this week's special
 Drug War...our special link for this week, learn how money is involved in the "illegal" drug trade (click here for the full article)
A Simple Framework:
The
Solari Index and the Dow Jones Index
The
Solari Index is my way of estimating
how well a place is doing. It is based upon the percentage of
people in a place who believe that a child can leave their home
and go to the nearest place to buy a popsicle and come home alone
safely.
When I was a child growing up in the 1950's
at 48th and Larchwood in West Philadelphia, the Solari Index
was 100 percent. It was unthinkable that a child was not safe
running up to the stores on Spruce Street for a popsicle and
some pin ball. The Dow Jones was about 500, the Solari Index
was 100 percent and our debt per person was very low. Of course
I did not think about it that way at the time. All I knew was
that life on the street with my buddies was sweet.
Today, the Dow Jones is over 9,000, debt
per person is over $100,000 and the my favorite hairdresser in
Philadelphia, Al at the Hair Hut in West Philadelphia, and I
just had a debate yesterday afternoon while Al was cutting my
hair about whether the Solari Index in my old neighborhood was
0 percent (my position) or 10 percent (Al's position). Men always
think it is higher than women.
Despite the boy-girl spread between us,
it is fair to say that Al and I agree that the Solari Index is
in the tank ---both in the streets of Philadelphia and throughout
America.
Life on the street ain't sweet any more.
I watched the slide of the Solari Index as a child. A lot of
it had to do with narcotics trafficking and the people that narco
dollars put in power on our streets - and in city hall, in the
banks, in Congress and the corporations and investors down town
and that ring the city.
My mission is to see the Solari Index
return to 100 percent and to do so in a manner that moves the
Dow up and our debt per person down and makes me and my partners
a whole pile of money.
A few years back when my efforts to improve
the Solari Index were threatening to reduce narcotics profits
in a few places, I discovered that I could not look to the enforcement
or the judicial establishment funded with my tax dollars to protect
me. Narco dollars had the upper hand throughout government and
the legal establishment"
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Last Revised: November 3rd, 2001
