New Direction - President Obama

President Obama has been true to his word in keeping his campaign promises. He has got to be the most honest politician in our nation's history. He has put us on the path to social and cultural change surpassing anything in the history of our country. Simultaneously, we are funding numerous initiatives including universal health coverage, alternative energy, expansion of broadband communication, and modernization of the electric grid to name a few.

He is redistributing wealth from Wall Street to Main Street giving tax cuts while raising taxes, it sounds like Robin Hood. We are funding banks, beyond the role of the Federal Reserve, and taking ownership positions in banks without calling it nationalization, very strange. We are projecting a record national deficit of about $1.75 Trillion, more than an entire recent national budget, and in the same breath talk about reducing the national deficit in half to a level that would still be a previous record amount. It sure sounds like we are trying to solve problems using modern math.

What does all of this mean? We are headed down the same path as many European countries. Not all of this change is good or bad. The most important thing to do is to understand it. I will keep you informed as more details are made public and give insight on how to take advantage of the change. From a personal finance perspective, how we handle health insurance coverage and estate taxes will be very important. From a investing perspective, selecting the company that is the leader in each sector and investing in only them will become important.

The world's most famous investor is Warren Buffet who lives in Omaha, Nebraska. His nickname is the Oracle from Omaha. You probably have seen him on TV and read about him. During this economic mess, the stock price of his investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, has lost about 1/2 of its value. If your investment portfolio has lost less than 1/2 of its value from the peak in 2007 until now you are doing better than Warren Buffet.

I am sure that all of you are doing better than the smart and wealthy investors who trusted money to Bernie Madoff. Count your blessings, every economic decline is followed by an economic recovery.