What I am Thankful for
With all of my family and guests gone or asleep after a big Thanksgiving Day at my house (17 people), I reflect on what I am thankful for.
- My relationship with my God, Jesus Christ.
- My wife of 21 years (today). What a good woman, and what a help she has been to me. Among many other things, she helps me focus on what is truly important in our short mortal lives. At the church that I met her at, she was regarded as the “prize” of all the young women there. I can tell you that their opinions were right.
- My eight children. Some do better, some do worse, but in aggregate, they are all doing well.
- My congregation; good friends all, and they are a real support.
- My friends, including the readers of my blog. We all need friends.
Now for the broader stuff:
- Though our civil liberties have been degraded by the misguided “War on Terror,” we still have significant liberties in the personal, political, religious and economic spheres.
- Our economy still prospers, even amid bad monetary and fiscal policy.
- Development in the developing world is screaming ahead. As (classical) liberal economic economic policies are embraced across the globe, poverty is being reduced globally, which is something dear to me.
- I haven’t made a lot on investments this year, but I’m still doing adequately.
- I have several possibilities for how I will work as I labor to support my family. (Perhaps an announcement coming soon…)
- I’m grateful that my views of the Fed, residential real estate, and the debt markets have largely proven correct.
- I’m even grateful for my losses; they keep me humble, and teach me a lot about investing.
That’s what I am thankful for; I hope you have it as good, or better, than me.
November 23rd, 20079:34 am at
Indeed, you have much to be thankful for and how wonderful that you acknowledge to whom all this is due. As someone who benefits from your writing I would like to take this time to thank you for all your efforts.
November 23rd, 200712:05 pm at
Mr. Merkel, I would agree with PhDmom above, and would also thank you for putting forward the good face of religion. I do not belong to a faith myself, and it is more reassuring than I can say to be reminded that it can and should be a source of solace, not just of conflict.
November 24th, 20072:26 pm at
Thank you for your blog. I only wonder how an intelligent person can refer to the War on Terror as mis-guided. You can assert that tactical mistakes have been made but no war is without them. However, I believe that we are safer today because of our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and I’m thankful for leaders who have made the tough decisions and the soldiers who have carried them out.
November 26th, 20071:53 pm at
I wonder how an intelligent person could refer to a war against a tactic.
December 13th, 20071:51 am at
Larry, Iraq had little to do with Terror. Afghanistan had something going on with Al-Qaeda, but even the link there was overstated. There were much more effective ways of going after the terrorists without going to war. Working clandestinely, cutting off their financial flows, and quietly supporting governments where the terrorists are would do a lot more than war, plus, it would have maintained the foreign support that the US had in large measure after 9/11, which we squandered. Thinking long-term, the US should sponsor scholarships for foreign intellectuals in target countries who want to come to US universities. Once they have been here, it is harder to hate us.