I am thankful that:

• Five years from now housing will once again be affordable
• For the first time in my professional career the United States is no longer in the midst of a Credit, Internet and/or Housing Bubble
• The future will belong to smart, dynamic, penurious, hardworking people rather than those focused on short-term, speculative gains or reliant on leverage for success
• The world’s assets will once again be valued based on fundamentals rather than momentum, perpetually increasing credit or the distortions of financial gimmickry
• Irrespective of how bad things get, the bottom of this downturn won’t resemble the human tragedy of the Great Depression

I am hopeful that:

• Americans will come to realize that the federal government is the source of our economic problems, not the solution
• The disastrous spending initiatives implemented by present and future administrations will be a lesson rather than a trigger for persistent economic decline
• The global depression won’t create the degree of geopolitical instability and conflict that occurred during the 1930s
• "Intelligence" may once again be attributable to intelligence and that merit reasserts itself as an American value