Steve Garrett and Associates, Inc.

What a wacky world we live in.  Think about it for a minute.  We have people who are willing to put up their own hard earned money to buy something they think they can sell to someone else for a higher price.  I watched these folks at work over the weekend on a cable TV show about a family that runs a pawn shop and another about people who buy lost airline baggage in an auction in the hopes of finding something of value inside. It was a somewhat entertaining way to pass away the hours until football season returns.  What struck me is how these people are representative of the economic history of our country.  They are a microcosm of the entrepreneurs who started businesses founded on the idea that they could buy something, maybe add something to it, and sell it at a profit.

Interspersed with these shows were  numerous news stories and commentaries about those evil speculators who were driving up the price of oil and their neighbors to the verge of bankruptcy.  Now, I am not convinced that the blame for my $4.49 gasoline purchase on Saturday morning can all be traced to a speculator in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I have wondered where all of the sympathy is hidden for the same guy who might have bought a natural gas contract and lost a lot of money on that bet on energy prices rising. (Natural gas prices have declined a lot more than oil prices have risen over the past year.)

Our friends in Washington, DC are all in a dither over bankers, speculators and every day folks taking risk and losing money.  There are no limits on the number and kinds of proposals they are dreaming up to stop the outrageous profits and losses of these irresponsible people with their own money.

You have to wonder with delight when some politician explains that Solyndra was simply a very appropriate $535 million bet by the government that didn’t work out during the same press conference that they railed against some wayward banker losing the phenomenal sum of $2 billion.  Maybe the smart folks in Washington can figure out a way for all investments or speculations to be guaranteed against losses.  When they do, I will miss those shows about pawn shops and speculators who buy bags at airline auctions. Maybe football season will be back by that time.