Recession-Warning-Media-Confusion-Bob Davis Podcast 855

What Is All This Talk About Recession

These days it’s hard to tell who to believe. In many ways it’s the best economy ever. The best time to look for a job. An unprecedented economic boom. Why is everyone suddenly talking about a recession. Learn more in Recession-Warning-Media-Confusion-Bob Davis Podcast 855.

Not Making Predictions

First of all I am not here to tell you the economy is in the tank, or that it is booming.

Recession! Depression! Do I have Your Attention Now?

Truth is if you put the words recession, bust, or depression in an article you’re going to get people’s attention. In addition it doesn’t hurt to have a couple of historic drops in the stock market.

Now that I have your attention…Listen to Recession-Warning-Media-Confusion-Bob Davis Podcast 855.

Market Drops and Yield Curves Mean New Media Story Lines

It doesn’t matter if the markets recover from those drops.

What matters is now the media has a story line that predicts doom and destruction.

Fool’s Errand

Especially relevant is a lesson I learned a long time ago. It doesn’t matter how well informed a commentator might be. Making predictions about a force of nature like the world’s largest economy, is a fool’s errand.

Shallow Expansion, Debt and Slowing Growth

Even more, it is true our economy is growing and we are enjoying the longest economic expansion in memory. It’s also true it’s a shallow expansion and that growth just above the inflation line, isn’t really booming. Moreover, the expansion is getting pretty long in the tooth, as the say.

There Is A Season

In contrast like the seasons, economies operate on a cycle. Truth is anyone who predicts a recession will ultimately be right. Just like fall into winter recessions have a purpose. Economic contractions kill off the weak plants and animals and insects so the strong and grow again in the spring.

So when the yield curve inverts and the market drops it is certainly worth paying attention.

Seems like we’re missing something though. While the politicians and talking heads trade insults about who’s predictions are right, what are we thinking about?

Election Year Economics

In conclusion what plans to we the people have for the future economy of the United States. I sat down to do a podcast on the yield curve, claims about unemployment and recession predictions. I ended up with an essay on the pitfalls of talking economy in an election year, the ballyhoo on the current economy when the real questions aren’t even being asked. Let alone answered.

It’s 1950 In America…Coal Mines and Manufacturing, right?

Where are we going? What are we trying to accomplish? What kind of economy do we expect in the future. Is it really manufacturing jobs in Ohio and Coal Mines in West Virginia?

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Reliafund Payment Processors

Recession-Warning-Media-Confusion-Bob Davis Podcast 855

 

Podcast 605-Bannon’s Fourth Turning

Steve Bannon and The Fourth Turning

The President’s co chief of staff is obsessed with a book called The Fourth Turning. Podcast 605-Bannon’s Fourth Turning discusses reaction to the idea someone as powerful as Steve Bannon would formulate a political philosophy on a pop history/sociology best seller. The Fourth Turning co-author the late William Strauss was a playwright, theater director and lecturer. Co-author Neil Howe is a best selling author and consultant. Strauss and Howe coined the term ‘Millennial’. Both men described themselves as Amateur Historians. The Fourth Turning, Bannon’s apparent zeitgeist, was published in the early 1990’s. See a video of the two authors appearing on C-Span’s BookNotes here.

Chaos Dead Ahead

The book some say Steve Bannon has based his political philosophy on postulates every 80 years the United States is marked by crisis and chaos. Business Insider says Bannon believes the United States will soon reach our climax conflict and that Trump is in the White House to usher it in.

Is the United States in a Political Crisis?

Politicians tend to magnify the political challenges they face. Reporters play along. Divided since the beginning crises of one kind or another have been a way of life in the US. It’s very American to think of the government with distrust and apprehension. Especially when, as the saying goes, the legislature is in session. Are we in a political crisis?

Want To Know The Future?

Crisis will find the Trump administration. The response to crisis is what will determine it’s fate. Theories predicting ‘the’ crisis are questionable. Free Will is a gift to Human Beings. We think and act voluntarily. We can be the authors of our own stories. Controversy surrounding the Fourth Turning and Steve Bannon’s embrace of the theory encapsulates much of what is wrong with our politics. In Podcast 605-Bannon’s Fourth Turning I’ll tell you why.

One Day At A Time

Living one day at a time doesn’t mean avoiding passionate views. We do not remain passive and uninvolved but do the best we can with what we have. We will never know exactly what tomorrow may bring. Isn’t that the fun part of life?

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