of the solution of the awful global warming crisis which has so far given one non-entity the Nobel Prize and lots of others government grants to study what is increasingly likely to be a non-issue as we found out a couple of days ago that the hockey was cooked, i.e. an artifact of inappropriate science gone slightly mad. So instead of taxing ourselves to death we ought to get out there and say "Stop this nonsense."

So what's to be cheerful about? Well, as I always say, the sun came up today and that's a very optimistic sign. If it didn't we'd be in very deep doodoo very quickly. I was driving home from the college yesterday evening and the sun was setting and the moon was rising. Just for a moment I was driving directly towards the rising moon about 15 degrees above the horizon and in my rear view mirror the sun was setting also about 15 degress above the horizon. I felt a little tingle at these two juxtaposed celestial signs both in my visual range at the same time. We are always occupied with ourselves and our business while all around us the universe revolves, majestic in the dark silence of space. Psalm 8:4-5 "4 What is man that thou art art mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? ⁵ You made him a little less than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor."