Kona Kohala Blog

They say every cloud has a silver lining.  Well, we have the clouds and according to the ever so evenly minded media they are dark and plentiful.  The silver lining?  Prices are at sale level; if ever there was a time to buy real estate it's now and probably for the next 6 months or so.

Since our world, our lives, our universe works in cycles it should be no surprise to people that our economy is in a deep negative swing right now.  If you consider how far the other way it was from the late 90's to 2006 you can pretty much determine how far it will swing the way it's going now.

In the late 90's there were those who kept dumping money into the stock market thinking it would go on forever.  In the early years of our new century there were those who continued to buy overpriced property thinking it would continue up and most recently there were those who thought oil would go up forever and continued dumping their money into energy stocks.

As long as we remember that everything works in these cycles of varying length we'll be okay.  As long as we go back to buying things when and only when we can afford them and stay out of debt, we'll be okay.  When we abide by the sage advice that says always save 10% of all you earn, we'll be okay.

No election is going to change the basics of economy.  Neither candidate will be able to correct what is going on but they could make it worse.  We've already seen that pouring money on the problem won't make it go away.

What's amazing is that our representatives are giving all this money, our money, away with no strings attached.  Can you believe that AIG has burned through nearly $80 BILLION of taxpayer money and can't account for it?

First we have these self centered, egotistical, self serving politicians who make sure they have regular pay raises regardless of the economy, great health coverage that lasts forever and amenities available to them that even kings and queens don't have access to and all at our expense.  Next, any remaining money they have left over from their tax and spend policies is now being given away in amounts that boggle the mind, billions and billions of dollars being given to individuals and companies that have already clearly shown that they can't handle money.

What the heck, if it doesn't work out we can always go back for more tax money.

In Hawaii, our teachers are also getting a pay raise.  Our students still test at the bottom of just about every category there is to test in but hey, give the teachers a raise.  Our teachers won't submit to random drug testing even though it's in the most recent contract they negotiated but hey, go ahead and give them the raise.

I can't imagine that a teacher, a person charged with interacting with our children approximately 16 times longer each day than a parent, a role model for our kids, that they would ever use illegal substances . . . could you?

Enough rant for one day.  Lord knows there's more than enough material out there to go on for a while.  Bottom line here is that there are some great deals out there in real estate and that the outcome of the election won't really change much at all.  You see, we live more and more in an international economy, a global financial world where no one single nation has total control anymore.  It used to be that the U.S. dictated financial policy but now, China and India are creeping up.  We still have the biggest economy going but others are catching up. 

Also, most large companies and corporations are now international.  How we will live for probably the rest of our lives is not dictated by our government but by the corporations that exist here, there, and everywhere.

Remember the cycles and be prepared for the next one.  What goes up always comes down and what goes down always comes up.  aloha