Confidence

2.5 per cent. That’s US growth figure. Enough? Confident? Could be better?

I am glad we are growing even when it feels like we are running in place.

Perception vs Reality. Like how they feel now at Microsoft, at Yahoo. Even at RIM and Facebook.

Something is missing. Mojo? Passion and Pride. Exuberance and Exhilaration.

Grown men are sleeping on Mommy’s couch. Grown women too, to make it equal.

Crushed right out of the gate. Austerity.

Where is that needed confidence I used to see on Seniors’ faces on their first-job interviews.

It’s like dating back then on campus. Except it’s on weekdays, and you get to put on a suit. You could always tell they were experiencing “senior panic” : get a job, get settled down, bought into the American Dream with white-picket fence and automatic sprinklers.

Now, it’s the couch, not sure where it was made from.

Trickled-down economy. Wealth imbalance. Daddy brought wild animal kingdom home for Daughter’s surprised birthday. While others waiting in line at county food bank.

1939 all over. This time, with Bernanke, not studying the phenomenon as an academic subject. He is handling it, and inadvertently, helps shape the textbook of the future.

How are we looked at from year 2020’s vantage point? That we mishandled this “opportunity”?

In crisis, there is always opportunity. Electric Vehicle? Wind and Solar? Software for the mass and medical world?

C’mon. Exercise a little imagination. Muster up some courage. Be confident again.

Build that high-speed railways. Don’t let me want to learn Korean (broadband-envy). Don’t let Friedman keep writing about Beijing and Shanghai modern airports. Build them and be proud again. Make me USA-proud and the world USA-envy.