My Aunt Pippi decided she would take on the current economic crisis brought on by a bad housing market, overextended credit, and high gasoline prices. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, lowered interest rates three-quarters of a percentage point this past week. Pippi had a different idea. She raided her thirty-year-old penny collection and went to a shopping mall, where she put a penny on the hood of every car in the lot. (Feisty ole gal.) She now carries a bag of pennies everywhere she goes and places a copper Lincoln on newspaper stands, gumball machines—any public surface where people might see it.
“One cent isn't going to go very far,” I told her, “although it’s a nice sentiment.”
“Sentiment be damned,” she said, belting back a shot of Jack Daniels. “Finding a penny is considered good luck. I’m spreading hope, not wealth. Hope is the best economic stimulus package there is. If people feel they’re luck is gonna change, then it will.”
I couldn’t argue the point. Wall Street reacts more to fear and optimism than actual market conditions on any given day. The same goes for our lives. We get what we expect. Maybe that’s why Aunt Pippi is ninety-four years old.
Picture: Public Domain
“One cent isn't going to go very far,” I told her, “although it’s a nice sentiment.”
“Sentiment be damned,” she said, belting back a shot of Jack Daniels. “Finding a penny is considered good luck. I’m spreading hope, not wealth. Hope is the best economic stimulus package there is. If people feel they’re luck is gonna change, then it will.”
I couldn’t argue the point. Wall Street reacts more to fear and optimism than actual market conditions on any given day. The same goes for our lives. We get what we expect. Maybe that’s why Aunt Pippi is ninety-four years old.
Picture: Public Domain
3 comments:
The US economy, since it no longer produces much, has been given a free ride by the rest of the world because they have been using our dollar.
The trouble is, they are starting to see that the US is spending itself into a situation where it needs to borrow money to continue, or it needs to "create" more money. The more that gets created, the less it is worth, making other nations less trusting of the value of the dollar, which is sinking fast.
Aunt Pippi is gonna have to go spread those pennies alot further than she thinks, to lift us out of this one.
I love this story.
Aunt Pippi is one cool woman!
Scott, the economy is, as they say, FUBAR. Worries the hell out of me. The people losing their homes--makes me wanna cry.
Lane, Aunt Pippi is one of those people in my family who just keeps on rolling, booze and all. She's eccentric but kind.
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