It’s summer time and we’re all trying to enjoy that time of year usually devoted to vacations and county fairs – in spite of all of the bad things that are happening around us. Rather than focus on the negative, I would like to take a moment and bring to your attention one of the positive things – and all the more so because it’s happening here in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

A week or so ago an article appeared in the Yahoo finance website entitled “We’re Suffering the Consequences of Too Much Democracy”. Imagine that, “too much Democracy”. This was in reference to the recent vote by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. So, in other words, if you don’t like the result, all of a sudden Democracy isn’t such a good idea. That’s an interesting take.

I attended the West Virginia GOP convention this past Saturday in Charleston serving as a delegate from the Harpers Ferry district. The main purpose of the convention was to draft and adopt the party’s platform. It is held every four years - the previous one was in Beckley in 2012.

Most financial advisors will tell you that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to time markets. It’s hard to predict when the top (or bottom) is in. Human phenomena, social movements, economic ups and downs and political changes, even wars tend to run in cycles. To everything, “turn, turn, turn”. We usually see inflection points through the lens of history, in hindsight. And often we underestimate the tremendous amount of inertia involved.

Well, the legislature appears to have acquiesced to the governor and has passed a budget that includes additional taxes and spending. That is disappointing. According to a Twitter post by Delegate Mike Folk (R - Berkeley), the new General Revenue budget contains $100 Million in new taxes and $98 Million in new spending. This increase will be reflected in the West Virginia general revenue budget, raising it from approximately $4.088 billion to around $4.188 billion.

Most people understand that the environment is a dynamic system and that there are consequences to actions, most people do not understand that the economy is also a dynamic system. If you try to engineer it, you often get results that aren’t pleasant. In fact, sometimes they are downright ugly.