Within very recent time, the Federal Reserve Board raised interest rates on several occasions to keep the booming economy from galloping off into inflation.
What booming economy? Around here, the economy is as moribund as Kelsey [whoever Kelsey is?].
The fact is, we are supposedly in the eye of a financial hurricane that is undermining the economy of almost the entire country, except for the northeast – thank you very much – California, and other pockets of resistance.
One of the troubles is, you guys around here aren’t spending enough dollars. How can you spend dollars you don’t have, you ask? And the answer is: you don’t have to spend a lot of dollars; it’s the spending and the turn over spending that will add up, cause the surge, fan the fire.
For example: when this stagnant economy finally drops off our necks, freeing us from financial rigor mortis, it will not be because someone from the Treasury Department climbs up to the top of the Empire State Building to toss bushels of twenties into the wind, to filter down to the eager populace below.
Part of the problem is depression mentality – speaking of depression, the difference between a depression and a recession is simple: a recession is when the guy next door doesn’t have a job; a depression, is when you don’t one – part of the problem is the psychology of spending or not spending. Many of us are squeezing those twenties so hard, Jackson is about to be moved into the White House
But think about it. When you spend a twenty at the shoe store to buy that pair of shoes you put off because you couldn’t afford them, the shoe store owner takes that same twenty and spends it at the sporting goods store to buy a basketball. The person from the sporting goods store, spends the twenty as part of the purchase of a new car battery. The auto parts person takes the twenty to buy a cake for a Super Bowl party.
Remember, this is one twenty dollar bill that has, so far, been part of four purchases. And it goes on and on. The bakery person buys a new toaster with that same twenty; the appliance store owner treats her husband to an anniversary dinner they were thinking of passing up because things are tight. That little twenty is moving along, isn’t it?
Multiply that twenty by thousands, tens of thousands of other twenties, being spent by people just like you. Hey, the auto parts guy has to order more batteries; the appliance gal has to get in some more toasters. In turn, the battery manufacturers have to produce more batteries, the toaster manufacturers have to produce toasters. They have to hire a few more people to fill the orders. And so on, and so on, and so on.
Don’t you see where all this can lead – just by you, and everybody you know, going out and spending a few – not a lot – of bucks. There’s no need for any King Kong on the Empire State Building with that bushel of twenties. No need? There isn’t any bushel of twenties, except for your twenty, and the next guy’s twenty. Your twenty can go around and around, and represents a bushel full of spending after a while. That’s why currency wears out and has to be replaced, the same twenty goes through a lot of hands.
So, if you want to help the economy, give a twenty, take a twenty at your local merchant. It can’t ‘hoit’!