Objects Tend To Stay In Motion

To start the new year, our "President" announced via social media "Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!" His assertion that this was because he had been "very strict on Commercial Aviation." I read this pronouncement just a click above an article about the twelve people who died in a Costa Rica plane crash. True, this wasn't commercial aviation, but two U.S. families did not survive. If our "President" really wants to take credit for everything that goes right in the air, how does he explain this one?
I know, I know. This was a foreign flight from a foreign airport in a small plane, and this is no way that it could possibly show up on his all-seeing radar. Or maybe it was simply a piece of evidence that didn't fit his narrow view of the world.
Like his continuing hoots and hollers about the stock market. No matter that the laws of physics almost always intrude on those of economics, as in what goes up must come down. People who are a lot smarter than me about such things suggest that we are heading for a correction, which is the nice economist-speak for what physicists call gravity. This is not to say that I wish that the stock market would crash. That would not be good for anyone, even those of us who tend to stay away from playing the market. It is a place to put money in the hopes that you can always bank on the principle of buying low and selling high. If everything continues to grow, then the opportunity to get in on the ground floor becomes more challenging. Which is why people in the business of making money with other people's money tend to wait for these corrections. They are a necessary part of the equation.
Just like flying, commercial or private. More airplanes in the air means more chances that something could go wrong. Horribly wrong. So, thank you for being so very vigilant, Mister "President." For the past eight years, by the way, during which there have been no fatalities associated with any U.S. airline. And on the topic of being strict, it should be noted that the current "President's" attention to commercial aviation has been to eliminate all those fussy regulations that keep things safe. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, there were no changes to the rules and regulations pertaining to what goes up.
And down. Thank you again, Mister "President" for all that you do to affect objects that are already in motion. Nothing.