Secret Handshake.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. After China unleashed a devastating pandemic on the world almost 12 months ago, life has been a daily set of struggles for most families to remain strong, resilient, and hopeful. It is a lot harder than it looks.

Our $22 trillion national economy gyrated and took a couple black eyes and a mouth full of broken teeth from the Covid-19 sucker-punch. More than half a million incredible Americans will be dead by the time we get on the other side of this crisis; the human toll and misery simply can't be measured. After GDP plunged a jaw-dropping 33% in the second quarter, it took every bit of American strength, fortitude and ingenuity to crawl back, stand up, and stumble down the road to recovery. The S&P looks like it will clock a respectable 6% gain for the year. All things considering, most would agree that is pretty remarkable. The Top 1% of Americans own well over 90% of all the assets; the handful of stock markets in the country currently have a total capitalization of over $37 trillion. So, life is very good for a number of select people during this holiday season. USA Today recently published that the 614 American billionaires added an incremental $931 billion to their collective wealth during the crisis this year. Pocket change. Compare and contrast that to the 10 million people still looking for a job after losing the one they had, or the 30 million others struggling to hang on to their current job and put food on the table for their children. At least there was bi-partisan support yesterday to approve a $900 a month unemployment supplement; just in time for Christmas. A chicken in every pot. Americans can always count on each other in a time of need. 

Wall Street sure is a wild casino. Access and insights equals privilege. A study out of Arizona State University analyzed the 26,000 stocks listed on the American exchanges at one point or another over the last 90 years and discovered something interesting: Only 4% of those 26,000 companies accounted for most of the $32 trillion accumulated gain in the market during that 90-year period. Remarkably, only 100 companies made up well over half of that $32 trillion gain. A small, narrow set of investments accounted for almost all of the wealth created and accumulated. A narrow set of people seem to know this secret handshake and take home all the holiday cookies.

More than 20 million children in this country will go to bed hungry tonight. That is so difficult to accept and process. Many more children will have a very tough Christmas this year. Even the bright lights of Whoville can't hide this fact. I hope the Grinches out there can hear the Whos singing and open their hearts to do even more to help others. Even the rest of us - who are short a billion or two dollars - can be inspired to do more this holiday season to take action and find practical ways to help others less fortunate. Hope seems to be in short-supply for far too many people this year. Hope should be one of the most abundant riches to share with everyone in this great country. Sometimes we say start small. This year, let's skip the small and all go BIG to help others!