JANUARY 4, 2008 --

Politically:  The Year 2008 will bring an end to two years of presidential campaigning. Question is, will 2009 usher in the four year presidential campaign?

Economically:  will Americans, by the end of Year 2008, say they are better off than a year ago -- or worse off?

Karl; Rove, former top aide to President George W. Bush, writing in The Wall Street Journal, December 20, suggested that the end of the 2008 presidential campaign will lead to calls for reforming the way we nominate presidential candidates.  Mr. Rove did not, however, suggest that perhaps we might return to smoke-filled rooms. But how could he have made this suggestion, such rooms probably being illegal, these days? Nor did Mr. Rove suggest that it just might be easier to campaign throughout the year than to serve the people, now.

LPR offers this as the theme for politics as practiced at present:

Let them have promises, not performance.

On the economic front --  Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, went on record in mid-December, to predict that we will have a "slowdown" in 2008. It remains unclear to LPR why the Fed head feels compelled to offer… predictions.

Unless, of course, Mr. Bernanke hopes to effect public policy (as well as interest rates) by his (gratuitous?) pronouncements.

LPR offers this as Chairman Bernanke's theme:

Let them have my predictions and pronouncements.

This, somehow, calls to mind an older adage: actions speak louder than words. LPR would like to be able to look back at the Year 2008 as the year when the country rediscovered the vitality of the populist advice given us by our founders and, among other things, we saw an end to the usurious practices of card companies and looked forward, Inauguration Day 2009, to a president committed to government of the people, by the people and for the people-- and not to government of the insiders, by the insiders and for the insiders.  

Once again, LPR cites this insight of United States Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis: "[T]he greatest menace to liberty is an inert people." As we embark on a new year, LPR would also mention this observation from Mark Twain: "Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense."

The theme suggested to LPR by Brandeis and Twain:  For liberty's sake, not only have a sense of humor, express it.