Time changes everything and sometimes it changes nothing. But in the year 2010, suddenly America is leading the world in areas that only a couple years ago most Americans would have laughed at.

Sure Toyota’s misery has been great for Ford. But if Ford didn’t have quality vehicles to begin with, there wouldn’t have been a Ford to take advantage. Credit its CEO Alan Mullaly. Ford stock hit a low of $1 and change in March 2009 and now it’s $14 on its way to $25. In the meantime, Toyota’s brand value plunged 20% while Ford’s brand value gained more than 15%.

Only a couple years ago Europe was in great shape and their currency, the EURO, was kicking our dollar. It got to the point that if you went to Paris you needed $100 American dollars to buy a sandwich and coffee. I recall going to Italy for a trade show and the taxi ride was only $10 EURO which was at that time about $16 U.S. I gave the driver $30 U.S. and he yelled at me like U.S. money was worthless.

Today the dollar has gained more than 20% since then and could gain another 10% if Europe’s issues don’t get resolved.

Now that Obama’s health care plan has passed (there will be some tweaks along the way), U.S. will lead the way in technology and medical advances to bill Obama and company for more treatments and drugs. Perhaps the U.S. will rise from its lowly 37th position in health care to the 20’s but don’t bet any EURO’s on it.

Finally the U.S. stock market is on a roll and once 101(k)’s and 201(k)’s are finally getting back to 401(k)’s. It’s still well below its all time high, but right now, we will take anything we can get. Still, the DOW is doing better than most other markets.

All this leads to hope. Unemployment most likely will not drop below 9% until 2011, but people working are working more hours. Housing has bottomed. There is hope. And where there’s hope, there’s salvation. Anyone for a manicure?

Happy Tuesday!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 9:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.