http://romqa.com/207/can-you-give-your-opinion-about-my-gsm-child-locator-project…

Note the chart I posted above. 5 years. (I’d really rather have 8 so I could note when Reid and Pelosi took over, but the tool I used was kind of lame and I was in a hurry…)

The point is, the “dow plunge” you’re talking about is nada, zip, zilch, bupkis compared to 2009 .. and the only real change between now and 2009 is that everyone who could decided to sit on ca$h….. and that ca$h is in the market.

So .. market good? No.

Mew

The DJIA can move up and down as investors from places around the world move their money in and out and shift the balance of their portfolios across various world markets, but for me, it’s just a general background indicator, it’s importance to me is much smaller than when I see a local, thriving business go belly-up.

When a client I did $1500 worth of business last June tells me that they can’t afford even a scaled-back version this year, it’s like a punch in the stomach. And you ask them “Why?” and listen to them as they try to put on a brave face and then tell you: “Just between you and me, I don’t know whether we can afford our electricity bill this month.” You realize right then and there that the Private Sector in terms of those small enterprises is not accurately reflected in the major indicators.

And it hurts those towns. It positively harms their communities because those businesses – small and micro and midsized and local – contribute philanthropically to local organizations. They contribute to historic organizations, they contribute to fundraising for local libraries, they contribute to community events, they sponsor advertising books for authentic Celtic Pipe and Drum bands with real bagpipes and kilts. They sponsor local scholarships for local kids. They help preserve the towns they live in in so many innumerable ways. They contribute to their local PBAs, who then recontribute to other charities. It’s the small businesses and the micros and midsized businesses that do that – they’re the glue that holds it all together.

When those businesses find themselves in the basement or their doors close, all of those things that make living in that town begin to suffer. It doesn’t take too many to succumb before you’re faced with an exodus – except for the people who have no way to leave.

That’s my *point*, eh? Wall Street is reacting to China and Europe, not Main Street.

Mew

I really ought to overlay this with the unemployment numbers….

Mew

Yes, Main Street are investors … so what? That doesn’t mean Wall Street reflects Main Street.

Mew

Or, put simpler, Wall Street ain’t Main Street.

Mew

It has to go *somewhere* .. and the DJIA is a better bet right now than European or Chinese banks.

Mew

In just the one town I’m looking at in New Jersey, a relatively large middle-class/upper-middle-class town, they’ve lost 43% of their business addresses in less than a year, from 3389 in September of 2011 to 1934 as of last Friday.

They’re probably a bit of an outlier but those 43% of the private sector in northern New Jersey aren’t doing “fine.” And wherever they moved to, the town sure isn’t getting the revenue from them any more, and probably neither is the state.

If his analysis and argument through this election cycle is going to be as simpleminded as looking at the Dow Jones Industrial Average and reporting that as the “Private Sector” he shouldn’t have ever been allowed to teach anything, anywhere.

He really meant it. Combined with his next statement about state and local governments and the construction industry and you know all you need to know about Barack Obama’s priorities and view of the economy:

“Corporations are reporting profits. The private sector is doing fine. Detroit is going broke, California is going broke, [fill in the blanks] is going broke…we need more Government-On-Government Stimulus spending.”

That’s the world view we’re up against in this election. Of course the reality is that the private sector is doing abysmally, particularly for small businesses who can’t hire or find the revenue to stay in business. Everything from mom and pop restaurants to midsize manufacturing companies.

He really should try doing something simple: have his Labor Secretary pull the business and residential mailing list demographics for towns in Northern New Jersey. In one year, I’ve seen a decline of more than 30% in the number of addresses listed as “business.”

Drive through these towns and look at the shuttered stores, the “For Sale” signs, the “For Rent” signs, and survey the ghost town atmosphere, here in the midst of Obama’s Private Sector Recovery.

The local and state governments are hurting because their tax bases are eroding BECAUSE the private sector is doing abysmally. Until we get a President who understands that someone has to *make* the money before it can be taxed by the town, by the State and by the Federal Government, we’re going to continue to look more and more like Michigan.

Gee wiz Mr. Great Communicator, will talk solve anything or will the country heal with all the contrails above us from all your fund romps? Thanks for the taking time out from spending ~ $170K tax $ per HOUR on AF One from your busy Holloywood crowd fundraisers to answer 3 frigging questions. Mighty wide of you.

Just pricesless and endless material to work with here. Lovin’ it!