Changing Course?

Is it possible that I might have nothing to say? 

Here's my dilemma. This blog is mostly about the economy -- the US economy. That's my thing. I studied macroeconomics and I taught macroeconomics. That's where my economic interests have been and that's what I love to write about. My mother's influence on me was to be optimistic. And that's my dilemma. Aside from the 1970s when we coined the term stagflation, I could always find a silver lining in the economy. 

But now, the macro-skies seem dark. It seems impossible to think about the usual macro topics without getting sad or angry. Inflation is roaring out of control. And while we are not in a technical recession yet, there is a realistic probability that a recession is around the corner. And those yahoos in the federal government are reacting to all this as if today was a Three Stooges episode. 

I just read an article that said that federal tax revenues are reaching a peak never seen before. And yet despite taking gobs of money from us for taxes, they promise to bring us historically high government spending, deficits, and debt. Why? Because they are not satisfied with spending the increased tax revenues. They want to spend much more than that. 

It doesn't much matter what they want to use the extra cash for. What matters is their total lack of courage when it comes to financial management. Hey mom, I just got a raise. Great honey. Mom, can I borrow a thousand dollars? But honey I thought you just got a big raise? I did, but I really want a new sailboat and a motorcycle. 

What makes matters worse is that no one seems to care. Maybe its that we still don't understand what a trillion means. We see the word so often now. Like mass shootings. Our reaction today is more like, well, how many  kids got killed this time? Mass shootings, like trillions of dollars of deficits, gets spoken so often that they don't really register anymore. That's the effect of frequency. But frequency does not mean unimportance. We can and should do something about politicians who whistle their way to the bank -- with our money and our economy at stake. 

The above is meant to be a last time. I am tired of writing bad news. There is so much going on around us that impacts us more than macroeconomics. Good health is a big one that we ignore until we lose it.  If you are my age, you have your share of health concerns. But if you are reading this, you are alive and so am I. My parents checked out at much younger ages. Wow. I just got another day. How sweet. 

And what about family and friends? How great is that! Okay, relationships are not always perfect. But would you rather have no relationships? I won't bore you with how lucky I am to have people in my life every day. 

Back to my main point. With little fun writing about macroeconomics these days, I need to find better topics to write about. Since that is new to me, I will need your help. Aside from health and friends, what should we be yacking about? 

Is it Happy Hour yet?