Empire State of the Nation

Empire State business confidence survey released today continued a series of weaker readings on the economy over the past few weeks. A debate is raging among economists as to whether this loss of momentum is the start of another downward spiral or merely a normal pause after the first phase of a recovery. My take is the latter: we have lots of history showing that activity slows following the first blush. Choose your economist and you'll get the answer you want! Your economist's view may well be a function of his/her personality rather than any mystical insight into the future. I'm a glass half full guy. The Empire State is so named somewhat cryptically for its 'variety of wealth and resources.' Alongside is a QSL from WINS, one of NYC's most famous AM stations. I first caught it in the 1960s and it still wafts into Cape Town today. One morning in 1968 I happened to pick it up relaying the shocking news of a crash of a South African Airways 707 near Windhoek in what is now Namibia. It was very strange hearing news from so close to home from somewhere so far away.