There are a couple of things I don't understand. Well, there more than a couple, ask my wife.

Anyway, I don't understand why we are using food to make fuel. Why does our government encourage that? I need to eat more than I need to drive.

I don't understand why, according to Rich Karlgaard writing in the Aug. 11 edition of Forbes Magazine, that United Auto Workers Union Employees' daily absentee rates in a UAW plant often exceed 10 percent, while at nonunion Honda, Nissan and Toyota plants in the South the absentee rate is 2 to 3 percent.

Both of those little ditties above have investment ramifications because they affect the cost of products to the consumer.

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Inflation has been ramping up with both food and energy leading the way. Recently, of course, energy prices have been coming down, but my Cherrios have not come down.

Inflation is everywhere. Have you noticed that sizes of products or the containers they come in have shrunk? If my Dial soap bar gets any smaller, I'll be able to stick it up my nose.

In recent history, that bar has shrunk by 20 percent which means that the company has gotten a 20 percent "hidden" raise.

If, indeed, energy continues to fall, perhaps things will look somewhat better in the future, but, for some reason, I don't think so.

I am still in the India and China camp. Those countries are coming and they are coming with a few billion consumers who want stuff. I hope I am wrong, I will be happy if I am wrong. I think I'll give them my soap.

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The correction in energy prices, particularly natural gas, has been almost astounding. Natural gas has fallen, in really just a few days, from about $13 MMBTU to about $9 as I write this column. That is a drop of about 30 percent.

Everyone should demand that I write something about the high price of natural gas every month. Last month in these scribblings I mentioned that if gas prices stayed at $13, winter heating bills would skyrocket. Don't get too happy just yet.

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On the putting green the other day I overheard a financial adviser of some sort getting gored by his client about how much money the client lost in June. The client had just gotten his statement.

I had to chuckle a little. Number one, the client still had enough money to be on the golf course. Number two, the adviser didn't have much to say.

I can tell you that I would not have been speechless. I would have said, "Better you than someone who couldn't afford it!"

No, I would not have said exactly that. What I would have said was that the market was down about 10 percent in June. It was not pretty even for my clients.

What I always tell them is look at percentages. If your account was down more than 10 percent, then we need to take a look at what is going on. If you were down substantially less than that, I should get a raise.

OK, I wouldn't say that either. I want to say that.

The truth is that your portfolio performance should reflect your asset allocation. If you are 100 percent in equities, then you should expect the negative 5 percent. If not, then you should expect something else.

Hey, these are not easy times. Every few years we go through a rough period. In my view, people who worry about short term volatility should not have much money in the stock market. Cut yourself a break. If all this volatility bothers you a great deal, then you need to change something.

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OK, what has happened so far this year? As I write this on July 30, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 14.1 percent, the S&P 500 is down 14 percent, and the NASDAQ Composite is down 12.5 percent.

The broad market as measured by the Wilshire 5000 is down 13 percent. The Russell 2000 small cap index is down 6.7 percent and the S&P Midcap 400 index is down 6.5 percent.

Remember folks, this is summer, and not only do we have economic problems but summertime is normally a snooze for the stock market, so I would expect nothing less than what we have.

If you have exposure to gold and many other commodities, then perhaps you have actually made some money this year.

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Went to Doctor John the other day for a checkup. He recommended exercise. He always recommends exercise.

He said, "Start out easy." I said "OK."

So the other day I drove very slowly past a store that sells sweat pants.

If you have a question or want to contact me, you can do that at Howie.Pentony@Uvestfinancial.com. You can check me out at www.nextierwealth.com

Howie Pentony is a Butler financial adviser; UVEST Financial Services member FINRA/SIPC.