The Greater Nashville Association of Realtors releases home sales information each month, and for the past several months the number of units sold has been up 25 percent over the same months for the prior year.

The data also reveal that pending sales are up over 33 percent for January, suggesting that there are even better days ahead.

One esteemed commercial developer stated his residential real estate friends were “giddy” over the activity they are experiencing. Another Realtor who had 25 sales last year has sold 10 this month. Happy days are here again.

Well, not so fast.

U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, who represents the Fifth Congressional District in the House of Representatives, spoke to the Kitchen Cabinet group at the Mad Platter on Tuesday morning.

A Blue Dog Democrat described by the New York Times “the last moderate,” Cooper has a sobering method for understanding the depth of the financial woes plaguing the U.S.

Most among us are not quite certain what a trillion is. Cooper explains that one million seconds would be 12 days. One billion seconds would last 32 years. Ready for this? One trillion seconds is 32,000 years. Entitlement programs total $2.3 trillion.

As my 3-year-old daughter would say, “Ouchy!”

Cooper feels the economy has been placed in this precarious situation by Congress through its “deliberate, systemic mismanagement,” and referred the group to the website Nolabels.org.

This non-partisan group has a program called “Make Congress Work,” and Cooper feels that making Congress work is the only way for the country to remedy the situation.

One person asked if the entire congress could go to the Greenbrier or somewhere for a retreat and make an attempt to get along. Cooper recalled an incident in which the Congress attempted to execute that very plan. Before the meeting was hours old, a fistfight broke out.

Additionally, he told of committee members in Congress that were voting on important health care issues and did not know the difference in Medicare and Medicaid. They also felt Iran and Iraq were similar.

Are we fiddling while the United State disintegrates? The congressman feels the current state of affairs is fragile, so fragile that if interest rates climbed to 6 percent – once considered ridiculously low – the country would face another Great Depression.

Those who have heard Cooper speak over the years have become accustomed to his views and his ability to cite the depressing statistics.

For the first seven or eight years, the philosophy seemed unfathomable since the economy appeared to be growing and all seemed well. Unfortunately, he has been right all along.

Regardless of the dire circumstances, Cooper is not of the opinion that the U.S. faces Greece-like problems and feels this is still the greatest country on earth, although it would be well-served with better, non-partisan leadership.

He implored those present, mostly young professionals, to consider public service.

From the looks of the group, most would knew the difference between Medicare and Medicaid.

Richard Courtney is a real estate broker with Pilkerton Realtors and the co-author of Come Together:The Business Wisdom of the Beatles. He can be reached at [email protected]