Skip the politics, and show me the money! This is not a discussion about the hollow political slogan "Hope and Change" or a discussion about the successes and failures of either the Democratic or Republican administrations.

The Old Version of Hope!

(Hope is all that remains when you have no plan, no clue, and no useful ideas.)

• The government hoped to stimulate the economy. This amounted to borrowing and printing money and (mostly) feeding it to politically connected businesses and projects.

• Government bailouts - more payoffs to banks and political supporters. The government hoped this would improve the economy.

• More debt - about $7.5 Trillion has been added to the "on the books" national debt in the past six years. What is astounding is the speed with which the United States is adding new debt onto previously unpayable debt. The rate of increase and the total debt are new - the process is the same. Did we really hope that more debt would fix an already excessive debt problem?

• Government revenues are stagnant - they have been seriously hurt by the continuing recession/depression. Once again we hoped that more of the same borrow and spend stimulus would produce different results.

• There appears to be no functioning plan to change the massive budget deficits and to avoid the "fiscal cliff" except to wait until another financial crash occurs, direct attention toward appropriate distractions and scapegoats, and then use the new crisis as a cover to raise taxes, cut entitlements, and enlarge the size of government even further. Because there is no real plan, all that remains is the same old hope - nothing new here.

The Old Version of Change!

• Talk! Talk! Talk! No change.

• Increase the number of people receiving food stamps (by about 20,000,000 in the past five years) and hope this will positively change our economy. Oh SNAP!

• Change (increase by 2,300,000 since 2006) the number of people receiving social security disability. (They no longer count as unemployed - so the unemployment rate goes down!)

• Higher costs for gasoline, medical care, local taxes, tuition, food and energy change your standard of living - downward.

• More unemployment will change (increase) the length of the recession.

• Weakening economy and more scandals change (decrease) belief and trust in Wall Street, congress, and government.

• More voter apathy. There were more registered voters who did not bother to vote than those who actually voted for the winner on November 6. Perhaps those apathetic voters think there was no real choice (economically speaking) and that who won or lost would make no change in their conditions.

Real Hope and Real Change!

• Change your thinking, change your circumstances! If you merely hope that things will get better, very little will change. REAL HOPE comes from taking intelligent action, based on an objective assessment of the circumstances, directed toward clearly defined goals.

• Take action to create REAL CHANGE! The financial status quo serves a small percentage of the population very well, exploits a large portion of the population, and directs "giveaway programs" toward the rest. If you are tired of seeing consumer prices rise, wages steady, and your investments go nowhere, make a plan, take action, and move forward. Read IRA Investing: Gold and Silver for Your Retirement Safety.

There is no such thing as something for nothing - contrary to what most of us hope. Read Something For Nothing?

If you want to banish the useless sort of hope from your investment thinking, read HOPIUM! Addicted to This Emotional Drug in Your Retirement Investing?

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