by Curt Kovener 
I am not a financial analyst, economist, or banking guru. I don’t know gross national product from service sector synergies. But I do know what most of the rest of you have already picked up on. Despite the whistling by the graveyard rosy picture of the economy painted by the nation’s president and Indiana’s governor, our economy is stagnant as in inactive, sluggish, dull and foul.
How do I know these things? From the number of phone calls I have been getting from “consultants” who want to know if I want to earn more money by investing in petroleum drilling, international monetary accounts, natural gas futures, and motion pictures.
Folks, I am not sure how I got on a widely passed around list of potential suckers…I mean…investors. I’m wondering if they got my name from some website. I hear some software is so sophisticated that just my clicking the wrong link a site can search through your computer to come up with your name, address, phone number, eye color, shoe size and whether you wear boxers or briefs.
When most of these guys and gals call, I listen to their pitch briefly. I’ve been asked to invest in oil and natural gas drilling in Texas, international money markets abroad which are available in units of $10,000, and in Hollywood film productions with “Would you be comfortable investing $75,000?”
So this is how I know the economy is bad? When brokers, agents and resource development specialists are calling me—a guy who wears his clothes until Miz Mary tosses them in the rag bag, who drives a 12-year-old vehicle with 190,000 miles, and who draws considerable angst from watching what little mutual fund retirement he has saved squashed by fuel prices and mortgage foreclosures—you know the money flow has dried up and they are looking for new pigeons…er…investors.
That’s how I know the economy is bad.
