I have struggled with what to post on this Holiday weekend.  Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks and yet this four day holiday period seems more oriented shopping now then dwelling on Thankfulness.  I see America’s financial woes as being not just Macroeconomic problems (big picture stuff like budget deficit, taxes, balance of trade and the decline of manufacturing jobs), but  macroeconomic problems centered around the American family. 

In my opinion in simple terms Americans spend too much, save too little and invest poorly. I was blessed to know my Dad for many reasons, but watching Dad shop has paid unexpected bonuses all my life.  Dad was a tighted fisted shopper.  Dad spent twenty years in the military. He joined the army when he was 18 right after he dropped out of high school.  When he retired 20 years later he a wife, six kids, a college degree, a paid for station wagon, 20K in the bank and had paid for his oldest son’s 1st year of college.  He retired as a staff Sgt. and yes he was disciplined in his work, but just as important he was disciplined in his spending.  

We drove big bulky cars that lasted  ten years or so.  We lived in modest homes and  the kids shared bedrooms and for several months the boys shared beds on the weekends when we were between quarters.  Now we did have one big advantage.  In the military there was little of this “keeping up with the Jones”.  All the families lived in base housing more or less earned the same  salaries worn the same clothes (uniforms) and drove very similar cars. 

Today I see many people eating out  too much, taking too many vacations, driving too fancy a car, living in too big of a house, having too many electronic gadgets and more “too muches” to mention.  I am a cranky old scrooge in many ways and perhaps I should just enjoy my meals out and not worry that my fellow diners are adding to a mountain of unpaid credit card debt.  Yet statistics don’t lie and if 40% of Americans are carrying credit card debt and 50% of Americans have no savings at all. So  some of your fellow shoppers over the weekend are broke. 

Its a family joke around our house today when I kid about having a “hard candy Christmas”.  That’s when my stocking would have an Orange, an Apple, some nuts and that  holiday “hard candy”.  In addition I kid about the one Christmas I got a paper bag as my only present.  I tell my kids “the paper bag  was not  a real present, but I could keep it  til next Christmas and then a real present could be put it in then.” As long as I kept my bag I knew I would be getting a gift in the future.   Okay the paper bag story was made up from some primal unfilled   need of mine , but yes I always got some hard candy.  As a kid I always got presents, but not a lot of presents.  I knew we did not get as much as some people and certainly never got everything we wanted.  Yet we got enough  within the framework of Dad’s saving plan.

So in my opinion America’s families need to go on a spending diet.  Sure I blame America’s businesses to an extent.  Its hard to get a 8K loan for a used car, but $100 down with get you in a new $17,000 car this weekend.  Bad credit-not a problem-come on in.  This weekend the more you spend the more you save.  Yet its individuals you must whip out the credit cards, the cash or the check books this weekend. 

Let me say that I am not unsympathetic to those folks who are struggling financially.  My Dad spend a lifetime managing his money and my wife and I have been doing it for 30 years or so (we have only been married for 21 years, but were frugal before we married).  So starting cold turkey is hard.  You need a reliable car, good schools to attend, a safe neighborhood and if cooking is putting something in the microwave oven the journey will be very hard.  Let me say that when you get a layoff notice that’s not the time to start managing your money.  Its when you graduate from high school or college or get married or whenever you start out.  I can preach a bit the savings life to 50 somethings, but to an extent at that age its damage control. 

Its really the young folks who need to hear this year.  The baby boomers have over spent and under saved.  The Gen Xers and Y’ers or whatever people are called after the boomers need to really learn this lesson.  If you spend your every last dime that is what you will have to live on when you are older. 

In a policy sense that’s why there is such an immediacy about  bailouts and such.   Many Americans have no margin or savings to fall back on.  We have to have action quickly as millions are already on the brink of disaster.  Look at the policy implications of the TARP business.  We had to act so quickly because so many had nothing to fall back on.  I might add that millions of home went into foreclosure in the 2007-2008 period during a period of economic growth and historically low unemployment.  What will foreclosures be like if we hit 10% unemployment?   Americans and not government have to right this situation as its too big and family focused for a DC answer.   The solution to America’s problems start with conservations around the dinner table and not in the cabinet room.

My older brother was born on 11-24-1950.  So every few years he has a birthday on Thanksgiving day.  Actually that fact matters very little as the family always celebrates his birthday on Thanksgiving.  I mean how often does a family get together in late November?  I often think of my Dad, he died in 1985, during Thanksgiving.  My brother was born while my Father was serving in Korea as  a ground support person for a Marine aviator unit.  In a strange twist of fate my Mother was living with Dad’s parents in New York City when she was expecting my brother.  The day after Thankgiving in 1950 the whole family made a mad dash to the Naval hospital in Long Island where my brother was born. 

Mom’s in-laws naturally wanted to name this baby boy “Ralph Jr” in honor of their son serving in Korea.  I guess  they also wondered, as any parents  would wonder,  if Dad would get a chance for to see his son.  Mom, however, had other ideas and my brother was named Stuart Craig.  So Dad had to wait until 1957 to get a son named after him.  That would be me and I am not Ralph Jr., but rather Ralph Steven.  I thank God for his providence every day.  Yet Thanksgiving day is a special  day to not only give thanks, but to also  remember family times. 

Let me close with one last remembrance and a thankful thought to all  those people who  served in the Marines.  Here’s a short clip about the Flag raising on Iwo Jima. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9j7dHFbsBU

There’s not enough time to repeat the whole story of the flag raising on Iwo.  Three of those young men gave their all at Iwo Jima.  I am thankful that my Father did not die in Korea, but I am well aware that others did.  I am thankful and humbled by their sacrifice. 

asylum in Sherburne county.  There were a stunning 874 challenged ballots in this one county.  This one county with 2% of the vote now has over 20 percent of all the contested ballots in Minnesota.  No excuse for this idiocy. 

Franken lost his plea to count any absentee ballots that were not counted on election day.  The election canvassing board turned him down as  the democratic state AG urged.  Its the state law that a recount actually recounts the ballots cast on election day.  After the recount a candidate can sue to request a review of rejected absentee ballots.  

There may be an intermediate phase where more seasoned examiners may look at some of these 4500 challenged ballots to try to reduce what the canvas board has to review.   The Trib has not updated numbers, but it looks like a 292 Vote lead for Coleman, but he has about 110 more challenges out then Franken does.  So who knows exactly what the real lead is??

There are  40,000 ballots to be reviewed in  Sherburne county.  The recount started on Tuesday and they are about half way through the process. They are up to 800 challenges for this one county.  They are pace to have a 1,000 challenged ballots in one medium sized county.  I suspect everyone is at fault and before this situation gets into farce we need both sides to resolve it.  

The Canvas board met and  rejected an attempt to count absentee ballots that were not counted on election day.   As I noted once before a recount is where you count ballots cast on election day.  Its in the contested election phase  where you determine if ballots not counted should be counted.   Here’s a story

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/35126884.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUs

No this is not an Obama bash post.  There are hot and heavy rumours that Sec. Gates will be asked to stay on at Defense and some might not view that as “change”.  In addition Hillary as Secretary, Richardson as Commerce Secretary and Holder as AG might give Obama’s cabinet an appearance of being a third Clinton term.  I had a very cynical view of what Obama meant by change so none of this is too surprising to me. 

I look back to Absalom standing by the gates of Jerusalem three thousand years ago.  He told people coming to seek judgement from his father, King David, that if they did not like the King’s rulings just wait till he got on the throne.  Once he, Absalom, got in office things would be so much better.  So change has always been about throwing the old bums out and putting new people in charge.  Obama is the new and not surprisingly his cabinet will include lots of familiar faces.  Its been that way since Washington’s time and I suspect that will never change.

I wish I could be as eloquent as the Powerline guys on this Minnesota recount issue of absentee ballots.  They have been so thoughtful and precise on this issue this morning. So rather then expound on what they have done.  Here’s their post on it

http://www.powerlineblog.com/