The Economy: How Did We Get Here So Fast?: The Galli Report

How Quickly Paradise Burned | God Save King George, Sort of | Getting Ready for New Year's Resolutions | [View online]( [Give Now]( Advertisement [The Galli Report]( [Home]( [Podcast]( [Subscribe]( Friday, November 23, 2018 The Economy: How Did We Get Here So Fast? The madness of Black Friday brings to mind, among other things, the state of the American economy. The day is a predictor for the weeks leading up to Christmas, which in turn takes the pulse of the economy’s health in general. If you’ve been paying attention since, let’s say, 1945, you’ll say it’s going gangbusters. If you fell asleep in 1945 and woke up in 2018 you would not recognize the world around you. The amount of growth that took place during that period is virtually unprecedented. If you learned that there have been no nuclear attacks since 1945, you’d be shocked. If you saw the level of wealth in New York and San Francisco, you’d be shocked. If you compared it to the poverty of Detroit, you’d be shocked. If you saw the price of homes, college tuition, and health care, you’d be shocked. Our politics would blow your mind. And if you tried to think of a reasonable narrative of how it all happened, my guess is you’d be totally wrong. So how did this all happen in such a short space of historical time? Morgan Housel, a partner at Collaborative Fund and a former columnist at The Motley Fool and The Wall Street Journal, thinks [it happened like this](. How Quickly Paradise Burned A long holiday weekend means I can indulge readers with a second long read. It’s another “How did this happen?” article, this one [a riveting Los Angeles Times reported piece](, focusing on the Paradise fire that took over 70 lives: Survivors, emergency radio recordings and accounts by officials depict the chaos of that nightmare: a staggered evacuation plan that fell tragically short, residents with no warning to get out, and gridlocked evacuation routes that became fire traps, forcing hundreds to try to outrun the fire on foot. God Save King George—Sort of It will not come as a surprise to readers of the GR that I am no revolutionary. I’ll go so far as to say, I probably would have been against America’s Revolutionary War. Over the years, I’ve read many accounts of the events leading up the Declaration of Independence and all the rationales for going to war with England. But [like these Loyalist clergy]( I remain unconvinced that the colonies’ only course was war. I’m not ungrateful for the nation that emerged from that nor am I planning on moving to England anytime soon. Just saying. Getting Ready for New Year’s Resolutions Apparently “sitting down and standing up can predict your mortality.” [Here’s a short physical test](—as “easy” as sitting down and standing up—to see what your projected lifespan is likely to be. If you score low, hope lies on the horizon: a New Year’s resolution to get in shape. Grace and peace, [Mark Galli] [Mark Galli] [Mark Galli](mailto:GalliReport@christianitytoday.com) Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today Advertisement More from Christianity Today [Populism vs. Progressivism: Who Knows Best?]( Theology [Populism vs. Progressivism: Who Knows Best?]( Opposing types of knowledge are at the heart of today’s polarization. How does a Christian decide? 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