You didn build that !

Hansel wrote: Fox Business wrote: "The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter for the first time in three years as it buckled under the weight of a severe winter*, but there are signs activity has since rebounded." "Economists estimate severe weather could have chopped off as much as 1.5 percentage points from GDP growth.* The government, however, gave no details on the impact of the weather." *emphasis added All those Keynesians and their darned Polar Vortex!

Tell me again Jamin, Is the planet supposed to be to cold or too warm? I get so confused when the left plays the climate from both sides.

(You can't tell me you did not see that coming)

Again giving Obama back that full 1.5% and he is still 3.3 behind Regan's supply side approach. Considering what was spent, even a .5% growth is terribly disappointing.

I can't live in fear of things beyond my control Dave. If there's another dip coming I'm here working my ass off so I can get through it like the last one.   

Joe, you are both wrong and right. Reagan did deficit spend, but that was at least temporary war spending, the cold war in this case. People were paid to produce, and we later received the peace dividend giving the opportunity to balance budgets during the Clinton years.

As for the supply side, government was cut by a real 5% (should have been more)which carried forward with baseline budgeting. Dropping tax rates in 1981 from 70% to 28% lead to increased tax revenues for 8 of the next ten years. The tax cuts paid for themselves with economic growth. The debt all came from the spending side.

Contrast that to Obama who payed of all his political allies, paid people not to work and funded shovel ready projects not so shovel ready and that is why we are now seeing negative growth where Reagen was seeing 3.8 positive

My propaganda meter is pegging. No dyed in the wool Democrat is ever going to say anything good about Regan, but being 23 when he got elected I can tell you he pulled this country up out of a deep slump and the 1980's were good times from my perspective, far better than the 1990's which sucked for me despite what the media constantly said during that time. Regan was a good leader. The Cold War stated in the 1950's long before Regan and while he gets credit for winning it, it appears it is starting up again.

Ronnie was miles better than gwb, but his policies of deregulation and taxation, long with his deficit spending have had pretty horrific long term effects. In terms of real progress of the middle class the eighties was the turningpoint and the beginning of the downward slide.   In many ways he cashed in on the hard work done by the greatest generation and blew what was years of work and investment in a decade.   Certainly this was not all Reagans fault, and again the nonsense that is advocated in his name these days is ridiculous but judging the policies of a president only by the effects that we see during his/her presidency is the exact type of short sightedness that has gotten us to our current levels of debt and deficit. If we judge solely by federal tax rates Reagan was considerably more liberal than Obama is…

My issue remains someone declaring that Economics doesn’t work based on a simplistic understanding of made up facts… then moving to deify Reagan based on wrong “facts” again without any nuance of additional factors like say massive debt, unmaintained infrastructure, and a systemic redistribution of wealth from the workers to the inheritors.    

If we really wanted a more relevant comparison upon which to make an assessment on the relative merits of Keynesian solutions vs. the more austerian solutions being proposed by the so called conservatives one would look at the economic growth rate in the US in the post global financial meltdown period where we had a limited implementation of Keynesian stimulus vs. the European Union who went more with a strictly conservative solution. Both are developed economies existing in the same global market at the same time, and our growth rate has doubled theirs, the only real conclusion that could be reached by that data is that our only issue was in the half measured way we implemented our Stimulus. IE the vast majority of the stimulus went to people who have more money than they can spend and effectively return to the economy. We should have fixed the bridges and built more roads instead of extending the bush era tax cuts on those earning more than 200k… as that experiment had obviously already failed, as a result we only got mediocre growth and not only did we get more debt but we also didn’t get bridges or roads.

Alan, thanks for posting.
I am not surprised you are doing well, there is probably no one more deserving than you and your wife. I enjoyed the lunch visit and tour of your business some time back and was very impressed. You obviously pay the same attention to detail in your business that you did with the Hurricane.
Best wishes for continued success, keep your 1-1/2 thumbs safe, and may all of your ice fall into a glass of refreshing beverage.

davidg wrote: I agree with Alan's comments as well, and applaud his efforts. The overall economy will do what it will do. We can't live in fear whenever there is bad news. Not much I can do to control it. However, I can do the best I can to knock on more doors, and kick over more stones in my little corner of the world of industrial material sales. And vote for politicians I think can do a better job with the economy.    Oh, and also maybe spend some money now and then on new toys to try and do my part to stimulate the economy. I seem to have an affinity to red toys.

Thanks but I don't need any applause guys because every small businessman/entrepreneur still around is doing the same thing. All you can do is take care of what you have some control over. There are plenty of ways to make money, not all are fun and most require time, effort, investment and RISK but this is still the land of opportunity if you want to put your balls on the line you can still do very well.

You guys might not believe this because you all think i fart roses but my personality is quite volatile and I can fall into a rampage every single day if I let the glass half empty mentality take over. What lifts me is when I associate myself with people that are afraid of nothing. I am currently working on doing the printing for 2 national up and coming (we hope) garment lines, We will also be running the online store for a reality TV show that will be shooting their pilot program in a few months (it is boating related so you guys will love it and is being produced by the guy that does Fast and Loud so we really have high hopes for that one) and I'm doing the marketing/printing for a little tiny guy who makes a full line of hot sauces. All three are entreprenuers/dreamers that have a vision and need like minded people to get on board and make it happen.

There's a good chance all three of these guys along with my investment will fail but there's three more of them right around the corner with hopefully even better ideas, confidence, drive, luck, timing and a hefty set of balls. There are just so many opportunities but sitting in the back of the bus, or the rear of the lecture hall or the last pew in church is not going to get you anywhere, you gotta have your hands on the wheel and drive.

So I'm rambling again which is about all I can do in a political thread but I'm gonna have a cup of coffee, then I'm going to do my favorite thing and run month end invoicing, then I'm going out to dinner with my bride and tomorrow I'm going to go boating in my fancy ski boat and burn as much gas as I possibly can. I'll mow my lawn, wash my car, grill out with neighbors and If I don't die in the process I'm going to come in Monday morning and kick some ass so I can do it all again. This country sure can seem ***************ed up at times but tell me where you can do what we all do anywhere else.

And good for you on the toys Dave, stimulate away.

Does anyone else smell roses?

davidg wrote: Alan...I know you don't need, or ask for, the applause, but, I do admire the attitude. I wish you the best of luck with the new ventures. Sounds like you have some interstng things cooking that can pay off nicely. You are a true entrepreneur. I always wanted to be, but, I lacked the "hefty set of balls", or as I like to say....the "testicular fortitude"

I'm more self employed than entrepreneur but I work with a lot of them and those are the people that have the ideas and the dreams. Most small business owners are victims of circumstance and timing and that's the reason they are in business not out of a grand design. An entrepreneur has a vision, turns it into a reality, cashes out and moves on to the next opportunity. They need guys like me to do the hands on work but that's ok because that's what I do, I get stuff done.

ps. the guy with the biggest balls doesn't always win.