The sky is not falling, America has not yet deteriorated into a European socialist nation in need of a financial massage, and that was a Brooks Brothers style suit the President wore to his news conference yesterday, not a Mao jacket. So where are we as a nation, and a state as the election results settle in?

That depends a lot on your perspective. I haven’t heard from any local small business people who are delighted with last weeks vote-in fact they are down right concerned about the oncoming train called Obama care.

Locally, there is some good economic news to report for a change; home prices are slowly rising, and while many homeowners remain water logged…they at least can see the surface after living with underwater home values for some 5 years now.

Police Chief Rick Braziel..after 33 years has put in his retirement papers, satisified that with new city tax measures in place, many of the cops he had to cut ties with…will be coming back on the job. Rick’s a very young, in shape 52---don’t expect to see him puttering around some nursing home in The Foothills. The Smart Money sees a big, high paying consulting job in his future…or as he almost did in Seattle---it would be no surprise to see him land a top cop post in a larger city.

If there is such a thing as a good strike..it was the job action that came and went against Raley’s. The chain got some of what it wanted, slashing premium and overtime pay, while workers retain their health benefits and the knowledge that even in a lousy economy unions relevant. Based on a shopping visit last night, it appears workers management and shoppers have quickly put the dispute behind them.

California’s fiscal analyst says we can thank voters who approved a pair of tax measures for putting the state on the brink of a surplus. Note to Jerry Brown and Darrel Steinberg---that’s not a blank checkbook-and those who forget the painful past are doomed to repeat it.

The stock market has serious concerns about Obama 2.0..having lost about 6 percent of value since the polls closed..and Mitt Romney…still a little sore…told a group of donors that the administration essentially bought itself a second term through what he called “financial gifts” to blacks-latinos and young voters. Enough to get votes..maybe enough to improve their lives-maybe not…a new poll puts the poverty rate among Hispanics at just under 30 percent..

A Florida businessman was so distraught over the Presidents re election…he killed himself, leaving a note saying as much.

Gun sales are up…theres grumbling about secession in some of the red states…and while something has to be done before the nation falls off that fiscal cliff…something tells me the republicans will be bogged down investigating fornicating generals…foreign policy bumbling and perhaps…a coverup of the events that LED to the deaths of a US Ambassador and 3 other Americans in Bengazi…

So the president has another four year term…whether he and the nation will survive it…remains an open question