OPINION
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During a recent trip to Florida, I stopped in at the NobleCon financial conference to hear former President George W. Bush make a relatively rare keynote appearance.
Bush made a little bit of news, opining, "I predict that most Americans think we’re too damn old at the top."
At age 77, Bush declared flatly, "I’m too old to be president. I know what it takes to be president, and I’m younger than Biden and Trump."
Mr. Bush also warned about the escalating debt:
"The president has got to be the one pushing for fiscal responsibility. … The debt’s gone nuts, and it’s going to be a real problem for a generation coming up, particularly when interest payments are larger than defense payments, for example."
But I found the real news at the conference came from the incredible vibrancy of the U.S. economy on display.
Noble Capital Markets, the sponsoring investment bank, had assembled 120 small and medium-sized companies and given them a platform to seek investment funds from the 1,000 potential investors in attendance.
Among those making a pitch were companies in media, technology, medicine, consumer business, and sports.
Wandering from one conference room to another, I was struck by just how many people are willing to start companies and strike out in pursuit of a success story they can only dimly glimpse in the future.
Collective Mining is a company that recognizes that mining for minerals is a thing of the past in the hyper environmentally conscious U.S.
So it has gone overseas, and has found deposits of gold, silver, copper and tungsten in the jungles of Columbia despite the odds of a successful strike without advance exploration being about one in 1,000.
Priviaira, an aircraft charter company, has discovered that since the pandemic the demand for its services from small and medium-size businesses has explodes.
Eric Tabor, Privaira’s director of flight development, lays out the grim state of commercial aviation for travelers today: "Only 70% of flights are on time, since early 2020 a total of 320 airports have seen service cutbacks and 74 airports have lost service," he summarized.
"We have a perfect storm –– a loss of direct routes to allow you to get somewhere without connecting, 180,000 flights cancelled, last year, a lack of trained pilots and antiquated technology.”
Most of the people in Tabor’s audience weren’t likely to be frequent customers for private flights. But they seemed interested in investing in what was clearly a growth industry.
But the most emotional presentation came during a panel on the future of organ transplants.
Last year, there were over 43,000 transplants in the U.S., a clear majority of those conducted worldwide. Even so, over 100,000 people are on waiting lists for organs and only 58% of Americans are registered as potential organ donors.
Karin Hehenberger is a doctor with a Ph.D. in molecular medicine.
She founded a non-profit organization, LyfeBulb, to better coordinate the transplant experience between patients and donors, was the star speaker at the panel.
It turns out she herself has received three transplants after learning at age 16 that she suffered from childhood diabetes. It forced her to end a promising career as an international tennis champion but opened a new career door for her in medicine.
She emigrated to the United States from her native Sweden for her medical studies and resolved t pursue a career fighting autoimmune diseases.
Her father gave her first transplanted kidney in 2009.
The next year she had a transplanted pancreas and seven months ago another transplanted kidney (because a transplant often fails over time).
"I will forever be grateful that these transplants have allowed me to not only lead the life I have led but also to have a child," she told the hushed audience. Later, she told me that the United States is the world leader for transplants for a reason: "Most other countries won’t make the expenditure that we make to give people the number of transplants we do. And, of course, our medical research in the field is without parallel."
Leaving the NobleCon conference, I had a renewed appreciation for not only the risks inherent in new business ventures but also what they can produce in the form of new products.
And in many cases, such as the organ transplant field the work product is a good fit with NobleCon’s name –– it is noble in its own right.
That's something worth remembering in this holiday season of hope and looking towards the future.
John Fund is a columnist and is considered a notable expert on American politics and the nexus between politics and economics and legal issues. He previously served as a columnist and editorial board member for The Wall Street Journal, and is also the author of several books, including "Who's Counting: Bow Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote At Risk," "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy,” and "The Dangers of Regulation Through Litigation." John Fund is also a contributor to Newsmax TV –– More Info Here.
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