Economy

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Enduring

April 2, 2009 in Cycle Training, Cycling, Economy, Employment by CyclistRick | 7 comments

My attempted return to anything close to the fitness and form of last spring is progressing slowly. The muscles of the right leg and right side of the hip seem resistant to my attemots to build strength. The right knee is still a bit dodgy, sometimes feeling fine, sometimes feeling ready to throw in the towel and buckle. Overall I see the need to attack the issues on at least three fronts: strength, flexibility, and endurance. Add to that the additional impact work the orthopedic surgeon assigned me, and you have a recipe for a full-time endeavor. But my other responsibilities have limited the time I can spend, so the recovery continues at a pace much slower than I desire or anticipated.

A couple of months back I tried to push myself towards working harder on a return towards what I consider ‘normal’, putting a couple of endurance events on the calendar for this spring to force me to get out more. But life has gotten in the way and I have not been able to spend the time necessary to prepare for these events, leaving me wondering what is realistic at this point as the dates for the events draw close.

I did get an unexpected surprise this week which will, at least in the short term, free up some time for me to work on the recovery (as well as some yard and house projects that have been delayed for far too long). My employer reduced the payroll, so I have a bit more time for endeavors beyond earning a paycheck. And the time I have will be allocated differently. More work on the recovery, balanced by working on networking with friends and acquaintances in an effort to find a new challenge (read job) to pay the bills. Lat month I was able to get in a mere 280 miles or so on the bike, and I have almost 70 in the first two days of this month. Perhaps I will be ready for the first of those endurance events in a couple of weeks.

What is the antonym of exuberance?

September 29, 2008 in Economy by CyclistRick | 4 comments

In a speech about 10 years ago Alan Greenspan used the phrase ‘irrational exuberance’ to characterize the run-up in stock values above any underlying traditional valuation metric.  The driving force nderneath that ‘irrational exuberance’ was an optimism in how the Internet would drive the economy going forward.  There was no clear way to limit that optimism, nothing that could be done to keep values in check.   And from that boom came the inevitable bust.

The U.S. economy, correction, the world economy, is now experiencing the opposite, a profound pessimism that is to a degree irrational.  The current economic woes are the downside of ‘irrational exuberance, part 2′, the unfettered and unregulated development and implementation of complex investment vehicles revolving around home mortgages.  Mortgages often given out without proper vetting of the customer and without collateral.  As these mortgages fail it has caused a worldwide credit drought, which fuels the spiral.  The unsettled, and unsettling question, is how to stop this pessimism, keep folks from making runs on the banks (having folks pull over $60 Billion in assets out of WaMu in less than 2 weeks qualifies as a run in my book), and let the dust settle.

The current U.S. administration put forth a plan to try to stop the economic downward spiral.  After a couple of weeks of wrangling the leaders of both parties hammered out a compromise this past weekend.  It was without a doubt a stinking fish, something no one wanted.  The deal was struck over the weekend in hopes of settling the world financial markets when they opened this morning.  But that ideal failed miserably.  And it was made worse when most of the legislators from one party, the party of the current administration (the administration that first proposed the general concept of the plan),  voted against the deal.  And the reason their leaders are giving for voting against this plan?  That the Speaker of the House made a speech before the vote blaming the administration for the problem.  Who do these legislators think is to blame?  The investment houses and banks?  Sure, the investment houses and banks hold the ultimate blame, but is not oversight and regulatory compliance a function of the executive branch of our government?  Where were the regulators during all this ‘creative financing’?  Another reason being given is that the plan is unpopular with the populace and with an election 5 weeks away some folks are afraid it may cause them to lose re-election.  These same folks who fiddled with the emperor while the empire burned are now fearing for their jobs.  To which I say, good riddance and don’t let the door hit you in the backside on the way out.