The state of the economy and me

I'm liable to write just about anything in this blog.

Yesterday I attended an event in Chattanooga hosted by the local Moody Radio station. The event was called a "Town Hall Meeting" and featured Howard Dayton and Chuck Bentley of the Christian financial ministry called Crown Financial that has a radio show called MoneyLife.

The meeting was set up so that if people wanted to ask a question, they would raise their hands and then a lady would come and see what your question was and write down your name. When it was time to ask your question she would give you the mike. I already had in mind before I got to the meeting what I wanted to ask about.

I asked about the economy and the value of the dollar. I also had several less significant, perhaps even trivial questions, coming to mind that I might have asked. Later, during a commercial, they asked the audience members to introduce themselves. They started on my side of the room, and I was seated so that I was the second person to speak. I guess having been bold enough to ask my first question, I was bold enough to say something about myself. I said my name and said I am unemployed and haven't worked for a long while and I need to get a job. And that was how I ended up being offered the to do the career direct program as their guest. What a blessing!

When I was in college (30 years ago), I took a class in economics, and I did well in the class. I think I did well because during the summer I had read a book, I can't remember the name of the book, but it was one that I picked up after my Mom had read it. It was about economics and had gotten me thinking already about supply and demand, how the global dimensions of economics, things like that. So, the professor ended up inviting me to take part in an honors class for non-majors. I was one of - I think it was - five students in the class which was taught by a local businessman.

It was very interesting. There were several people in the class who were more talkative and able to put thoughts into words than I was. There was this one guy that I always liked having in my classes because he asked such good questions. He was in my astronomy, existentialism, and religion in American history classes. He just brought out the wonder in the astonomy class. I think I might have missed it if it weren't for his being the class. So anyway, somehow I managed to pass the class which was based largely on class participation. I remember that I did a written report on the car industry.

What I remember learning and thinking about in regards to the car business is the difficulties of planning for mass production. For car companies to make a profit, they have to correctly anticipate what consumers will want to buy in the future. By the time a car comes to market it may have been through several years of planning. Market conditions can change over few years time, so they have to try to project the future. And it takes a great deal of time and capital to design and produce a new model car. It also takes a good deal of capital to continue to produce cars. Not too long ago I read the autobiography of Lee Iacocca who was president of Ford and then went to Dodge as their president. He is probably fairly well known and recognized because he was in a bunch of commercials. His book is a good read. He writes in a way that is accessible to anybody and tell how he rose in the ranks of the car business.

So, one thing I am trying to do is figure out what my areas of talent are.

I know I have a hard time remembering details. I tend typically to remember the broad picture, maybe very generalized. I am not very impressed with my ability to reel off facts and explain stuff about stuff without saying "stuff". I so often can't think of the right terminology.

I occasionally listen to the PBS newshour program, and I noticed that I find it difficult to keep listening to people talk about stuff I don't already know about. How do news people stay caught up? I guess they know stuff already. Or they refresh their memories often by rereading about stuff. Maybe this is just something I could work on - the remembering and being about to explain things thing.

My major in college was religion and philosophy. I think I equally enjoyed both subjects. And I have a philosophical bent, meaning I'm not sure what. It's certainly not that I can tell anyone about philosophy. Maybe it's just that I think about ideas and principles. Since school I have kept reading and learning. I am more verbal than I used to be and I'm sure I am better at pulling my thoughts together and writing than I was when I was in college. But of course those English major types and those who were verbally proficient in college and have kept reading and writing are way ahead of me still.

I adore puzzles. People are probably wired to want to figure things out.