Sure, I’ll bet you’re thinking that the velocity of money refers to how fast it leaves you wallet or bank account, aren’t you? Well, think again.
We sure hear about ecomonic stimulus packages and bail outs a lot these days, but what we don’t really hear about is how they are expected to effect our economy. We don’t hear anybody talking about the velocity of money.
Anyone who took business in college had to take economics, so this will be a familiar concept to some. Basically, it is a measure of the amount of economic activity a dollar generates in a given time frame. Wikipedia has a great example here showing how $50 can generate $100 of economic activity. I won’t bore you with economic equations or graphs, which frankly, put me to sleep on more than one occasion during college, but I do encourage you to consider that economic stimulus check you got last year.
Let’s say that check was for $600. What did you do with it? Did you put it in your savings account? If you did, your bank or credit union reinvested it back into the economy in employee wages, loans, capital expenditures, etc. Did you buy a new television? If you did, that money was put back into the economy again by paying wages, making capital expenditures, etc. You get the point here, I’m sure. One dollar in our economy translates to many dollars of economic activity.
Economics is a complicated subject, and I for one, do not profess to be an expert. What I do know for sure is that when I hear in the news about all these economic stimulus plans, I know there is a lot more going on there than what that 15 or 30 second news story is telling me.
2009 is going to be a great year. Sure, it may be tough at times, but we will prosper.
It looks like this new attempt at stimulating the economy has lots of goodies in it. Check out this article from the New York Times for some of the details:
What’s in the Bill for You?
Why do ABC and HBO feel the need to irk me? Am I overly demanding? Do I expect too much?
I learned recently that one of my very favorite shows on HBO was not renewed for a third season. The show is – scratch that – was, Rome, and was a smartly written story about the early Roman Empire with historical fact intermingled with captivating fiction. Rome was the winner of several Emmy awards. So, what does HBO do? They cancel it.
A few days ago I learned that two of my other favorite shows are cancelled; Dirty Sexy Money and Eli Stone. OK, ABC, WTF is going on here?? DSM had a Golden Globe nomination last year, and the writers of Eli Stone won a Writer’s Guild Award. It’s not like we’re talking Super Nanny or Wife Swap here.
Is it too much to ask for programming that is intelligent, entertaining, creative, and engaging? I guess when all that really matters is the bottom line, it probably is.
This last weekend, my friend Julie and I drove up to Seattle to visit her cousin and enjoy a “girls weekend.” We decided that food should be the theme of our trip.
Saturday, we took a guided tour of Pike Place Market. The tour started at 10:30 and lasted until about 2:00. We learned a lot of the history behind the market, and we got to meet many of the local merchants and sample their wares. I had some of the best clam chowder I’ve ever tasted at Pike Place Chowder, I had a delicious genuine New York style pastrami sandwich complete with dill pickle on the side at I Love New York Deli, I had delicious authentic German sausage and beer at Uli’s Famous Sausage, and oh, there was so much more, I can’t begin to list it all. It was a fabulous tour and I highly recommend it if you find yourself in Seattle with some spare time on your hands. Thanks to Seattle Bites Food Tours for a great time!
Then, on Saturday night, we drove out to Woodinville and had dinner at The Herbfarm Restaurant. Yes, we are talking culinary herbs here, not the “medicinal” ones! I had never heard of The Herbfarm before, so I really didn’t know what to expect. They do only one dinner seating so everyone dines together at the same time, and dinner consists of 9 courses (yes, that’s nine) with 6 different wines paired especially to the fare of the evening. I ate stuff I thought I never would, and I actually liked (most) of it! Crazy! I did skip the soft poached quail egg with smoked steelhead caviar (ew), but enjoyed the housemade prosciutto, truffled albacore tuna confit, the applewood-grilled scallop, the duck paté, the braised and roasted lamb, the pork, the cheese……well, you get the idea. Yummers. There’s a wonderful hotel right across the parking lot, so this would be a great place to take a special someone for a weekend getaway and an unforgettable night out.
During our weekend, we decided we would have no bad coffee, so we spent a lot of time walking about Seattle checking out the best cafes. In walking around the city, we came across a number of chocolate shops, too. Being women, of course we had to sample all of that, too! It seemed like one of the new trends is salted caramels. This sounds odd, but it’s actually quite delicious. My favorite was the gray salt. Hmmm, with Valentine’s Day coming up, a box of Fran’s Chocolates would be apropos. Are you reading this, Smooch??