Which way are you leaning?

fuene ls No DouBr that everyone I speak with is fed up with the current state of our _l economy. Actually. that is an understatement. In my 30-plus years living in the U.s., I have never heard it so loud and clear-and vitriolic. It does not seem to maier which wav you voted last time for you to be fearful about the future. Everyone just sounds unhappy, whether as individuals or as employees watching the grim rt uggt"r oi their companies-ind our industry.

I have never before sensed such pessimism towards the future of our great country. S_ome have suggested that we-are in a prolonged, Japanese-style recession,-maybe worsi. whereas the 1930s saw soup lines, we now see unemployment benefits lines. Three years into the recession, home prices, GDp, available credit, personal incomes, and employment are all lower than they were at the start.

About five years ago, when things still seemed great on the surface, I found myself commenting in my daily calls that I feared for America's future. I didn't mean politicallv. I was basing it on my travels, seeing first hand what was happening around the world, and using common sense that there would be great issues ahead-for our country-the likes of which made me shudder and made me wonder who could or would attempt to solve them.

The biggest issue I saw then-apart from the out-of-control housing boom-was what I perceived to be the start of a change in the world economic order. ThJjuggernaut of china already appeared unstopp-able. And for years, the u.s. had been losing li-s manufacturing base to them and others. Thus, we have gradually, increasingly become-a low-wage service economy' In my intemational travels, I saw what I perceived !o be the first signs of the loss of the "empire" and a decline in our standard of living. I started to shut up wf,en in return I heard back, "Alan, we are the united states of Ameiica. we will always be the leaders." And I could understand that viewpoint, as that is all most people here have ever known.