On New Year’s Eve, we were surfing tv channels and saw the usual fodder of the Dick Clark-Carson Daly-Celebrities excited to be in Times Square-rock bands-yelling revelers-ball dropping-confetti falling expected festivities. My son wanted to watch the Robbie (son of Evel) Knievel jump on Fox so I acquiesced. Not to take anything away from Robbie Knievel but it was a routine, mundane boring type of jump. My expectations were a lot higher and a number of my friends had the same reaction.

Then we switched over to ESPN and saw another “Robbie” make a jump. Robbie Maddison made the most amazing motorcycle jump (actually 2) I have ever seen and, of course the up and down ramps symbolized the housing market pattern of the past several years (sorry I can’t help it). Please watch – it’s worth a look, I promise.

Last year he went the distance (322 feet).

Of course, the moral of the story is along the lines of, even with the sharp decline after the sharp incline, he, of course, lived. Notwithstanding that Robbie has to be insane. In his pre-jump interview, he was hoping young people learn from this by going big.

Trillions of dollars later, the financial system can’t afford to “go big”.

Happy New Year, everyone.


3 Comments

  1. Steve Higgins January 3, 2009 at 2:40 am

    you are right – an amazing video. and yes, good analogy. Now we are in Jan 2009 and I think that the current motorcycle revving real estate and mortgage activity is like the “rocket fuel” vehicles of good ol’ Evil Knevil !!
    Steve Higgins
    Boulder Mortgage and Boulder Real Estate Professional
    http://www.BoulderLoanRanger.com

  2. Edd Gillespie January 3, 2009 at 10:31 am

    I’m not sure what kids will get if the follow Knievel “going big.” And, Ben Stein said the cure for the recession is spend, spend, spend. So if young people “go big” and spend, spend, spend anything is within our reach?
    Maybe those work if your job is to entertain people on a motor cycle or invest millions, but some in the US work at less fantasmic things like manufacturing or growing food. Seems if you want to think big in those more mundane areas you must move to India, China or wherever it is they were outsourced.
    But wait, there’s more. We now know that globalization of our economy has brought us the opportunities to think big and spend like crazy so we can all become millionaires and ride motorcycles.
    I suggest it is time we focus intently on creating an economic environment that is friendly to the middle income earners and let the motorcycle riders and coupon clippers retire to the margins.

  3. Jonathan J. Miller January 3, 2009 at 10:39 am

    Well said guys. My other 2 wheeled analogy is the idea that both riders wore helmets, which while smart in the context of safety, won’t prevent other catastrophic injury in these jumps. Just like more regulation of the financial markets. Rather there needs to be systemic incentive for the masses not to perform such a jump.

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