A Layman's Look

Here's just my thoughts about the exchange rate for the currency pair.  It seems to me that the low around 1.057 was a failed fifth wave after a long sideways trend.  From the 1.057 mark, I think we're headed up over a long, multi-year trend.  The question is, "What is about to happen from 1.117?" I think there are two options.  Option one is that 1.057-1.099 was the first leg and we're in the third leg now, which would mean moving upwards towards 1.15.  The other possibility, and what I fear is the probable scenario is the move from 1.057 to 1.124 is wave one and we're now in a correction for wave two that will bring us back down to around 1.08.  That would also fit nicely into the gap of the close of 4/21 and the open on 4/24.  We'll see, but I think that's where we're headed next.  After that, it would be off towards 1.18 or higher. Only time will tell.

I just saw a beautiful image of the Lincoln Monument at night.  It is so majestic, and such a wonderful monument to a fallen leader who held this country together by sheer will during the Civil War.  It got me to thinking if today's government would see fit to memorialize a fallen leader, military or civilian, in such a magnificent way.  Then I had to ask myself the question, "Do we have such monumental leaders today?  Where have they gone?" I realize leaders such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, Jr. only come along once every several generations.  The question still lingers in my mind, though.  Do we have such monumental leaders in our midst today?  If they are, it seems to me that they are needed.  Will they step into the spotlight?  Can you, can I, provide a smaller version of that leadership in the corner of the world in which we find ourselves?

I got to sit for about an hour this morning and listen to the discussion between President Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel, and two moderators in Berlin during the German Kirchentag (Church Day).  It was wonderful to hear them answer questions in such a thoughtful and deliberate way.  They touched on refugees, wealth disparity, separation of church and state, conflicts between different religious ideas, and much more. A statement by the Chancellor struck me in a particularly deep way.  She said, "My freedom is not unlimited.  It is, indeed, limited by the freedoms of the people around me." Think about that for a minute. We Americans love to talk about our freedoms and our rights.  These are wonderful things, and yet we forget that they are, indeed, limited.  We have a certain sense of privilege as a nation, and the trick for us, as I see it at this point, is to learn anew how to respect the freedoms and rights of those around us and to see the impact ...

In most families with kids, the siblings fight.  Throughout their lives there are dust-ups, disagreements, falling outs, and brawls, unless the parents are able to calm the older sibling and keep them from killing the younger (thanks Mom and Dad for not letting my annoying ways cause my untimely demise!). What happens, though, when the school bully or the mean kid from around the corner harasses the younger sibling?  Right, generally speaking the older sibling will come to the defense of the younger because blood is thicker than water.  It's what you do.  It's what's right.  It's what's expected. I have a theory that our political parties have been like those un-harassed siblings since the end of the cold war.  Republicans have been wedgied by Democrats, and Democrats have been nuggied by Republicans.  There's been short-sheeting of the beds, saran-wrapping of the toilets, and each has left the constituents of the other party left to be picked last...

In case you missed it, a major turning point in the movie Frozen  is the song "Let it Go".  It is during this song where Elsa literally takes off the gloves and lets her special power come out.  What results is spectacular.  While she still feels strange or dangerous, it is at this time that she starts to at least be able to grapple with the reality of what she can do and she begins learning how to harness the power that she has.  I feel like Hillary Clinton needs to embrace what she really is at this point, a failed and defeated presidential candidate, and let it go. I won't go into the myriad reasons people enumerate as to why Clinton lost the presidency.  You can find those on YouTube or the nightly news archives.  What I will say is that it is my opinion that, though Hillary's presence on TV talking about likely Russian involvement in the election, the sexism she feels is still alive and well, or any other perceived reason she was defeated might ...

Take a look at  President Trump signing some documents  and see if you see what I see. When I watch our president sign his name, I see a man moving his arm back and forth with some significant, and unnecessary, fervor.  I realize that the D, l, d, J, and T are tall letters, but I have some tall letters in my name, too, and I don't have near that much arm movement in my signature.  I also sign my name relatively large, and yet most of my writing is finger movement, not arm movement. I acknowledge that I might be making too much of this, but they say you can tell a great deal about a person by their signature. Watching this large movement, where small movements suffice, makes me think of his over-sized aggression towards Hillary Clinton (and his Republican opponents before her) during the campaign.  I think of his huge, bold statements about walls, health care coverage, restoring America's greatness, his superior knowledge of things military, and so much mor...

Our world has been changed by the digital age.  Do you doubt that or would you like to have some more confirmation?  Read this brief article about  shortened attention spans  and I'll see you back in a minute. It shocked me to find out that our attention spans have shrunk to 8 seconds.  Knowing that, I'll keep this brief.  In this world where we have the opportunity to seek out any entertainment we want with a few button clicks or screen taps; where we can instantaneously eliminate our perceived boredom in any way we desire; where murders get solved before our very eyes in 60 minutes, repeatedly; and where written responses to personal or professional questions can be sent and received in seconds between correspondents halfway around the world, we run the danger of not being able to enact change in our politics. We who did not vote for the Trump administration must stay patient.  We must stay focused.  We must stay motivated.  To enact ch...