Recession: Our Great Opportunity

Ann and I enjoyed a visit in Den Haag, Netherlands, where our son works and where his family recently took up residence.

I was struck by how few old cars and trucks there were. Despite being an "old" nation, Holland is sparkling and mostly fresh-faced. Same with Belgium where we visited Brugge over the week-end.

Our son works for one of the major banks there so we talked economics a lot.

One of the things he made clear is that there is a load of money on the sidelines. Trillions have been lost on the stock markets of the world but major stake holders pulled out their money early on and will jump back in when they see things headed up.

Another thing is that although millions of people are struggling, millions more are not. Everyone is being frugal right now until everything settles down.

So there is a lot of corporate money and a lot of personal money squirreled away waiting to be spent.

What will "settle everything down?" A vision of what changes can be made to improve everyone's lot.

In our country, our infrastructure desperately needs attention. Our cars need to be replaced with fuel-efficient ones and with mass transit systems. What a time for a renaissance!

Having mostly gone backwards over the past eight years because of inattention to so many problems, our country really has no place to go but up.

In ten years, I don't think anyone will be thanking President Bush for letting everything go to pot so bad that we almost had to start all over again. But now seems like a good time for freshening up our own face, not just with cosmetic changes, but with serious restructuring. Now is the time to let our creative juices flow so that the future that we dreamed of as kids can come closer to being a reality instead of just an extension of the way things used to be.

Rather than getting more specific, I'll let you begin to fill in the opportunities that lie ahead. We will inevitably drag along some old ways, because new things are not always better.

But we are on the verge of something that can renew us. Enjoy the ride! With your seat belt on. . . .