The Twilight Zone
My buddy Noel and I were talking this week about the rising cost of fuel, unemployment, President Obama’s actions in Asia, rising gold prices, crashing housing prices, and “Dancing with the Stars”. I said it felt like we were in the “The Twilight Zone”. You see, Noel and I are the same age as each other, born in 1967. I commented that we grew up with Gene Cernan hitting golf balls on the moon and promises of us living there someday. We were influenced by TV re-runs like “The Brady Bunch”, “Leave it to Beaver”, and “Andy Griffith”. The 1970’s had the gas crunch, Nixon going to China, the Bicentennial, Jimmy Carter, and the Iranian Hostage crisis. As we entered high school Reagan protected us from the Soviets, and the Big 3 auto companies saved themselves from the Japanese. In college Bush 1 continued the legacy of Reagan and we graduated to a healthy job market. Clinton first scared us with Hillarycare and reinvented himself to ultimately steer a healthy economy where everyone talked dotcoms, and knew Peter Lynch’s name; investment returns less than 15% were despised. Even as we partied like it was 1999, life remained good, our careers flourished, and although terrorism was new to our shores, we all jumped on the real estate rocket ship.
Today I feel like a character in the Twilight Zone: I lost my job, like Donald Trump sold real estate at a loss, shed assets like “The Biggest Loser”, have watched two elections with dismay wondering how some get reelected and others lost, and been puzzled by the bank mess and healthcare. On television gay characters perpetuate, obesity delights, and sitcom dialogue offends. I used to love air travel, but George Bush created a Gestapo security force requiring me to show papers, remove my shoes, and in the latest round choose radiation or molestation to board a plane. My president claims Islam was the light of the world, but yet the followers of this political radicalism have killed over 3,100 Americans in the last decade, many on our own soil. America manufactures nothing, we regurgitate services, and our economy is fueled by debt and consumption; there are no jobs and it will take 20 years to recover the 8 million lost over the last three years. Last week the central bank announced it will print money until our economy is fixed, another crazy scheme parallel to the Fed’s efforts of the Great Depression. My only explanation is we are waiting for Rod Serling to step from behind a tree saying, “That’s the signpost up ahead – your next stop, The Twilight Zone!”
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