--Editorial Note:  We posted this entry to the Broadleaf Blog last night.   While it may be a little "light" on the economics front for a typical Economic Update, we received several positive comments, so we decided to publish it anyway.   If you like the idea of receiving thoughts on the markets in a more light hearted and regular fashion, feel free to thumb through past entries and subscribe here.       

******

The kids are in bed and it's halftime of the Browns final preseason game. For anyone who knows me, that means that my wife has been totally zoned out watching the game.  Browns games are one of the very few times of the year where my wife is pretty much useless, a complete role reversal from the other thirty-six or so weeks of the year.    

Like the economy, no one, save "Mangenius" - our latest and hoped for savior of the team - knows who will quarterback the team to an elusive yet perennially hoped for winning season. Will it be Quinn the boyish heartthrob, Anderson the experienced, or one of the third stringers duking it out tonight? Will we have a V, a W, or some other alphabet-soup shaped economic recovery and what sectors will lead it?

The economy and the stock market have been alot like the Browns since they came back on the field ten or so years ago - there have been brief flashes of excitement, frenzied controversy, and significant despair - even depression - along the way.  The Steelers, like China, have been getting all the glory and all the press. 

But the Browns, one of the most beloved teams in franchise history, move forward anyway, trying to regain traction from a season two years ago that gave us a faint glimpse of what a full fledged recovery might look like.  Recoveries are always tentative, fraught with doubt, splashes of genius, and third string tries.   But let's face it, short or long, you have to be in the game to get a chance at victory.    

Yes, I've kept up with a lot of the economic stats of the week and the back and forth debate between bullish and bearish interpretations.  I could hash over all the economic statistics of the week - I have a list with me right at this moment- but I won't.   And it isn't simply because writing a blog entry from my Blackberry on the porch during halftime of the Browns game is just a little more than my thumbs can muster.

At this point, only one thing really matters.  

Are you in the game?
  
Kindest Regards,
Doug                                              Bill
Doug MacKay                                   Bill Hoover
Chief Investment Officer                    President
dmackay@broadleafpartners.com         bhoover@broadleafpartners.com
Office: 330-650-0921                        Office: 330-650-0921