I want to get started. First thought is pretty obvious when you think about it. Wall Street is no longer the most capitalistic organization on planet earth. Digest that.

I believe in capitalism, I feel a free market is a wonderful thing. I am just tired of Wall Street holding our economy and our government hostage to get what it wants. Most people in America tend to forget that capitalism is an economic theory/process and democracy is a type of government and they are not one and the same. In fact at times they can be at odds with each other. This is not bad, but you have to separate them from each other to make sure you are doing what is the best for the people which is what our government is set up to do( see constitution). And what is in the best interest of the economy.

I tend to keep to myself some so I don't always hear every opinion, however, of those that I do it is shocking to me that people cannot separate the different interests of wall street and a government of the people. Too many people tend to lump the idea that what is good for capitalism is good for democracy and yes that works backwards too.

I believe America became great partly because of a strong business presence. I want to be rich. Having well made material possessions and financial security aren't necessarily bad things. I encourage businesses to be successful and grow. And if they become multi-national huge conglomerates well more power to them. Right now in our country we need growing businesses. Wall Street is not encouraging this and by its actions is discouraging business growth. People need to step back and really understand that because Wall Street making millions doesn't mean the country is prospering economically.

Today printed in the Dallas Morning News but originally from the NY Times & AP, there was a quote I will get to in a second that most Americans would consider a flippant remark to a reporter's question. The actual quote was a quick retort, but what is important to note about it was how true it can be. We tend to be very short sighted in our country, Wall Street spends more time worrying about stock price than how the business is actually doing or more importantly what it needs to do and what it can do to be long term successful. If we don't refocus our economic engine and thought process this flippant quote will be way too prophetic. Basically the Chinese government created an award to counter the Nobel Peace prize being awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. They wanted to refocus attention to their goals etc. and an award offiicial for the "Confucius Peace Prize" after some questioning about Liu "retorted "in 500 years you will see history is on our side."

Now some of this is taken out of context and you may be wondering how this connects. First connection is the obvious that more and more we are having to deal with the competitive threat from China. And if they succeed they are a totally different government and society than we are so we don't want them being successful. See the Liu story overall to get the why. The second connection is they are as a society, government, and economy all on the same page. It does help to have centralized control of everything to do this, but this isn't necessarily the best approach for humanity. (Remember we fought wars about this starting with one in the 1770's.) We do not want this, but how do we compete when we ourselves create competing interests within our country. Well first; competing interests if allowed to let the best ideas rise will become stronger than centralized and controlled processes. So the connection is Wall Street is stopping us from going forward economically by refusing to invest in business, new industries, but rather making millions on the volatility in the market. It is stagnating our growth by holding onto assets for its immediate profits rather than thinking long term and what is funny is Wall Street is shooting its own foot in the long run and I am not talking 500 years either, a few decades at most.

Okay I said no negativity as part of the intro to this blog so I am not saying people who spend time in school, working their way up and understanding the intricacies of modern trading are bad people. I am hoping to get these well educated people to sit back and use their resources to look at what businesses are good for America going forward. Look to find where are the true growth industries of the future and redirect trading dollars into investment dollars. Yes they won't make multi-millions on a daily basis, but they still will make multi-millions. Wall Street has totally lost connection with investing in the future of this country. Wall Street is not inherently bad, it is currently detrimental to the economic future of this country. It can change. Basically quit worrying about government policies and worry about what you get paid to do which is invest, analyze, and grow business. Public policy will change on its own with success. A government of the people will support an economy that benefits them. Right now with the separation of wealth in our country, the long term unemployment problem, the lack of growth in small businesses so no new wealth is created, and other economic trials we are going through needs to be addressed by our government. As long as Wall Street tries to create policy to benefit itself and therefore fight what is needed to right our ship then the Chinese official will be more prophetic than we want him to be and it won't take 500 years.

So here is the "sunshine and daffodils" (thanks GAC)  portion of this post. Alternative energy should no longer be considered some fruity hippy way of living. Basically it represents some of the best opportunities to grow our country. Also desalinization processes are also productive. Both these types of investments yield many positives. Most people will think the first is because it will help our environment, forget it, that is a side benefit. These are viable industries that can produce jobs, lower our trade imbalance, and eventually create new industries which carries forward economic growth.

One reason we won WWII because oil was cheap and we controlled its production and supply. Unfortunately that is no longer the case. If we want to grow our future we are going to need to create energy sources that are inexpensive and not subject to geopolitical volatility. I don't care if EXXON and CHEVRON do it, or someone else, but someone needs to redirect our entire energy policy to prosper and protect our nation.And going forward we may need multiple sources of energy to achieve this goal. So what, the more we create the more we benefit.

As long as our economy is strong we can continue to show the rest of the world why democracy is the best type of government and that treating people with respect is what God wanted us to do so 500 years from now we will see what history has to say.
Okay I am going to stop for now, more posts that take these thoughts further sometime in the future, postings will be random based on when I have time. And of course other ideas etc will also be forthcoming.

Play with your kids, spend time, they need it and they love you.

Education will be another hot topic for me.