Economy

I think the fundamental problem is that there is an excess of just about everything. There is too much credit and too many houses and too many cars and too many stores and too many restaurants and on and on.

In a way there is too much because we have been too successful. I had this friend once who lived in another country. We shared a few pictures and one I sent him was of my son's home. My friend wrote me back asking if all of us in Oklahoma lived so luxuriously. My son's home at the time was very nice but would not be considered luxurious by any means. But that exchange made me think about how much we take for granted about how we live.

Then there is political influence. We have a mixed economic system. There is surely market forces at play but there is also political pressure.

And there is greed and corruption and lust and all the other vices with which we humans are afflicted.

But it is a system and like all systems it seeks equilibrium.

I think we are in one of those really out of balance periods now. The excess is going to have to be absorbed and purged. Credit is undergoing rapid balancing right now. The credit producers that survive will be better. But not all will survive.

There are too many cars and too much capacity for making cars and selling cars and most everything else about cars. Change is underway. There will be fewer cars and less capacity when the process is over.

There are too many houses but the excess will be absorbed eventually. In the meantime that industry will change.

There are too many stores but soon there won't be.

It is not a pain free process. It is not an instant process either.

The government can help make things easier and even attempt to point things one way or another. I personally think that government action will not really change the process that much either for good or bad.

And personally I would just as soon not have to go through all this at all. I don't like going through tornadoes either. But they just are and I have no choice about it.

When the process is over then we will already be in the process of building new things to excess. Maybe it will be electric cars or hydrogen fuel cells or some new kind of nanotechnology material or machines or whatever. Maybe we'll have too many Kindles and Net books. I don't know what but I know we'll make too many.

And about 70 years from now we'll go through this all again. Well I won't but my grandchildren will.

That's what I think.