The day before we came south, I was back at the Dartmouth Skiway, fifty two years after my first visit there. Ski equipment, the kind on your feet and the kind grooming the trails, has changed a lot, there’s a new lodge, new trails and lifts but same old me. Unchanged? I do find myself a bit less cold tolerant—it was in the twenties but windy, overcast and flurrying—I was chilly.
Speaking of chilly, how ‘bout those stock markets, unemployment stats or mortgage defaults? I was thinking about the size of the bailout bill, 3/4 of a trillion dollars, in relation to the National Debt-$11 trillion, total US Mortgage debt-$15 trillion, total US consumer debt-$2.6 trillion, which all added up puts us about $30 trillion in the hole. If there are 300 million US citizens, that would come to about $100,000 apiece.
As for the plus side, the corporations listed on the NYSE are worth $9 trillion and those on NASDAQ $2 trillion for $11 trillion total. I can only guess at the worth of all government, federal, state and local, assets such as real estate, vehicles, land, the army, navy, air force, national parks, etc. The property, art, artifacts of all the museums. The value of all non-public businesses. The property and possessions of all of the people. The total assets of the US must be at least a hundred trillion. So we are, maybe, $70 trillion ahead.
The only problem with that is finding a deep enough pocket if we want to totally cash out.
1 comment:
Howie, I've enjoyed the update on spring from your blog. Is it possible that you've done something MAJOR to the shrubs (trees?) along the side of the driveway in NJ or are these the junipers that had winterkill (but not enough to completely remove?) ??? Just thought I'd ask as we haven't been there for a while. I loved seeing a photo from FL on your blog. Carol in Naples
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