From Isabel in The Right Attitude to Rain :
That woman would like to be elsewhere thought Isabel; as so many people would. How many of us are happy to be exactly where we are at the moment? Only the completely happy think that they are in the correct place.

Never heard it put so well. Iam extremely happy :)

Why we need a recession -- soon
By Jon Markman
Check out the pessimistic housing headlines. When there's this much smoke, usually there is not just fire but a raging hell storm about to be cut loose. And Lord knows, there's much dry tinder available to the forces of financial doom, what with residential construction stopped cold, Detroit automakers idling and virtually the entire financial-services work force dusting off resumes.

So is the inferno really upon us? Well, no. And that's a pity because recessions clear out the excess optimism, debt and inventory that collect during long stretches of expansion. Moreover, a recession delayed may be a recession that turns into a real whopper.
Banking analyst Richard Bove points out that debt in the U.S. economy over the past 5 years has grown at a pace 3 times faster than income. Nominal gross-domestic-product growth has advanced at 3% while financial debt has grown at a 9.7% clip to $13.8 trillion.
As consumers collectively quit spending, retailers see inventories pile up, manufacturers fire workers, unemployment explodes and wage growth collapses.

Just as heroin dealers are in business to sell drugs, banks are in business to make loans. Their financial engineers will do everything in their power to force debt down consumers' throats.

Because the administration in Washington knows that if all those loans are called in and consumers can't make good on them, there will be hell to pay. And a nasty recession just won't do in an election year.
So the government is in the process of twisting the arms of Fed members to lower interest rates. That will allow banks to go back to one of their favorite recession-delaying ploys: encouraging debt-strapped consumers to refinance their loans at lower rates.

Banks took big write-downs this past October.
Investors will let them get away with that sort of rudeness only once. If the banks do it again -- shareholders are likely to slaughter the bank stocks, pushing them down at least another 20%.
"Bad loans are going onto their balance sheet faster than they can write them off," he said.
Once investors determine that the banks' bad loans are out of control and that the risk cannot be adequately measured, they will sell first and ask questions later. So, we are about to enter even more interesting times. A debt-led recession punctuated with joblessness and foreclosure is almost certainly en route. The only questions are whether it comes early next year or in 2009, and how deep a hole we'll need to dig for the burial. Whatever the timing or depth, continue to avoid the bank and brokerage stocks.

Fine print One of the first groups of companies to go in a recession: restaurants that serve the upper middle class. Recent victims include McCormick & Schmick's (MSSR, news, msgs) and P.F. Chang's China Bistro (PFCB, news, msgs).

Strangely, some stocks tend to do well in a recession, including REITs, insurance companies and, for some reason, containerboard makers. Also keep in mind that the best time to buy stocks for the long term is right smack in the middle of a recession, so you will want to start buying the banks and home builders once their currently hidden problems are more fully reflected in their stock prices. For more on the banks' issues, read my Sept. 14 column, "What the big banks aren't telling you -- yet."

Samuel Johnson quotes this time..

• A fly may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
• A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.
• Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.
• Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
• Where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.
• Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.
• Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
• I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.
• If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone.
• It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open one's mouth and remove all doubt.
• Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
• Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable.
• Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
• The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
• Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not gained upon easier terms.
• To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.
• We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
• What is easy is seldom excellent.
• What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
• Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.
• You can't be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who's for you and who's against you.
• You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not - silence is the sharper sword.

Confucius quotes

• "The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home."
• "The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has."
• "The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions."
• "Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself."
  "The wheel of fortune turns round incessantly, and who can say if I shall today be uppermost."
• "To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it."
• "It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop."
• "Instead of being concerned that you have no office, be concerned to think how you may fit yourself for office.
• "To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is true knowledge."
• "Five things constitute perfect virtue; gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness."
• "The cautious seldom err."
• "Silence is a true friend who never betrays."
• "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."
• "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."
• "When anger rises, think of the consequences."
• "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
• "The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come.

Loath to leave the company, enjoying current visibility enormously. Feels good to work on projects that are wanted and cared about so much. First time working on highly visible projects and hope it lasts.

Buffett said that he had read Graham and Dodd's book many times and had even read it to his wife on their honeymoon in 1952.
"It might not seem romantic, but I felt she ought to read it," Buffett recalled.

Follow Your Bliss by Van Tharp
Author Joseph Campbell described the message of “follow your bliss” to be his ultimate teaching. It’s like a message from God. If you do what you love to do, then you are probably doing what the universe intends for you to do.
A few years ago I had a client who wanted to start trading. He still needed trading capital. Instead, he was busy building a house and investing all his time into that house.
I suggested that he meditate on —what he loved to do and what he was attached to in his life. Did he love his house so much that he was willing to spend the next 20 years at a job he hated just to pay for it? If you don’t love what you do, you’ll face stress and possible burnout. If you love what you do, then you’ll have the energy and excitement to make what you want a reality.

Quiet your mind and let your thoughts come and go. Afterwards write down a list of all of the things/activities you really love. What really turns you on?

Then make a list of the things to which you are attached-things really important to you. Now, notice if there are any of your attachments that are so important that you would be willing to make you spend 20 years of your life doing something you hate.