I HAVE A QUESTION

In October the stock market started a roller coaster ride that continues today. The talking heads who claim to be the experts said it was just a “correction.” What is a correction? I did some research. It would appear that when the market experiences “irrational exuberance,” according to some mystical group of traders, it must correct itself. That usually means a 10% change in value. So, people sell their stocks until the market reaches some unknown number that satisfies this same group of traders.

I have a question. When the market regains the losses from the correction, is that a correction also? Is it a correction of a correction? If any of this is truly a correction, what should the market value be? Who gets to decide what the stock market level should be? I have been involved in the stock market on a very limited basis for many years and since 1995 it has grown in value from a Dow Jones average of approximately 4,000 to over 25,000 now. Wow, how many “corrections” do you suppose have occurred in the last twenty-five years? I’ll leave that to the much smarter analysts. They seem to know best.

This brings me to this question of climate change. The global warming crowd is heating up again. Did I say that? Yes, I guess I did. The earth is getting too hot. The sea levels are rising. The ice is melting. We’re all going to die. In the next few hundred years the sea level is going to rise a few inches. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I am sure you’ve heard it all.

I have a question. What should the temperature of the earth be? What should the level of the sea be? Who, among these brilliant scientists, gets to decide the answer to those questions? This whole global warming, climate change conversation is actually just a Godless religion. A religion which puts humans in charge of nature instead of the other way around. The next time you see one of these brilliant scientists, ask him how to stop a hurricane or a tornado. How about creating rainfall for dry areas of the world. I’m pretty sure he won’t have an intelligent answer.

Consider this. When the earth started warming after the last ice age, do you suppose the cavemen sat around their campfires looking for someone or something to blame? After all, there were no automobiles. There were no factories burning coal and belching out poisonous smoke. There were the occasional volcanoes erupting though.

What they did see was a gradual receding of the ice on the earth. What they saw was a gradual warming of the atmosphere. Do you think they were happy or were they sad about this? I think they were overjoyed. It was easier to stay warm. Food probably became more abundant. Grasses grew where ice once had dominated and that probably brought prey animals closer. For humankind, global warming was a blessing. I’m pretty sure nobody at that time thought that the earth was getting too warm or the sea was rising too high.

Fast forward to today. We have a lot of experts. Just ask them. Most will tell you they are the preeminent source of all things concerning the climate.

I have a question. What if this climate change we are experiencing is nothing more than a continuation of the warming that melted away the ice age? Humans have a tendency of measuring time in weeks, or months. Climate changes are measured in thousands of years, not weeks or months or even years.

As you can see, I don’t have any answers. I only have questions. But until one of these brilliant experts can answer my questions, I will just continue to think what I think and believe what I believe.

Ron Scarbro