WISHING FOR PEACE SOMEWHERE ON EARTH
Friday, December 23, 2022
This ‘Christmas week’ is for men to shop now that the selection has declined, for the frenetic pace of an overheated economy being whacked about like a piece of steel on a blacksmith’s anvil. At the same time, the pain is felt severely from high prices and interest rates aren’t by the rich or captains of industry – but rather by those consumers who want goods, cars and countless products in short supply. You would think governments would praise and support robust times for businesses. Instead, they choose to dampen and control an economy they’ve been able to handle very well, let alone purport to contain or control.
Markets are made, not on Bay Street or Wall Street but by the collective decisions of people, because we pay the cash register, we pay at the bank, we pay in investment volatility, and we pay the governments and banks that impose the dampening …
We call pay, and I have to wonder where we might be without all that wise intervention.
As news reports of the latest nonsense emanating from Florida/Trumpland seem to be waning as his electability shrivels and his legal troubles mount, we have plenty of media attention on the silly politics of distraction here; it does not diminish over the holiday season.
Ottawa and Edmonton, or any other capital just about anywhere, are seeing similar social-media-feeding frenzies over how people get their publicity and exercise their power poorly; their sound bites rarely translate to good governance or provide transparent evidence in support of our trusting them.
Leaders of all parties in high places keep moving pieces around their proverbial chessboards; they’ve gone home to constituencies for the holidays, while millions of citizens will realize that there isn’t much news to report or advertisers willing to pay for it; still, we will be inundated by year-in-review journalism, predicting next year is confused and conflated with too much wishful thinking, and too many stupid ideas …
Meanwhile, conflicts continue with little regard for any seasonal truce, most notably Ukraine’s battling back against Putin’s Russia. I like that leaders and media are calling Putin out for the terrorist he is because Russian citizens want peace as much as everyone does, but Putin’s power is feared …
It’s been a week of many errands woven amid shopping for holiday meals, wrapping gifts, exchanging greetings, writing cards, and wrapping up loose ends.
Today I hit the ‘resume button,’ back to holiday things and wrapping a year-end, but more importantly, readying for next year’s start.
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