Two Last Charts from Al

These are charts I gleaned from Greenspan's last report at the Fed.


I will say it again; Americans are lazy and I want to rip the throats out of people who complain about the cost of health care, but would rather instead use the equity in their home to buy portable video games for their little sh!t kids and SUV's for their impotent asses.

Do the Left Even Know This is Where Their Path Leads?

Sad.

The War on Terror Has Cost Us Nothing

Once again, to quelch the idiot baby boomer hippies-turned career politicians who all of the sudden became fiscal conservatives overnight and contstantly bitch and whine about the costs of this war please note;

2,400 people died in Pearl Harbor.

3,000 died on 9-11

Look at the corresponding response in government fiscal policy and defense spending

The New Inflation

9 is the new 8.

Tuesday is the new Monday.

Economists are the new studs.

And house prices and stock prices are the new inflation.


It's an interesting discussion being circulated on whether or not monetary policy should target asset prices. Traditionally "inflation" only referred to consumer items as a means by which to gauge whether or not prices were increasing. But that doesn't account for all the money being floated around in the system. And if enough money is floating around, prices are bound to go up somewhere.

When it hits consumer goods, we call this "inflation." And it is bad.

When it hits housing or stock markets, we call this "a bull market." And is deemed good.

The problem is, assets or consumer goods, if prices get too out of whack, then this leads to a misallocation of resources. Idiots flooded the stock market during Dotcom mania days. Idiots today leverage up 100% to buy a house or property whose plausible rents could never come close to covering the mortgage payment, thereby driving the prices further. And in both cases savings tanked.

We're in a particularly precarious situation now, where a fair amount of economic growth is due to consumer spending and a fair amount of spending is due to morons squeezing every penny of equity out of their homes.

Of course, as always, when resources are misallocated to a large enough scale, recessions occur.

But you don't want to hear that, you just go ahead and take out that remaining $10,000 in equity in your house to buy that SUV.

Cripes

There are times I am so happy I'm a man. Like, for instance, right now.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17909-2057781,00.html

The Price of Power Drinks

So I hated coffee. Still do hate coffee. Didn't have a cup of coffee until I was 26. Only reason I drink coffee now is because it has anti-carcinogenic thingies in it. And whilst I lived off of Mountain Dew and the shortly-lived Surge during my collegiate years, I would have killed to have had the power drinks that we have today.

Of course today I do not exert myself physically or mentally anywhere near as much as I did in college, but I have at least one a day, typically two. And depsite all the research and whatever else people say about it;

1. They do wake me up
2. The power drink of my choice has a full supplement of vitamin C in it
3. My liver be damned

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized what a classic, text book example the power drink market was of an industry going from monopoly to a perfectly competitive market. It should be in every modern day economics text book, of course, that would require most economists to get a clue and abandon "widgets" and "utils."

The most obvious characteristic of an industry going from monopoly to perfectly competitive is the decrease in price and the power drink market is no exception.

Notice Red Bull was the first to come out, debuting in 1997. I couldn't afford it back then and it was largely something for preppy frat boys from the suburbs to drink to cure hangovers, not so much as to wake them up cause they only got 3 hours sleep the previous night because they were working. It's market price was $2.12.

What was interesting was the introduction of two new comers to the market, Pepsi's "Amp" and Coke's "Sobe Adrenaline Rush." These (as far as my recollection can tell me) came in around 1999-2000. However, again adhering to the classical textbook of economics, we had an oligopoly and there seemed to be price fixing (or at least standardization) as prices remained at $2.12. And again, following a classic lesson in economics, product differentiation and improvement occured. Red Bull tasted like sh!t. Rush and Amp did not.

From 2002 or so on the flood gates opened and product differentiation occured. Michael Savage's son started producing "Rock Star" which was just one of a score of "double shots." I remember seeing one called "Bullet" which the can was literally in the shape of a large caliber bullet. I even remember seeing "Boo-Koo" a QUADRUPLE shot of power drink. Your pee would come out an interesting hue of yellowish green.

Come 2003, early 2004 the original players noticed they were being squeezed and thus you started seeing Amp, Sobe and Red Bull being sold at Wal-Mart in 4 packs, effectively bringing their price down to about $1.79. But then came my savior.

You see, even though by this time I was making good coin, I still couldn't get myself to splurge on things that seemed excessive. Maybe it's the economist in me, but I'll never drive a beamer. Beamers are for insecure baby boomers who still think they're in high school and have to impress everybody. I'll never buy anything at Starbucks because I am not a preppy gen-Xer that is stupid enough to drop $3 on frilly girly girl coffee. I'll never buy a suit that costs more than $500. I'll never stay at a fancy hotel when there's a perfectly good way side I can pull the car over and crash. Thus, forking over $2 for what amounted to a fraction of a soda was a no-no as well.

Oh, but the power of the free market should never be estimated for in came Rooster Booster.

4 pack.

$4.27

Full regiment of vitamin C

Cheaper than soda.

You gotta love capitalism.

Thus for the past 2 years I've had my daily Rooster Booster, usually an afternoon one too. I swear by them and the people at my office look at it and then look at me as if I'm some strange zoo animal.

But the forces of capitalism do not relent. For just last week I saw "Vault" the newest entrant into the power drink market.

Tastes good

Really wakes you up

79 cents.

It's a text book lesson come true.

To Remind You All Again

Well, I've already received some pictures, but they are slow in coming. And I'm going to keep posting this post until we get enough for a good calendar.

When I first started this blog I had an idea that was genius. As with many ingenius ideas, the masses are too stupid to appreciate them. The idea was to put together a calendar of good looking babes that were Capitalists. I was going to call it "The Babes of Capitalism Calendar." I would then take the proceeds and pay off my mortgage.

Of course this fell flat on its face for one simple reason and one simple reason only. And I forgot this reason, thus I have only myself to blame for this because it is a rule, a lesson that I learned many years ago;

Men will always find reasons to do things,
while women will always find reasons NOT to do things.

This undeniable truth largely explains many phenomenon we see in life.

It is why there is no female equivalent to a sausage party.

It is why the majority of asking out is done by men (and the majority of denials are done by women).

It is why you can have a great band, an open dance floor, and swarms of girls, brimming on the edge of their seats, their bodies bouncing to the music, ready to burst out on the floor, and yet when you ask them to dance they say, "well, I just ordered a drink" or "we're about to leave" or "I'm not really in a dancing moood."

And above all, it is the primary reason why men on the average will always make more than women and constitute the majority of astronauts, explorers, economists, enterpreneurs, executives etc. etc.

Thus, I've been barking up the wrong tree.

Yes, it would have been cool to have a calendar that I could offer of all these capitalist babes.

Yes, it would have been cool to have capitalist babes across the fruited plains do this as a little funny ha ha that we could all have a good laugh about and be proud of.

Yes it would have been cool!

But if I wanted something to get done, why did I rely on women?!!? Women will always find reasons NOT to do things.

Thus, it seems, once again, if anything is going to get done around here we're going to have to do it ourselves guys.

Therefore men I propose the;

"16 Month Calendar of Male Economist Extravaganza!"

Yes, 16 rememberable months of 100% pure economist sexiness. Fat or skinny, tall or short, ugly or....ummm...welll, uh, ugly.

All economists are welcome to enter.

Here are the rules;

You can be a professional or amateur. A student or professor. Aspiring or employed. Public sector or private. You needn't be employed as "an economist" you just need to be a student of it and love economics.

The more outlandish the better. This is not supposed to be a sexy calendar (duh). The more hideous/nerdy the better. I fathom seeing a 300 pound economist with swimming trunks reading "Atlas Shrugged" on the beach.

No nudity damn it. If I didn't want the contestants of the BABES of Capitalism to send in nude pictures, I sure as hell don't want you schlepps sending them in either. Keep it clean.

Pictures should be large enough that they'll take up an 8X11 piece of paper without losing resolution.

Inlcude some kind of bio

Once you have your picture, e-mail it to captcapitalism@yahoo.com. Note it is best to copy and paste this e-mail, it is NOT CAPTAINCAPITALISM@yahoo.com, but CAPTcapitalism@yahoo.com

Get off your lazy ass and do it NOW!!!! Don't procrastinate because I have to print these things off myself unless you all want to pay $30 for each calendar!

I shall choose the best 16 pictures sent in. Those chosen will win a free calendar on my dime.

The calendar will then be put up for sale for some reasonable fee. Proceeds will go to the "Help Captain Capitalism Pay Off His Mortgage Early Fund."

Get crackin'!

Money Down the Drain

A Little Help for Our Chinese Friends

So I'm reading an article in The Economist, like I do. And I read that the Bank of China might go public. Wanting to invest in a country that is growing and has underdeveloped financial markets, I go to the Bank of China's web site.

Now you gotta give it to them. In their attempts to modernize and emulate American/western companies, they nailed it with the "Let's Throw Up Pictures of Every Race Imaginable and Throw the White Guy in the Bankground if At All in an Attempt to Show How Politically Correct We Are."



Bravo, well done indeed.

The only problem is that usually the people you throw up on your main page are good lookin' folk, models. It almost seems that the BOC went out of their way to find the most bland, average looking folk, although they wanted an element of wierdness with the Asian guy.

But it's progress none-the-less.

Working to Pay

This was an interesting chart I happened upon. I often wonder if women now work just to essentially pay for the increase in taxes and costs of paying other people to bring up their kids. You know, schools, day care, counseling services cause there ain't no parent at home, after school activities.

One might almost think it would be cheaper to stay at home and bring the kid up yourself!!!!

Sacrilege!

Foreigners Don't Have Applebee's

Nor do they have Desperate Housewives

A daddy dimed car

American idol

GAP

or all this other crap the suburbanite masses who piss me off have.

No, they have poverty, famine, disease, human rights abuses.

So when they come here I'm glad to see very few of them have their heads up their asses and insist on majoring in stuff that matters. I'm also glad to see they advance their education beyond that of the typical spoiled brat American and get a doctorate or masters.


Sociology, women's studies, philosophy and peace studies majors in OC, take note.

The US Military is Good for You

And seemingly every place it invades.

I really get sick and tired of hearing from the ignorant left about how X number of innocent civilians have died in this or that conflict.

Yeah, guess what, it's ain't like the rosy suburbs you spoiled brat sociology majoring freaks grew up in where nothing bad happened. The real world has bad things happening to good people.

Furthermore, as an indirect measure as to just how much care the US military takes in making sure it doesn't needlessly kill civilians or destroy non-military targets, I will once again point out that Afghanistan along with Iraq have been enjoying better economic standards of living since we went in. Amazing how under war/invasion/occupation/whatever you want to consider it, economies tend to grow when the US military is there lobbing missles around.

When Governments Nationalize Assets

Good ol' Robert Mugabe and his socialist nationalization of white farms. Oh you leftists are a hoot!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/02/17/zimbabwe.fetuses.ap/index.html

Busy as Hell

Sorry all. Been out at a seminar for 2 days. Also, it is busy season, tax season and I took a radio gig. Valentine's Day. Haven't had a day off in about a month. Here's some charts to get you by and get you that daily economic fix and further convince me Americans are lazy bums;

Chin Up Fellow Aspiring Economists!

Notice the "liberal" arts majors, which coincidentally is what most liberals major in.

Hee hee...yeah, you guys suck.

An Aspiring Ms. Capitalism?

Just got these delivered to my office;



I told you we economists are sexy beasts!

Self Control

So I see this;


And somehow I don't feel compelled to start bringing down Iran's foreign embassy, let alone other muslim nations' embassies.

Oh, wait, that's right. I forgot. I have a life, I'm not a brainwashed immature simpleton and I'm not some psychotic muslim freak.

Just can't understand why Iran's GDP per capita is $8,000 and the US' is $40,000.

BRILLIANT!!!

I love charts!!!

This one from Calculated Risk

Shows what GDP growth would have been like if it weren't for all these putzes taking equity out of their houses and instead had to rely on "sweat equity.' Also commonly known as "WORKING!!!!!"

When People Jump on the Bandwagon

Markets tend to get overvalued.

Interesting study was highlighted in The Economist about how more and more people are just investing in the index or funds or funds of funds. And as this has happened, genuine stock picking, requiring detailed analysis and insight that nobody else has, has declined.

Thus, consider, if people just invest in the index because it beats the majority of investment professionals, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as more and more money purchasing indexed funds, drives the price of the index up.

Perhaps we are entering an era where the majority of investment professionals will actually do their job and beat the index....and then I think about my peers at the Carlson School and say naaaaah!

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=849627

That About Sums it Up

It isn't even a complex argument. It's quite simple.

Anyway, I'm sure you're aware of them, but if not, you should visit on a daily basis Cox and Forkum. I'm cynical, but these guys make me look like an aloof, ignorant suburbanite girl who is more concerned about American Idol than I am the insanity going on.

www.coxandforkum.com

The Childish Psychology of the Left...In China

So look at the chart below. And ask yourself one simple question;

Is this good or is it bad?Now if you were to be literal about it and honestly answer the question you would say it is a good chart. For it shows that everybody's income per capita is increasing. How could this be bad? How could anybody complain? People are better off than they were before.

Of course leave it to the left to find something to complain about.

For you see while rural incomes are going up, they are not going up as fast as urban incomes.

And this is a bad thing in the world of socialism.

Thus, the emphasis is no longer on whether or not people are better off than they were before. Oh, no, that would be too simple. It's about the fact that other people are more better off than others.

Thus you get retarded measurements like the gini coefficient which leftists will always point to as conclusive proof that the system is failing, despite everybody doing better. And in the case of China, the gini coefficient has been rising showing a widening gap between rural incomes and urban incomes.

What gets me is all the layers of irony afoot here.

A "communist" country is complaining about income distribution, which was brought on by effectively implementing a radically free-market economic system, which has brought standards of living up for everybody.

Heads must be swimming in China's "Communist" Party.

So Salman Rushdie, Wulf the Teacher and Cappy Cap Walk Into a Bar...

So my hits go through the roof when I posted that picture of Mohammed that all the muslims are getting their panties in a bundle over. And what got me is that I really didn't think it was a particularly great post. Just kind of threw it up there and made a sentence or two of commentary.

Then I noticed my "first time visitor" hits were the primary reason. In otherwords, people who had never visited my site before were visiting now.

So I wondered if some radical muslim got a hold of this post, and then forwarded it to all of his friends who are now plotting my assassination.

To see if it was just me, I asked Wulf the Teacher over at Atlasblogged if he experienced the same thing.

Well, here's my stats;

And here are his;

Salman Rushdie, we hardly knew thee.

It's the Wellstone Memorial All Over Again!

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash8.htm

Do they ever learn????

HARRRRR!!!!!

http://files.bdotson.us/images/islamcontradiction.gif

More Idiocy

Did Austria even PRINT THE DAMN PICTURE????

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-02-06T174517Z_01_L06357511_RTRUKOC_0_US-RELIGION-CARTOONS-IRAN.xml&rpc=22

Oh, wait, that's right. I forgot, it really isn't about the picture now is it?

Do They Have a Clue How Idiotic They Sound?

Mariam, where are you on this? You're one of the few muslims that reads this board. Be interested in your take.

Sheehan, Castro, Hillary, Bellafonte, the Democratic Party, Osama Bin Laden and Hugo Chavez

All join an elite crowd.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-02-05T014850Z_01_N04360949_RTRUKOC_0_US-VENEZUELA-CHAVEZ.xml&rpc=22

This One's for You, Ginger

Sent to me by this Italian putz I know in NC. I love it when God punishes stupid people.

I love it even more when I'm right.

http://www.newsobserver.com/104/story/395863.html

Dark Matter in Economics!

This is actually cool;

Here's a synopsis;

http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5408129

Here's the actual study;

http://www.utdt.edu/~fsturzen/FinalDiciembre28.pdf

I just received this from Adam!

http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/setser/113810

Will You Please Get the Facts Before You Open Your Mouth?

You have this idiot;

http://exposetheleft.com/2006/01/30/amanpourdisaster/

And then you have facts;







I don't think a country has ever done this good under invasion.

I Told You So

I remember posting this chart;

in this post;

http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com/2005/12/google-is-overvalued-period.html

And getting berated for suggesting Google, headed by two socialists, is overvalued.

Thus, I ask ye, do you like apples?

How do you like dem apples?