Revolving Commerce

FTLComm - Tisdale - April 3, 2001

With the continued talk of recession and economic "downturn" we have to get some perspective on these confusing messages because the news gathering agencies, the broadcasting industry and economists in general, like to project their version of reality onto the world that they think exists. The danger of this exercise is that talk and speculation become a form of reality unto themselves and may not have much of a connection with the real tangible and dynamic economic world. Stock market losses, corporate shortfalls on the quart, balance of payments, currency trading values, all sound like they are based onthe real world, but are actually just symptoms and third hand fallout from the real world. This is the real world. Today is the first Tuesday of the month, "Senior's Day" as businesses put out special deals for senior citizens, provide free coffee and as you can see in the picture at the top of the page, the Co-op parking lot was full this morning at 9:45. The market place where real people exchange their currency for real products and services, that's the real economy. The fact that some corporate giant is laying of thousands of workers, or is showing losses in its balance between production and sales, is a reflection more on that business's form of management than it is a reflection of the health of the economy.

The role of news media in economics is that of cheerleader. If the stock market goes up it cheers, if it goes down it cheers, if the unemployment rate rises, it cheers, if the unemployment rate falls, it cheers, the cheering is not what is happening, it is exaggerating the importance of real and imagined indicators. The real source of the present world economic slowdown is not a mystery and it has nothing to do what ever with "dot.com" commerce. During the summer of 2000 the OPEC nations decided it was time to increase their profits and the oil companies thought so too. Petroleum prices shot up around the world. Rampant speculation by companies and mutual fund administrators saw this as an opportunity to get in on a cool scheme to make profits without doing anything. Largely based on rumor, the fuel prices rose, consumers cut back on spending, those fuel prices form a small, but basic component of manufactured goods, and the transportation of those goods and well. . . . one thing lead to another and in the winter of 2001 there is talk of an economic "downturn." The speculators got burned, just as they deserved to be burned, as they were trying to earn income by the magic of speculation. The people who matter, those people who put out their earned money for goods and services react to economic conditions that they perceive about them and just like cookies, packaging is everything.

Today in Tisdale the real economy, the revolving process of people working earning income, spending that income on things they need goes on, that is the real economy, the revolving economy that has a factual non-speculative structure. The pain of all this is that the corporations and their management dressed as wise men, acting as idiots then turn to the public to make up the losses they have created with their "get rich" quick schemes. Every day I receive ten to fifteen e-mail messages urging me to send them money so I can get in on a scheme that will bring me untold wealth over night. Each of these messages I discard without a thought because this is not the real world, something for nothing is a fool's concept and the managers of corporations like the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, Diamler Chrysler and Nortel make the average farmer who is going broke because of government policy, look like Solomon. Those corporate managers fall on their faces trying to get in on "get rich quick" schemes and fail, but because of their huge corporate position, they can pass their stupidity off as being caused by some fabricated "trend." Business and commerce continues day after day, but the real stuff is the hard working retail and service provider who turns out a respectable product asks a reasonable price and is rewarded with loyal customers. I bought a loaf of great bread and a Bee sting this morning and have the confidence that both are superior products, I got my money's worth, just as it should be. The bakery makes a reasonable profit and will be in business for years to come giving value and good service. No floating of a stock-market issue of shares, just work, products, value and sales. Two pictures on this page show the setting up of a sign. Sweet Aroma, a fine eating established in Tisdale this year, is struggling to attract customers, it has an identity problem, located in a fine old building it just is hard to get noticed. They put up a sign outside and it fell down in the wind the first day it was put up, they tried a sandwich board on the street and now have gone to setting up a lit sign that will tell the world they are there. Advertising is hard and getting the customer coming your way is all that is needed if you have what they want and your product is fairly priced. Sweet Aroma has the products and services, let's hope this sign helps to get the customer coming their way. In the mean time, turn off the shrill alarmist news business cheerleaders, the real thing is right here.

This QuickTime VR panorama is a 270º view of the main four way stop at 9:30 this morning as customers and traffic hustles to and fro. As you can see many just vanish as they move from place to place, a QuickTime VR like this one is made from twenty-two individual images combined to form this seamless view. If you see only a vertical image on your screen you need to download QuickTime, Microsoft's Media player is unable to display a QuickTime VR.