Man of the Decade

Don DeWitt

The good times are rolling. So believe the great majority of US residents and they are right. We have had a long sustained prosperity and currently have an unemployment rate of less than 5 percent (with almost 3 percent usually attributed to job changes, etc.).

There are periodic ups and downs to our economy and they are not fully understood by economists. They may have flattened the apogees and nadirs by monetary policies and other measures we don't so easily see.

Politicians in power benefit by upswings which are probably merely coincidental to their governance. The average person doesn't want to take any chances, hence the popularity of President Clinton despite his personal woes.

The focus of credit goes to Alan Greenspan, head of our Federal Reserve System (reappointed by President Clinton prior to his reelection). This is true even among our economic gurus. Anything Greenspan says shakes the world and our economy. He is the man of the decade.

Throwing Rocks in a Greenhouse

Another ice age. Glaciers down to mid-America. Decimation of the human race.

Sound familiar?

In the 1970s The NY Times and journals of science reported these things as real possibilities according to the scientific community. World cooling had us in jeopardy.

Why beat this dead horse? Precisely because no really solid case has now been made for the perils of world warming.

Yet we have international conferences and carbon dioxide reduction treaties in negotiation with concomitant disasters to US industry and US workers.

Climatologists have said that the average temperatures have decreased (not increased) over the past decade. Maybe so, maybe not.

The sensible course of action would seem to be to keep the environmental nuts in check until we have hard and fast data.

Expressive Talk

President Gerald Ford: I love sports. Whenever I can, I always watch the Detroit Tigers on radio.

Broadcaster Jerry Coleman: He slides into second with a stand-up double.

Coleman again: McCovey swings and misses and it's fouled back.

Broadcaster Ron Fairly: He fakes a bluff.

Falcon's defensive end: The thing that's kept Jeff around is his longevity.

Sam Goldwyn: Frances has the most beautiful hands in the world, and someday I'm going to make a bust of them.

(Collected from that wonderful The 776 Stupidest Things Ever Said.)

Impertinent Question

What is happening in branch banking?

Interest rates approach 1 percent on "interest on checking" accounts, charges for bounced checks, minimum balance violations, certified checks, etc., climb.

Are the banks having hard financial times?

Not on your life. Bank stocks have risen greatly on the exchanges. So have earnings and prospective earnings.

What is going on?