Dave

By Mark W. Danielson

The movie Dave is one of the most brilliant political comedies ever made.  In the movie, presidential look-alike Kevin Kline steps into the US President’s role in order to keep the chief executive’s ailment a secret.  While acting as president, Kline manages to solve nearly all of the United States’ problems in minutes at a Cabinet meeting.  Sadly, our political system prevents such progress.

I don’t care much for politics, but I am constantly amazed at how We the People manage to bury our heads in the sand, hoping that those we have elected will somehow muddle through the messes we have created in order to form a more perfect union.  We do this repeatedly with little accountability, choosing instead to blame the politicians we chose to represent us.

We, as a nation, face many issues, and most agree that our economy tops the list.  Of course, few would admit that we are to blame, but America’s thirst for cheap products has sent too many jobs overseas.  Walmart, which had originally billed itself as a company that brought cheap prices to small towns with American-made products, now carries nearly all foreign-made products.  But don’t blame Walmart.  Like our elected officials, it couldn’t survive without our support.

In the current bid for president, neither candidate is addressing the war, even though this war is the principle drain on our economy.  And in spite of our attempts to buy loyalty from other nations, like the Beatles said, money can’t buy you love.  So why not save lives and money by pulling out of the Middle East and let our returning troops re-build their own country while serving out their military commitments?  I feel certain that Dave would have said that.  

A recent Wall Street Journal article by George Schultz who is a former Secretary of State, Secretary of Labor, and longtime thinker on national issues, along with four other men from Stanford’s Hoover Institution listed significant events in the past four years resulting from Federal Reserve Board decisions.  According to this article, in each of the past four years the Federal government has gone over budget by more than a trillion dollars:  1.4 in 2009, 1.3 in 2010, 1.3 in 2011, and 1.2 trillion and growing in 2012.  As a result, our federal debt to GDP ratio has risen from 40% to 80%.  And since Americans and foreign governments aren't buying many federal bonds these days, the Fed has been using Federal Reserve money to purchase huge amounts of US Bonds.  The end result is We the People now own one dollar in six of our national debt because the Fed prints the money and then uses it to buy new bonds that we owe to ourselves.  In the last federal fiscal year, approximately 75% of our deficit was financed by the Federal Reserve, raising our debt ratio even higher than that of Greece.  If Dave was president, we wouldn’t be facing these issues.   

We are all accountable for the decisions our lawmakers and money managers make.  If we don’t like what’s going on, then we have an obligation to speak up to promote change.  As the saying goes, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.  Dave would agree with that one, too.

Fair Weather

By Chester Campbell

Outside it was cold and rainy, but inside the Frankfort Convention Center warmth and coziness prevailed. Conditions obviously weren’t as favorable as in years past, what with the economy sliding down the tubes.

So the question arises, is it worth an author’s time to weather the storm and trek off to a book fair?

I journeyed to Frankfort the past weekend for the 27th annual running of the Kentucky Book Fair. Despite the weather, a respectable number of buyers showed up for the Saturday event. But as one man told me apologetically, “Last year my wife and I spent $400. With the way the economy is now, we won’t do nearly that much today.”

Everybody came with the idea of buying books, however, and a few toted away bags full of them. Some authors had an inside track by being well known in Kentucky. Others by being well known in their field. A children’s author at the same table with me had a constant stream of kids, parents, and grandparents stopping to get his colorfully illustrated books signed.

Sitting beside me was Judy Moffett, a science fiction writer who lives part-time in Kentucky and the rest in Pennsylvania. Her paperback books sold well, but the hardcovers bombed, which was a sign of the times.

Book fairs like Kentucky’s bring in 200 or more authors, so there’s plenty of competition. You can’t just sit there and smile. Half the people look the other way and many more seem to be hurrying by on their way to catch the next bus.

If you’re not a household name, it can pay off to put in a little extra effort. Following my usual policy of ignoring the chair at a book signing, I stood behind my table from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., except for the time it took to eat my sandwich. Anybody who came within range of my voice, which isn’t all that strong, unfortunately, got the smiling query, “Do you read mysteries?”

I talked to enough of them to sell 39 books. Not a bad day, all things considered. The Wall Street Journal recently quoted Barnes & Noble’s chairman as saying he had never “seen a retail climate as poor as the one we are in.” Simon & Schuster reported store traffic was down and fewer customers were buying more than one title.

I had the luxury of four books in my Greg McKenzie Mystery series lined up on my table at Frankfort. A couple of people bought all four.

You never know what will push someone’s hot button. When I told one man that in Deadly Illiusions the Federal Reserve chairman is murdered at the Opryland Hotel, he grinned and said, “I’ve got to have that one.”

It’s always nice when a reader comes by (in this case a member of the DorothyL listserve) and says, “I’ve read all of your books and really love them.”

But the name of the game at a book fair is to sell books. It can be done if you play your cards right.