Travelling in the train the other day, I was listening to two friends talking about the economy in general. The conversation came round to the recent gains the pound has been making.
"To what do you attribute the recent strengthening of the pound"? asked one of the gentlemen.
"I have no idea, but I can tell you there is no sane reason in my book for the pound to strengthen, and every reason for it to weaken" the other answers.
" So what you are saying is that five and five should make ten, but that lately five and five makes whatever it is required to make" presses on his friend.
"I cannot fault that theory" comes back the reply.
At that point, the train came to the final stop and we all got out.
I had to smile the way the questions and answers were given by these two fellows, and I came to the conclusion that they made a lot of sense.
There are occasions when people, notably politicians, tend to see the world as a chessboard and if under pressure, make certain desperate moves. To wrongly calculate and hope things will go the way you hope, is foolhardy. It reminds me of the story of the two friends George and Harry who dined together. The waiter brought two steaks, one larger than the other.
Harry says: "Help yourself, George."
George replies: "After you Harry"
Finally, Harry serves himself first, and takes the large steak.
George points out in disbelief: "You are not very polite Harry. You serve yourself first, and you take the bigger portion".
Harry says: "If you served yourself first, which piece of meat would you have taken?"
George reverts: "The smaller one of course!"
Harry smiles and almost shouts back: "Well you have it, so be happy!"
The lesson here is, that even in an ordinary situation, calculating wrongly on an outcome which looks easy to capitalize on, can turn out to be a huge disappointment.
Politicians have a task to be popular and make people happy. Like good salesmen, they have to deviate from the truth at times. Imagine a fat lady walking into a dress shop and when approached by the sales assistant says "I would like to see a dress to fit me".
The sales assistant can hardly say "so would I, which would actually represent the truth. So, by some clever talk, she might make a sale by recommending a dress which would be a very tight fit but insisting that it looked great even if a bit uncomfortable.
To get a true reading on a situation, one cannot accept an interpretation from people who may have a vested interest in the answer they give. Keeping that in mind and making sure that five and five does make ten, you will have more chance to be on the right path.
Author Resource:-
Paul Dubsky is director of Foreign Currency Exchange & Transfers Ltd. The company is focused on being able to offer really friendly currency exchange rates and international money transfers. We believe we are the only Foreign Currency Exchange company which offers special rates to Senior Citizens.
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