Best long play, next 5 years, maybe 25 years

I can't help but correlate the desire for energy conservation with a growing attraction toward conservatism. Frugality is in, people are doing more with less, getting back to basic, finding their roots, living like their parents/grandparents did and rediscovering "what's important." Translation, consumption is dying, and it ain't coming back for a multi-generational span. Consumption is being made the scapegoat, and now the government is going to consume excessively. When the government's excess proves also to not provide an answer, consumption will be as dead as "buy and hold."

As things unfold politically, the conservatives (Republican Party) are already setting themselves up to be begged to lead. They are claiming no connection with this stimulus plan. The stimulus can't "work," in that the best you'll be able to say about it is, "we would have lost a lot more jobs if we didn't do it." That didn't work for Bush ("we avoided a lot of terrorist attacks because of our policies"). It won't work for Obama, and as the unemployment rate peaks in mid-2010 (hopefully), the republicans will retake the Congress or at least make some great dents coming into the 2012 election.

So, what is the long play here? Religion. Living like our grandparents, fearing God, taking care of our neighbors, humility. Being conservative. When people run out of places to turn, they always wind up at the same place. And if unemployment grows as high as many think, there will be an historic number of people running out of options. By the time this is all over, which could be 10 years, the dollar may take a beating. But I bet the currency will still say, "In God We Trust" on it.

Joe