Your child comes home from school with report card full of lousy grades. What do you do? You coddle him. “Everything’s OK. It’s not your fault.” He doesn’t see a problem so he doesn’t take the necessary actions and his grades don’t improve. On the other hand you yell at him. “You don’t try hard enough. You goof off too much. You spend too much time with your friends.” You alienate him so he doesn’t take the necessary actions and his grades don’t improve. Tough choice. No results. Everyone loses. Being a parent is tough.

Your client comes to you with a highly questionable proposal. What do you do? You tell him what he wants to hear. “Sure, go right ahead.” Your client does himself serious harm. On the other hand you tell him what he needs to hear. “This isn’t a good idea. It’s emotional and irrational. It’s the wrong thing and the wrong time.” You get fired by your client. Tough choice. Everyone loses. Being a wealth manager is tough.

America faces an uncertain and worrisome future. What does leadership do? They placate us. “Everything will be fine. We have all the answers. Vote for us.” On the other hand they own up to reality. “Tough times require real solutions. No rhetoric. No blame game.” Leadership gets voted out of office. Tough choice. No results. Everyone loses. Being a politician is tough.

Belaboring the point won’t detract from its obviousness. The socioeconomic fabric of our country – already torn and tattered from years of neglect – continues to be pulled and tugged by politicians. Our elected officials seem more interested in telling us why their ideas are great and the other guy is the devil reincarnate than having intelligent, honest and open acknowledgement and discussion of our societal challenges. They seemingly prefer to assign blame than offer solutions.

Being a leader isn’t a popularity contest. The most effective leaders are often polarizing, opinionated and disliked. But why do we crave leadership? Do we want someone to like? Do we want someone to like us? What we want is someone to get the job done. No BS. No rhetoric. Does our current political environment allow for this or do we need something beyond the two party system?

In this context Bill Gross’ latest investment outlook offers one of the most honest assessments we’ve read in quite a while. It’s short, simple and to the point. Please spend a few minutes with it prior to Election Day.