For several days now, I’ve been waiting for one of our country’s leaders to stand up and speak President Kennedy’s famous words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  In fact, I had included that comment in our last economic update but took it out at the last minute.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, James Stewart, a columnist I tend to read frequently, writes an article with similar thoughts titled “Time to Ask What You Can Do For the Markets.”  The article draws on historical precedents and is well worth reading, but may require a subscription and password to do so. 

In times like these – and perhaps all the time in all honesty – we should start thinking a great deal less about what’s in it for ourselves and a great deal more about how we can help our neighbors.  While I don’t believe we’re headed into an economic Depression, I find it interesting to note that one of the first pieces of advice any psychologist will give to a depressed patient is to start to serving others.  Not only does this attitude help others, it also forces the depressed patient to stop focusing so much on their own problems.