Be Thankful It’s Not Worse

It’s a critical time for our nation. This may be one of our last opportunities to have much to be thankful about.

It’s all about money this week. It’s another American holiday that’s been drowned out by the marketers.

The grocery stores are humming. The airplanes are stuffed. The bars will be crowded tonight. And come tomorrow… the stores want to open as early as they can.

Most retailers wouldn’t close for Thanksgiving, except reopening creates a kind of fake sense of urgency. The hourly workers are upset because they can’t spend time with their families… but I think they’re mad because they can’t be out shopping.

To me, it all feels very European. The workers are striking because they want more time off. It’s owed to them, they say. They have a God-given right to sit at home and watch football on Thursday.

I say let them have the day off. If we continue down this path, it will be a long time until this country has much to be thankful for.

The majority of us will sit down to a meal of thanks. It’s a time dedicated to showing appreciation for the things that are plentiful in our lives. The first Thanksgiving was about food and security.

But over the centuries that have followed, that has changed.

Now we give thanks for our scientific innovations… there’s an easy cure for the ailments that killed so many early settlers.

We give thanks for our technological breakthroughs… I’ve got more mapping power on my phone than the captain at the helm of the Mayflower could have dreamed of.

We give thanks for Black Friday sales… and the money it generates.

And now we give thanks for our political freedom… I can write what I want. I can say what I want. And I can own all the guns I want. Hell yeah.

But when we carve that turkey tomorrow, we should all be thankful for just one thing. It’s simple. And it’s tucked inside those headlines about Wal-Mart, the fighting in Israel, and America’s dire fiscal situation. We must be thankful our situation is not far worse than it is. By every measure, we should be in economic agony.

And — this is the rough part — if my thesis is right, this will be the last year we’ll be able to be thankful that we’ve been spared.

It’s coming our way, dear reader.

Out of everything that’s in the news this week, it’s the brewing battle in the Mideast that’s most troubling. These people are as fanatical as they are dangerous. If we think the divide between the Left and the Right is dangerous in this country, wait until we see what kind of furor ancient religious hatred can stir in a society.

Bernanke and his pals can print money until we’re all millionaires and Obama can slash taxes and increase handouts until our balance sheet implodes… but it won’t matter a lick if the world is fighting a religious war.

Again, this is not political. What’s happening in Israel is religious.

That means there is no room for compromise. The kind of half-assed schemes that keep Washington out of hot water won’t keep the Mideast from boiling over.

For us here at home, this pre-war shuffling doesn’t mean a whole lot. At least not yet. Obama has done a world-class job of deflecting (or ignoring) the issue. But the situation introduces yet another layer of risk. And the last thing investors need right now is more risk.

The risks from the region are incredible. If the battle for Israel escalates to an all-out war that involves American troops, it will turn into a circus that makes the fiscal cliff look like a crack in the sidewalk. Our nation is not in a place economically or politically to enter a battle with what are literally biblical ramifications.

The next few months are critical to your wealth. If you haven’t found the appropriate shelter… be thankful for what you’ve got. You may not have it much longer.

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