Thursday, April 11, 2013

The economy is picking up, even as it's being held back.

I don't think it's a coincidence that, within a span of a month, two clients have decided to take a time out and look at expanding the scope of projects.  Followed up by a contractor saying that things really are expanding rapidly that they're looking to hire a handful of people, I'm sure that the economy is picking up.

It seems the message has finally gotten out: Interest rates are at historic lows, and if you're going to borrow money, you better do it now before the party ends and rates go up.

Now, there's no reason to think that the US will escape unaffected from the EU's ongoing recession, the continued shrinking of the federal government payrolls and the sequester -- in effect, the economy is being driven with the parking brake still on -- but as plainly as I can see at night, people seem confident enough about the economy, that they're now going out and spending money.

It's an awful shame that so many people are conspiring to hold back the economy for self-interested political reasons, or from lack of knowledge.



On a separate note

Anyone else see the parallels of Paul Krugman 1998 reference to the story about a babysitting co-op that issued a fixed number of scrips for babysitting, and Bitcoin?

The total number of Bitcoin units is fixed.  Over time, as more Bitcoins are "minted", we come closer to that point where this cap is reached.  Since so many people are upset at fiat money, I suggest these folks invest all of their money into Bitcoins -- a de facto gold coin -- not because it makes financial sense, but because they ought to put their money where their mouth is.

Enjoy the ride.

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