A Fishermans Perspective on Economics

As we finish out 2010 and roll into the holiday season I have been running through some of the highlights of this year in my head. Certain items come to mind right away; such as my son celebrating his 1 year old birthday in January, and my second son being born just over 4 months later, catching and releasing several trout this year that topped the scales at close to 6-pounds, celebrating my 5th wedding anniversary, the disqualification of the fellas at Big Rock due to a $12 fishing license, my Tigers loosing for the second year in a row to my wifes Gamecocks, and wondering if this will be the coldest winter on record and what happened to global warming!

Perhaps one of the biggest highlights of 2010 for all of us has been the economy. Is the recession over? Will there be a double dip? Will the second dip hit this winter? Will we pass the 10% unemployment rate? Will there ever be raises again and 401K matches? Will we all just live the rest of our lives saying I am just glad I have a job?

The answers to those questions I do not have personally; but there is a question I have for each of you directly; where do you spend your money? I listen the radio station The Bridge pretty regularly. The Bridges slogan is Its all about the music. They actually live up to their slogan, they do not have a silly morning talk show clogging up the air waves with a bunch of stupid skits and celebrity news, they actually play music, lots of music with very little interruption. At any rate, another one of the Bridges slogans is Buy local, be local, be part of the 10% shift to local businesses.

I will admit for a long time those words just went in one ear and out the other till recently; I had purchased a tool from a big box store and realized when I got it home that it would not do what I thought it would. When I went to return it, it was like pulling teeth to get them to take it back since I had opened it and used it before I realized it would not work. I left the big box store and went to my local hardw