January 2013 Macro Pulse -- A Not-so-unexpected Journey

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic The Hobbit, protagonist Bilbo and his companions are captured by trolls who intend to eat them. The hapless band is spared such a gruesome fate, however, when the trolls -- whose incessant, violent arguing makes them oblivious to the coming dawn -- are turned to stone by a sunbeam. We see parallels between that fragment of Tolkien’s tale and events unfolding in our own, somewhat less fantastic world. For example, our national political leaders are arguing over how to “eat” the productive members of the U.S. economy through higher taxes, all the while seemingly in denial about the fiscal “sunbeam” about to break above the horizon. As long-term readers of this column are only too well aware, we do not anticipate as happy an outcome for our country.

Click here to read the entire January 2013 Macro Pulse recap.

The Macro Pulse blog is a commentary about recent economic developments affecting the forest products industry. The monthly Macro Pulse newsletter summarizes the previous 30 days of commentary available on this website.