Now that we have a new regime in place (at the top of our political atmosphere), and the turmoil between angered voters has been put on a soft mute (for now), you can’t help but take in the freshness of it all. Or can you?
We’ve seen an about-face trend in the stock market from what was predicted – but where is all this money? People are still living in a constant state of financial alertness, for good reason. We have seen this playout too many times in the past generation. Regime change equals economic redirection. Which side of the fence you are on depends how you are projected to fare over the next few years, if you follow trends.
Let’s turn back the clock to 2000. Bush is in, and the conservatives are celebrating their national championship. Liberals are cringing at the prospect of reigning in the expansion of government entitlements and the influx of a new idea of tolerance. The glut of big money investment is about to roll out into corporate take-overs and incessant greed of the, soon to be feared, one percent.
We all know how the Bush administration went; ugh, debt, debt and some more debt. That deficit rose quicker than the technology of those futuristic new smart phones that were coming out. We wanted change – we needed change. But, all we did was change the side of the celebration.
We pumped more and more into government expansion and entitlements for those street-destroying celebrators of “change”. The held-out hand seemed not to drop a thing, as the ones that were used to holding on to their investments and portfolios found new interests in “storm shelters” and 30-round magazines. Those same people probably thought at the time, that the Arkansas dress destroyer was a saint compared to what was coming out of Kenya.
The eight year reign of the liberal agenda helped the hopeless aspire to receive far more than they contributed: citing free phones, healthcare and questionable bathroom preferences. Our national debt continues to climb, right along with a manifested racial divide and sprinkled in terrorist attacks , as well as those killer cops.
Still, the winners of ’08 claimed that “progress” was the right track for the equality of all. You were deemed a racist, intolerant, or a bigot if you thought otherwise.
2016: The year of “what just happened”? Well, “it” happened again. The swing back to conservative-ism or, as the newly found losers called it, “not my America”.
Here we are, primed for the run. As I alluded to previously, the so-far surprise market is a base moniker of how we are doing, right? First quarter projections are now rolling in and American manufacturing as a whole is taking a woodshed beating. We are seeing it in non-technical manufacturing very hard, reminding those who have been around long enough to boast those comments, “remember ’01, or ’09? We took a beating those years.” Head scratcher, huh?
If you were to make a prediction of the outlook for 2017, it looks like a safe bet for the status quo. The only thing different is that the winners gloated a little more, and the losers… well, are they done yet? It is merely a continuation of the same things we have dealt with our entire adult lives. So, it might be a good idea to keep conserving your money, play wisely with retirements, and for heaven’s sake get on that highway of progress; that fabled “economic growth” that every politician ever has spouted about.
We are all meant to be winners in this game of “big ‘ol gubmint,” or so they say. The nation may veer to the left or to the right and back again, but we continue in the same basic direction, paying our forced tithes to the downward spiral. To be happy about it you simply need to jump onto a different bandwagon every four or eight years. My hope is for the bandwagon of “Enough Already.” But don’t look to jump on it anytime soon.
* Wes Fischer self supporting libertarian focused on shrinking our government one action at a time.
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