I-10 Economic Indicator

Quote of the day:
"The easiest way to attract a crowd is to let it be known that at a given time and a given place someone is going to attempt something that in the event of failure will result in sudden death."
--Harry Houdini

Data tidbit of the day:
“One exit poll [from the 2006 election] indicated that voters think female lawmakers are three times more trustworthy than their male counterparts.”
--Washington Monthly, January/February 2007.

This week I’m in Redlands, California attending the Annual Conference of the United Methodist churches of our region. Redlands is 50 miles due east of Los Angeles and close to San Bernardino and Riverside.

There were times when I was driving east on interstate 10 when I wasn’t sure if I was on a highway or the railroad tracks. I estimate that one-third of the considerable number of vehicles on this road were tractor-trailers.

There were the expected moments when I felt a little intimidated among these huge vehicles. But what was truly breathtaking was simply the quantity of commercial traffic barreling east from L.A. And coming the other way, too.

Maybe it’s an economic indicator. If so, I would say our economy is quite robust, thank you very much.