the U.S. seems to resist change more than Canada - the metric system - I think the U.S. is the major global hold out. all her trading partners are metric I think.
Canada went metric and dropped the 1$ bill for a coin though without the backing of the popular public opinion. we survived and life goes on.
Just saying the U.S. seems more tied to holding to some traditions while dropping others, like the Lord's Prayer in school.
The Fed's have fought very, very hard with their printing presses and the QE's to prevent a Japan style deflation and the flip side, an inflation of the purchasing power of the dollar - so far successfully. They will not win the battle.
check out this speech by Ben Bernanke from back in 2002, before he was Governor of the U.S. Fed > Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here
Like him or dislike him, Pres. Trump has done more to improve the U.S. economy in 1 year than the Feds did in 10 years.
But neither the President nor the Feds can change the underlying cause of the economic woes - and that is shrinking families.
Fewer families and fewer kids per family. Fewer new consumers.
Fewer new consumers mean weaker consumption that leads to the Japanese Deflation Flu or a Japanese style 'demographic time bomb'. check out this article here > Japan is dealing with what economists call a "demographic time bomb."
Nice conversing with someone that understands all the underlying issues. Most people don't have a clue. Have followed Bernanke and the Fed as a whole very closely for a long time. Just this year I closed my financial planning business so this was all information that really mattered to my business, but I've followed economic news since high school as it just interests me.
Agree about Trump. He also has managed to make more headway internationally then all the presidents combined in the last 30 years. Why, simple the other countries just aren't sure if he really would go to war over the issues he is presenting. Now that he put the tariff in place on steal and aluminum China knows he is serious about their currency manipulation. Funny how in the last 6 months they have allowed the US dollar to fall in value vs their's, but still not at the correct rate so the tariff is a smart play.
The shrinking family shows the ponzi like issue of big government. If they hadn't made SO many promises based on continued growth the size of families wouldn't matter. The government needs to be run like a business and when times are tight cuts need to be made. Sure you can use debt when there is a fiscally sound reason to do so, not just to continue programs that waste billions each year.
Nobody wanted to deal with Social Security in the 80's when they realized the issue. At that moment they should have instantly changed the retirement age for everyone under 55 to 70. Then anyone under 45 to 72. Anyone under 35 to 75. That's it, the issue would have been fixed forever.
Anyways I can go on and on, but have work to do today.
interesting - we come from similar backgrounds. I did 10 years with the Credit Union system, 5 as a Head Office Controller [nowadays CFO] for 2 of western Canada's larger Credit Unions and 5 as a Branch Manager. then 20 years as a branch manager for some of Canada's larger financial services investment dealers.
took early retirement 10 years ago after a run in with throat cancer. I love financial analysis, the markets, the economy and demographics and the study of human behavior - fascinating stuff!!!
Trump has the other countries, and the U.S. too, off balance because he is a business man first and a politician second and he is an awesome poker player.
he doesn't play by the politician's handbook. and people can't tell when he's bluffing.
I started my accounting career very young as it's the family business. Was running payroll and doing bank recs by 6th grade. No joke. Understood how to take a small businesses check register and put everything into correct categories for tax purposes by 8th grade and from there was installing accounting software and entire computer systems for companies by 16. So have the accounting and strong computer/IT skills.
Went away to college to have a company recruit me to become their Financial Controller and acting CFO at only 20 years old. Took them public and ran multiple private stock offerings. Lots of interesting knowledge gained with these processes. Got severely burned out and walked away from it all when they wanted me to change my books, won't go as far as saying they wanted them "cooked" but it was close enough that I wasn't comfortable with it. I spent the next few years wondering if after I left they changed things to the way they wanted and if somehow that would come back to bite me in the butt...luckily I never ended up getting a call from the SEC.
From there I've had a couple businesses and keep moving onto things I enjoy doing. Decided life is way to short to do something you hate and more important something that keeps me away from the kids. Can always make more money down the road, but can't get these years back with my girls.
This is so dead on it's not funny. His erratic behavior and over the top personality keeps people guessing. They have no clue what is coming next and what will really happen if they defy him. I guarantee that the tariffs were threatened if something didn't happen, that thing didn't happen and now the price will be paid. This time he had the cards and played them, next time he will be able to bluff his way to an outcome of his liking.