I am back from Rob Arnott’s conference in Laguna Beach, and I must confess that if I had attended it before I wrote last week’s e-letter I might have had lower odds on the US political class solving the debt crisis, absent a real economic crisis forcing them to. There were several presentations that made the problems quite clear. It remains a tough issue.

This week’s Outside the Box is a recent white paper by Rob, where he argues that the traditional way we look at GDP is flawed, because it overstates what is happening in the real, private part of the economy, which is the productive part. Government spending is either money collected from the private sector in the form of taxes or borrowed money that future generations must repay. While not likely to become a mainstream economic view, this is very useful for our own thinking about what constitutes productivity and investments. This is a short but powerful piece from one of America’s most honored economic writers.

And let me note that I will be speaking at the annual Agora Financial Investment Symposium, perhaps the only conference in the country where I am the bull in the crowd. It is July 26-29 in Vancouver. You can find out more and register at http://www.agorafinancial.com/reports/vancouver/2011/afis2011b.php. If you come, be sure and say hello.

Have a great week. It is good to be home. I am off to see the Texas Rangers, after a happy hour with David Tice of Prudent Bear fame. And I must say that watching the Mavericks-Lakers game Sunday from the Admiral’s Club in LA, while waiting for my plane, was quite fun. Not as good as being there, but fun!

Your trying to remember there is more to life than economics analyst,