The federal election in the US is provoking strong thoughts about truth (rather than 'truthiness' as described by Stephen Colbert so usefully) and ethical behaviour.  The leading Republican candidates seem quite willing to dispense with truth in the fight to win power, but few commentators are calling them on it.  It makes me wonder if we have become so sensitized to the need to call a spade an earth-moving implement that we are hesitant to identify and name lying as such -- that we have become inured to bushwah.

So does this extend to the business as well as politics?  As an investor-relations consultant, I have a responsibility to ensure that my clients' stories are told clearly and honestly.  Otherwise it is impossible to manage investors' perceptions and expectations (it's hard enough when you're dealing with fact let alone adding fiction).  If you are in investor, is it your sense that more businesses are falling prey to a tendency to stretch, paint, mould, embroider, or alter fact to entice you to buy stock? 

Oh frabjous day!

Lewis Carroll had it right. With the market's vorpal blades going snicker-snack, it's way too easy to see tragedy coming even on the brightest day. I envision my portfolio evaporating and my client base dwindling, and I can get quite deep into the drama of it all. Intransigent Greeks (no gifts forthcoming, apparently), idiot politicians (into which category nearly all US incumbents and wannabes now seem to fall), the falling dollar, increasing protectionism, European devolution -- we're not getting a lot of good economic news.

So, cock-eyed and contrary optimist that I am, I start to tally blessings. Resource companies continue to get funding, and the commodity markets are still holding. Gold stocks, especially for smaller entities, are undervalued and represent a real buying opportunity -- particularly with the Chinese starting to make gold property acquisitions offshore.

Technology innovation is strong in Canada, and start-ups are getting an unprecedented amount of government help to commercialize their products (just ask me!).

Even biotech is showing some signs of hope. The US seems to be working on developing a better relationship with China, one of the outcomes being Chinese agreement to help protect IP.

Never mind the market volatility -- pundits wiser than I suggest much of this is mechanical, or at least mathematical, and there is money to be made in the swings as well as in steady growth.

And Angela Merkel has made stocky women hotter than they've been since Peter Paul Rubens was mixing egg tempura.

So for now, we seem to be holding our own against the forces of chaos.