Deficits and Surplusses

A colleague on Monday had casually remarked that he had "the best honey in the world" at home and further more, it was harvested by noted doomer economist Gary Shilling.  Of course my food gathering instincts went into overdrive- amazing honey and one of my favorite economists in one bundle!  The author of heart warming page turners such as Deflation: How to Survive & Thrive in the Coming Wave of Deflation, I followed his investment advice to good effect before the last depression in 2007.  I really should be checking out his new book on deleveraging but I'm way too busy fine-tuning my palate.

Most people are aware of yet another gloomy economist with a similar name- Robert Shiller of Irrational Exuberance fame.  Both share the same message- bubbles and financial imprudence leads to meltdowns and more terrible terrible things are still headed our economic way. I guess it's time to batten down the hatches with a solid supply of pu-erh.  Really, my beengs are the best performing asset category among my investments.  None of them have lost value, some of them have risen more than 1000% in value. My husband disputes my rosy view stating my opened beengs lack liquidity and I can only really trade it for yet more tea. Still- who doesn't feel a warm glow of collector's pride when the price keeps rising for a tea bought for much much cheaper..... unless you're trying to buy more.  

So how is Shilling's honey harvested from New Jersey? Normally I would NOT go for honey from the most polluted state in America with 116 Superfund sites.  In the U.S., a "Superfund site" denotes a piece of land so toxic that it needed government intervention. The U.S. Congress had to pass a law to identify and clean them up with a special mega billion trust fund and even Silicon Valley used to be riddled with Superfund sites created by the likes of intel, HP, and Raytheon.  The Northern Californian sites are cleaned up now but most of the toxic chip manufacturing was shipped overseas to Taiwan and China decades ago.

 I turned this occasion to try Shilling's honey into an official honey tasting at work today.   I brought in six of my best honeys.  I explained to my colleague that Shilling's mainland multi-floral could never never hope to compete with an island varietal in any taste test.  My tasting companions were too surprised by the effervescent champagne taste of the few blond and white honeys I brought that we didn't talk much about Shilling's honey.  But you can see Shilling's honey wins for best tagline to be found on a honey jar anywhere-

"While Federal Deficits Mount,  Our Bees' Honey Surplus Grows".