A MID-LIFE CRISIS? – PLEASE READ

Please forward this blog to others.  If you are interested in receiving my blog via email, see how to sign up at the bottom of this article.


As many of you know, I’ve been writing (with the exception of a few months last year) for a couple of years now.  This newsletter / blog started out as a simple email list (with a PDF attached) and it turned into a website (with email service) for the past year.


I’ve learned a ton from this process.  I’ve learned by reading and writing and I’ve also learned a tremendous amount from emails that people have sent me.  All of this reading and writing has led me to one main conclusion: our country has a tremendous debt problem and we are headed for significant problems down the road.  I don’t know if it will be five years down the road or twenty years down the road, but the problems are coming (and we’re already experiencing some of them).


In sum, if you asked me to identify what I believe will be the most significant economic issue over the next 25 years, I believe that it will be the debt crisis.  The key data point that scares me the most is that the present value of our unfunded liability for Medicare / Medicaid, Social Security and Veterans Affairs is $52 trillion! In other words, to fully fund today’s value of our outstanding obligations, we would need to issue $52 trillion more debt.  As a reference point, we have $13 trillion of debt outstanding right now.


Realize that this $52 trillion figure is not some crazy Republican or Democrat “think tank” number.  This comes straight from our crazy government.  Our country is going to have to change significantly over the next several years.  Our taxation is likely to change and our “benefits” will certainly change.


I’ve given several speeches in the past two months and I’ve realized that the debt problem is something that I’m very passionate about.  It scares me for our country and it scares me for my children.  While scaring me, this issue also makes me angry – because we continue to kick the can down the road.


In addition to being a tremendous problem, the debt issue is something that most of us can’t even get our arms around.  There’s too much to know and to understand.  As a result, I’ve decided that I want to start to focus my work on this issue. I want to read about this issue, research this issue, write about this issue and speak about this issue.  I want to develop more expertise in this issue.  I also want to pass on what I learn about this issue.


Of course, the “debt crisis” includes a lot of issues, such as Medicare, social security, the trade deficit, our broken political system, demographics, taxation, state budget issues and other topics.  I plan on learning more about all of these issues (particularly as the relate to the debt crisis) in the future.  (Of course, I would argue that even the issue that I discussed in my blog this week about the Chinese government was impacted by our debt crisis.)


This blog has served (and will continue to serve) as your window into the issues that I’m thinking about on a daily basis.  My interests change over time, although I think that this will be an important issue to me for a long time.  I hope that you will read the blog over the next few weeks and see if it’s still interesting to you.  I think that you’ll find it highly relevant and (hopefully) educational.  But, if you don’t, you shouldn’t feel funny unsubscribing.  (I’m convinced that unwanted email is a tremendous drain on our productivity.)


I titled today’s blog “A Midlife Crisis” because my change in focus has a lot to do with my career.  If you can’t tell, I love what I do.  I get a lot of enjoyment and meaning out of my work.  Lord willing, if I maintain my health, I hope to work another 25 years.  My goal is to continue teaching and to couple that with addressing a meaningful issue.  I want to understand the upcoming debt crisis and I want to help others to understand it.  I want my work outside of the classroom to have as much meaning to me as my work inside the classroom.  Maybe it’s a midlife crisis.  (I’ve also been thinking about getting a hairpiece and a convertible.)  (Jenny would love for me to also look for a second wife, but no such luck for her.)

A Few Random Issues

Jeff Immelt (GE’s CEO) made some interesting comments about China.  You can read about it here.


For those of you in Houston…there’s a documentary that is playing in Houston this week that looks great.  It’s called Restrepo.  Here’s a link to where it’s playing – the Anglelika Houston.


I’m a huge fan of documentaries and I happened to see a story about this in the middle of the night (when I should have been sleeping).  This documentary is about an incredibly dangerous outpost in Afghanistan – they get attacked daily.  Whether or not you support the war, I think (hope) that we all support the people fighting it.  I enjoy seeing these documentaries because it’s a reminder of what people are doing for all of us.  It’s a great reminder of how easy most of us have it.

_______________________________________

If you want to be on my email list:

1.      go to www.leedsonfinance.com

2.      toward the top right corner is a place to click on for email service—click and enter your email address
3. you will receive an email which will require you to click on a link to confirm that you want to be on the list

IMPORTANT: if you don’t receive the email in step 3 or you don’t click on the link, you won’t be on the list.  Sometimes, people who use corporate emails get blocked (it’s probably 50% of the time).  So if you don’t get the email, you know you need to use a personal email.