Joseph (as in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) was the first (maybe) successful economist mentioned in the Bible. Why do we say that? Answer: he was data driven.
Think of it this way. He interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams. He developed a model (forecast). He presented it to the decision maker and persuaded him to agree. He raised the capital (easy to do in those days if one worked for the deified ruler). He developed and implemented an infrastructure capital expenditure program (warehouses and food storage). He planned ahead and had a rainy day fund. He balanced a 14-year budget that featured seven rich and seven lean years. He avoided deficit spending.
He was promoted for his efforts and given prestigious governmental power. He used it to rescue his family and friends.
Joseph didn’t have to deal with tweets. Let’s fast-forward a few thousand years.
Washington chaos is now reducing the odds of the Trump tax/economic agenda ever coming to fruition. We do not know what is going to happen with tax reform or tax cuts, with repatriation, with deficit spending, with the debt limit, with the budget, with infrastructure, with healthcare, with the climate-change agenda (if any), with foreign policy, with the Voice of America (Bannon is going to run it), or with Cuba.
This post was published at FinancialSense on 06/13/2017.
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