1am Phoenix time - November 4, 2008

It is election day in the United States, the very early hours. Over the next 18 hours, we will find out whether the country can look towards the future, and hope - regardless of whether it chooses as it's president an old man who has earned his wisdom the hard way- by sacrificing a lot at war for the country or a young man, who has words of hope and dreams. Either way, it will be a point of departure from the state of mind the country entered when it handed Dubya the mandate in a post 9/11 world.

Many posts have happened since then, none as indelible of course. But milestones nevertheless, of dubious achievement. The largest deficit ever, the most expensive war ever, the most significant decline in the stock market and the economy since the Great Depression, the list goes on. Every day on the radio, I hear people talking about their 401Ks melting away, their houses valued now at a tenth of the purchase price. Industry observers talk about WalMart doing well, while Target suffers - because everyone is stretching dollars. Economists offer cold comfort - 'not as terrible as the Great Depression', they say.

But no one ever talks of giving up. I hear a seventy-year old man, his life-savings vaporized talking about how he's thinking of his next new small business idea that will keep him going, the single mother that's thinking aloud of what work may come her way to keep her two
kids fed and clothed. There's the student who's finishing college with a little bit of cash, looking forward to work - a job, any job. The sixty year old who looked forward to retirement, only to find that he has to keep working, to ensure he has health coverage. These are the ordinary people who have no choice, they have to keep going without any heroics. While reading about the very rich (i.e. the recession-proof) scooping up property, companies and other assets at bargain-basement prices, preparing for the eventual inevitable rebound. I wonder what the ordinary folks around me think, are they resentful? They don't seem to be. In fact, some of them read about the others anticipating a rebound. Some even smile in hope. I wonder what keeps them going, is it simply the insane optimism of someone who has no option to give up? Who knows. I can't say. What I can say is that its there, inexplicably, indisputably there - the sense of hope, the anticipation of cyclicity, the feeling that after things have gotten so bad, they can only get better. Does this happen in other countries? Maybe so. But it's definitely very strong here, for sure. That is what to me still makes this one of the best places in the world to live, and to work. And to think that I didn't even want to come here!