The Economic "Fail" of the Century

As some of you are aware, the price of oil has become somewhat pricey in recent months. It's now around $100 and we get to pay approaching $4 a gallon in gas.

Accusations will be made. Big oil will be blamed. Investigations launched. But in the end it is the unstoppable forces of economics and the declining currency of a declining nation that will win in the end of the day and you will continue to have to pay $4 a gallon in gas...maybe $5 or $6 when summer rolls around.

Now we can blame the turmoil in the middle east (correctly) for the increase in prices. You can blame the declining dollar (correctly) for the increase in prices as well. And yes, I will even allow those on the unthinking and galactically ignorant left to go to their knee-jerk position of blaming "big oil" (incorrectly) for the increase in prices. But it will all be for naught because the debate is moot. There is no reason to argue about oil. And I shall explain why with some more of my super awesome economic genius.

IN REALITY (and I say this with all seriousness) gas should be trading at about 40 cents a gallon. And if I were president and had both houses of congress it would be at 40 cents a gallon. It would trade at 40 cents a gallon NOT because we would enact price controls, but the MARKET rate would be 40 cents a gallon.

Now, would this be because I would drill baby drill?

No.

Would this be because I would invade the middle east for their oil recreating an oil-rich empire?

No.

Would it be because I would subsidize alternative fuels to the point gas would have to be 40 cents a gallon?

No.

It would be because I would gather up all the business "leaders" in the US and we'd get them into a little room and I would ask them one simple question;

"Why in frick's name are you requiring people to commute to work when today's technology makes it pointless?"

I have brought up this point before, but at the time I was not a student of computer networks or IT like I am today, and was informed that for security reasons, among other reasons, businesses do not like it when people work from home. But after a year of studying computer networking I am here to inform you that it is not only technologically possible, it is no riskier (bar human behavior) to have people working remotely. Telecommuting from your home is no riskier (with the appropriate measures taken) than working at an office, if for any other reason, you are technically still telecommuting while in the office, using the exact same routers and servers.

Of course, the question is "why don't we telecommute then?" and this is the largest most gigantic economic fail the US has ever made.

In short we passed up on the latest economic revolution because we are no longer American and no longer dare to dream.

If you look through history there have been various economic "revolutions" that have advanced and improved humans' lives greatly.

The agrarian revolution basically wiped out hunger.

The industrial revolution brought us electricity, transport and limitless goods and services making out lives that much easier.

The technology or "information" revolution made communications immediate.

And a by-product of the revolution allowed for the next great economic revolution, the "telecommuting revolution."

The only problem is, nobody in the US cared to avail themselves of it.

Oh, India certainly has, taking significant business from the US' IT sector. So has China and Ireland.

But no, not us. You must have us confused with the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts and the Carnigies and those other stupid "old" and "industrious" Americans. No, not us. We're modern Americans. We don't dare dream of never having to drive to work again. That's just not in our blood. No, we much prefer to sit 2 hours a day in bumper to bumper traffic while we hole up in some beige, tan cubicle and do mind-numbing tasks. That's the American dream!

This is the real reason why you are paying $4 in gas. This is the real reason why we have to spend billions on infrastructure that is unnecessary and unneeded. This is why there are thousands of deaths a year more than there has to be on roads. And this is a major reason why your families are stressed, torn or sometimes just plain destroyed. Because the American people failed to avail themselves of this most recent economic revolution because we just don't have the audacity to do so anymore.

Of course, there is another option.

You could do what I do.

Let me explain.

I get a call occasionally from a recruiting company called "Robert Half International." They have an office in DT Minneapolis. Their main finance/banking guy "Doug" knows who I am and knows that for the most part no bank in the area would hire me because of my super awesome book that predicted the housing crash (because why would you want to hire THAT guy? I mean who would want to hire the guy who PREDICTED THE BUBBLE?) In any case, when I do get a call from them, I know;

1. It's some rookie new hire who doesn't know I'm verbotten in the Minnesota banking industry
2. I'm not going to get the job (again because of my super awesome book you should all read).

So when it comes time for him to set up a "meeting to get to know you" I can more or less decree whatever I want because there's no way I'm getting the job in the first place.

Rookie - "Can you come downtown to meet me?"

Me - "No, how about you come to my local bar in my town. I usually start drinking around 1PM."

or

Rookie - "We have a position open in the vibrant DOWNTOWN AREA! You'll get to be where all the action is."

Me - "Will they pay me $20,000 extra per year to deal with the commute and give me an underground parking space in the building I'd be working in?"

Rookie - "Well (shocked), no...um, I don't think so."

Me - "Can I telecommute?"

Rookie - "Well,...um, I could ask but I highly doubt it."

Me - "Can I set my own hours to avoid rush hour?"

Rookie - "Ummmm...I think they would prefer you be there 8-5PM."

Me - "Eh, forget then, not interested."

In other words, desperate as the employment situation may be, why do you accept commuting? Why do you not demand the right to telecommute?

Sure, it's a bold move and sure there's plenty of other people out there willing to become the corporate slave who would just "love" to commute, but if the entirety of the US labor market would simply get a little self-respect and say, "eh, I'm not commuting" what could they do?

Then again, maybe I'm just crazy. Maybe people like to commute and waste years of their lives, missing out on seeing their children and spending time with their families. Maybe they like spending trillions of dollars on gas over the years. I mean, what better to spend your money on that gas, right? And who doesn't love the increased chance of divorce because "you're never home?" And did I mention all the icky yucky gross economic growth that would occur because of extra disposable income?

Yeah, we wouldn't dare take advantage of this latest revolution.

Al Gore

From Al Gore's mouth. My favorite though is this;


Like that isn't guaranteed to happened with social security, medicare, and in general, the entire economy?

Thankfully for Al Gore, Obama, and pretty much every pro-spending socialist out there, my generation, and their grandchildren's generation are literally the most ignorant generations in the history of the world. Historians will look back and say, "Well, at least we're not as stupid as the two generations in the 21st century that voted themselves into slavery."

I'm going to play Bioshock 2.

The Return of Real Men

In the end, the manly man is the one the ladies want.

McCay Hatch

Mark my words, and hopefully someday when this kid grows up, search engines will find this post and say, "wow, that Cappy Cap was right on."

Children should not make laws nor should they go on political crusades or campaigns.

They are children.

They are idiots.

That's why we don't let them vote until they're 18 and even that nowadays is still too early.

They should be in school studying, learning skills to get a job and not telling adults what to do, let alone even "hint" or "suggest" what is "appropriate" behavior.

Regardless, my prediction is this young teen will grow up to be an adult who will become a career politician.

Why?

Because he has tasted a little bit of power AND THE STATE ASSEMBLY HAS OBLIGED HIM. He will have a chioce; "Go to college and study engineering and create something of value....OR...go to school for political "science" get a law degree, can't find a job, HEY, I'll run for office because I like changing people and society!"

Something similar happened here in Minnesota where a bunch of teens who had nothing better to do decided to get the City Council of St. Paul to ban candy cigarettes.

Future Nanny-Nazi's they will become.

It's Natasha's Birthday Today!

For all you Cappy Cap readers out there who are fans of Natasha, it's her birthday today! Send her a hi or a hello!

Also, all proceeds from any book sales today go to her sushi fund. You want her to be happy, correct?

More Cry Babying

"The people's needs come before the markets'."

What this idiot doesn't know is that the people ARE THE MARKET.

Normally at this time I would go into a rant about people's ignorance about economics, but I've found that's throwing confetti into a tornado and it's just easier to go outside and look for superior agates.

The Price of Ignorance

People ask what the price of ignorance is, well, this is it.

Keep believing in flowers and puppies and unicorns. What's the worst that can possibly happen?

Take That Toyota

You and you're stupid Priuses.

Does anybody else see the irony of this?

"Grandpa"

Cripes.

My grandpa on my mother's side fought at Iwo Jima, became a mortician and was nothing but the kindest, most loving man on the face of the planet. He would buy us chocolate ice cream and when my dad would argue that there was too much ice cream he told him to "shut up."

My grandpa on my father's side was in the European theater, went 3 months without a shower, dodged a sniper that took his buddy out in a foxhole, came back and although a bit stoic from the whole ordeal raised a heck of a family, became and engineer and would bring us the "forbidden" food of Kentucky Fried Chicken WITH PEPSI.

Now THIS is grandpa.

Pathetic by all comparisons.

When I Am King

I had flirted with the idea of running for public office. On account of my impatience with stupidity and socialism, I would be arguably the least electable, but most entertaining candidate in the history of the US. However, key in my platform would be some rather simple, but ingenious ideas such as;

1. Changing the constitution to limit government expenditure and revenue to 20% GDP FOR ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT.

2. National ID cards with biometric data to not only apply for jobs, but for voting as well.

3. Requiring a balanced budget of all governments.

4. Increasing the retirement age to 75 immediately.

5. Cutting spending on SS and Medicare by 25% immediately.

6. Eliminating corporate and dividend taxes and making it part of the constitution no company shall ever be taxed to bring back investment into the country and legitimately boost stock prices.

7. Replace ALL taxes with ONE sales tax so there is no need to ever fill out a tax form ever again AND so the people know ONE number and know PRECISELY how much in tax they're paying.

8. The immediate cessation of any government funding to "global warming" studies or personnel and an immediate investigation into "global warming" to see if any criminal activity took place (with sincere intent to persecute and punish).

Now, what is sad is that for the most part Americans are not educated or smart enough in either basic economics or the constitution or the history of this formerly great country to realize THAT IS POSSIBLE. And not only is it possible, but that the above 8 ideas would be of ENORMOUS benefit to the country, and would effectively stop the recession in its tracks. They are more concerned about transferring other people's wealth and exacting a toll of "revenge" on people who "made too much." They are too busy pursuing "global warming" as a religion with fervent and pscyhotic zeal. Also, too many people and too large of swathes of the economy are dependent upon wealth transfers either by direct receipt of those transfers or are employed in the "wealth transfer industry."

And so when you see something like this, you start to wonder if you shouldn't move to Georgia (and for those in Rio Linda, that's not the state we're talking about).

No Ordinary Recession

Again, just enjoying my time checking out different data series at the FRED database in St. Louis. Just amazing.

Cry Babies

Again, the entitlement mentality enrages me. How DARE you freeze our salaries during a recession!

Recession Medicine

I have been neglecting my duties as the official recession nullifier to put all of those of you at ease who are desiring for a job, but because of the utter failure of the "stimulus," have yet to find one. So here;

Remember, recessions are god's way of telling you to take a mandatory vacation. So do not despair, but rather, enjoy the recession. Because before you know it, the economy will rebound like never before and you will be back on the line.

HA HA HA HA!!

No, I'm just kidding.

You may as well just relax and enjoy the downtime because there's going to be a lot of downtime.

Attacking Glenn Beck

I don't have much time.

Ergo, I don't really believe much of anything I read in the news or what I see on TV, until I can verify it for myself.

Fortunately I've already done enough economic research that I can tell mathematically if something is even possible (for example I recall a protester at Berkeley claiming Bush spent $19 trillion on war - WOW, that's, like, 133% GDP).

But this was cute.

You read through the first page and then start to notice everything they accuse Beck of is in "quotes" and then cited with a "1" "2" etc. Furthermore the claims are nothing specific like,

"In 2005 Glenn Beck was arrested for kicking a puppy."

It's subjective character criticisms like saying he was "a wing nut" or a "schizo."

You get tired of reading that and inevitably, if you have a life, you skip to the last page to see the quotes and the references to see if there's any point or purpose in reading on.

Wow.

The Huffington Post and MEDIA MATTERS?

This passes for journalism?

Thankfully I figured out this was nothing more than a guy plugging his book disguised as a hit-piece.

So do yourself a favor - buy my book instead.

No character assassination.

No lies or bias.

Plus you'll actually learn something aside from how to hate Glenn Beck in new ways.

How Low Can You Go?

Wow, Greece demanding reparations from Germany so they can continue their bloated public sector spending binge.

I am just speechless at how ingrained an entitlement mentality can become.

Frances Gallo for President

Sorry, this is the stuff that needs to happen. The schools are not institutions to employ people for the sake of employing them.

They are to (gasp!) educate children.

Unemployment, Mean Duration of Unemployment and Labor Force Participation

The loss of economic production due to idle labor is astounding. I am particularly shocked with the mean duration of unemployment.

More Stick Swinging and Sphere Throwing

C-R-I-P-E-S

I would go into this in more detail, but frankly, I already have.

I will merely point out this additional tidbit of related fact.

Boy, I sure do hope they throw the ball a lot and the guy runs real fast. Ooo!! Ooo!!! Maybe somebody will CATCH the ball real good too!

Because Teaching is Easy Work

I teach.

And in more disciplines than one.

And the reason I teach is because;

1. I enjoy it.
2. It's fun
3. It's easy.
4. It's an ancillary source of revenue.

It is however, NOT DOING.

In other words, you are not "doing" what you are teaching. You are teaching what you are not doing.

Now of course, I do go and dance in the real world. And I do invest in the real world and I do research in economics in the real world. But teaching unto itself has no practical economic production or purpose until it is applied to doing.

Ergo, I've never looked at teaching as a real career. I look at it as a semi-professional hobby, in that inevitably we all can't be teachers, some of us have to go out and actually produce the GDP.

Ergo, you can understand the breakdown of academia's political affiliation.

Movers and shakers they aren't.

Greece's Economy

I was doing my research as to why Greece's economy is in the tank on the simple account I keep hearing about it's financial problems in the news, but never an explanation for it (further leading me to believe the reason may be being buried). However, I found this interesting;


It behooves the question of our fine authors at the CIA,

"If government spending was 60, 70 or say 100% GDP, would Greece still be capitalist?"

It's Called Opportunity Cost

That's a lot of X-Box 360 games, scotch, Chipolte fajitas, or just plain weeks' worth of not working.

And sadly the opportunity cost is starting to have more economic utility than a rock set on a ring of metal that does nothing but exist.

Project Mom

Now, can you guess what seemingly vital part is missing?

Filed under "we don't need no stinking fathers!"

And also filed under "women who make it painfully obvious I don't want to date them."

Achievements in Bachelor History

Let it be known that another milestone in Bachelor History has been achieved.

I, your beloved Captain, flew out to Las Vegas for a 3 day weekend. I then drove to Utah to visit Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. Along with Natasha we did some hiking and fossil hunting, but the pinnacle achievement of the trip was that I was able to pack ALL that I needed in…

one laptop case.

Yes, 3 days worth of clothing, hygiene products, a laptop, cell phone charger and cell phone, all packed in ONE laptop case.

The technique that made this possible is a simple one. The clothes that take up the majority of volume are clothes that needn’t be washed all the time. Jeans, sweaters, shirts, etc. Thus if you only bring one pair of jeans, a sweater and a shirt, and transport it by simply wearing it on your body, you only need to pack underwear and socks, both of which conveniently fit in a laptop case.

If things get dire, you can always wash the jeans in a hotel sink, or if you’re out camping, in a stream. However, this was unnecessary as our trip was so short.

Regardless, this new achievement reminds us bachelors about one of the Principles of Bachelortude – Minimalization.

Minimalization is arguably the most important tenet of bachelortude. Your goal is to be able to move anywhere, live anywhere and cheaply so. With too much stuff, you have to spend time hauling, moving and transporting physical assets, most of which have no real value, let alone even sentimental value.

Of course, as fair warning, you will get eyes rolled at you by any females in your life. And perhaps some will even lecture you about “why didn’t you pack more jeans? My god, you’re shirt is going to get dirty by the end of the trip. And what about blah blah blah blah blah….”

These criticisms can be ignored as you grab your one laptop case, sling it over your shoulder and walk effortlessly the 4 miles it is from the main entrance to the airport to the terminal. You will be the first to get through the security checkpoint as the Department of Homeland Security people salute you for making their jobs that much easier. And then people will start to ponder, “Why, if the whole population was as efficient as this one bachelor, imagine the increase in productivity. Imagine how short the lines would be. Imagine how much traffic would improve.”

Yes, all because of that vital principle of minimalization.

Yet ANOTHER Reason Not to Move to, Live In, or Invest in California

Cripes. Can we turn them back into a territory?

I love it.

It's Called "Capital Flight"

So I will give a shinny new quarter to any leftist that tells me how much an increase in tax revenue results in this.

Federal Budgets Under Obama

I like it when people make charts for me.

But you see, Obama's deficits are "good" deficits. Whereas Bush's deficits were "bad" deficits, because well, the MSM told you so.

Dr. James Eelkema

Guess who's going to be my new doctor.

Ah, Community Colleges

Doing the job high schools and parents were supposed to do.

Reminds me of the good ole days.

10 Year Rolling Average Returns of Berkshire Hathaway

In doing my research to update the charts for my online classes (which you should take), I noticed that Warren Buffett never lost money until the two most recent stock market crashes; Dotcom and today's.

It then got me thinking, what has been the rolling average return of Berkshire Hathaway?

Pretty hard to make a buck when the whole country is tanking, isn't it Warren? Or perhaps a better question is;

"Precisely what assets do you buy or invest in while sitting on the decks of the Titanic?"

Dumb Americans

Yes, yes, I know you "need" your 401k values to go up.

I know you "need" stocks to go up in order for you to retire.

I know you "need" these things.

What you NEED first though BEFORE stock prices go up are dividends that give your stock a REASON to go up in value. Seriously? Does anybody ask the question;

"What gives a stock value?"

Or do we just blindly and ignorantly invest in indexed funds via our IRA plans?

I love the little blip up in the dividend yield in 2008 with the stock market crash, only to dive below 2% once again with this recent 50% rally in stock prices.

THE STOCK MARKET IS A BUBBLE PEOPLE. WAKE UP!

Vikings vs. the Saints

As you all know I believe a man who occasionally plays a game of pick up football, goes out golfing, or heck, just goes out for a walk once a year, is infinitely a better sportsman and just a better man that the millions of fat, slobbering blobs who get all excited about "their" team going to the playoffs or the World Bowl or the Super Series. The morons who actually pin their happiness and psychological health on whether a group of men, who have NOTHING to do with them, throw a ball real good. The piles of obese, genetic, fat-laden crap who drink beer, eat nachos and put the "Vikings" or the "Saints" above their wife.

To further point out how this IS a REAL problem in the US and how people in this country NEED SOMETHING BETTER TO DO, I'm not kidding, just heard it on the radio;

"The Vikings/Saints game starts at 5:40PM. We'll begin our coverage at 9AM."

My god people.

Get a freaking life.

Well, When You're Just Repeating What the MSM and NPR Does

You're not going to find a market when it's already flooded with competitors.

How much you want to bet they get a bailout?

Human Nature

I remember when I had my radio show, I did a show around Christmas time about how parents need to buy their children PRESENTS and TOYS for Christmas, NOT clothes. I then went on to tell them that the best gift PERIOD is cash.

NOTHING, I MEAN NOTHING is better than getting a thin envelope from grandpa and pulling out a crisp $10 (though with inflation it would be more like $20 today).

Seems times have not changed, because well...that's human nature.

It is also why socialism will always fail.

"Why I Didn't Buy You a Drink"

When I was teaching economics at the local community college I used "buying girls drinks at the bar" to display an asymmetric market. I also made the male students infinitely wiser and more austere in their personal finances.

The Evils of Horses

I told you before about the evils of horses.

And I'll tell you again. Nothing good comes of horses.

Update! HAR!!!!

It Will Be Voluntary at First

Until they ram it down your throat.

Oh, and that "Roth tax-free" benefit you were expecting.

HA HA HA!!!

Beta of the Year

It actually is a tough choice.

A Lesson in Inflation

Correct.

I said this long ago.

There is No Merit to GDP Unto Itself

In the video I posted below about China essentially building a city that nobody is living in, the reporter kept emphasizing the importance of GDP. That the government wanted to boost "GDP." However, given this "stimulus" plan of Ordos as well as the "stimulus plan" here in the US to boost GDP, I think it's high time we have a simple economics lesson in GDP.

Understand the goal of economics is NOT to increase GDP, but rather to increase standards of living. We simply USE GDP as a measure of all the goods and services produced within an economy, ASSUMING those goods and services when consumed help increase our standard of living. That by eating the grapes we produce and watching the movies we produce, we get utility from that, enjoyment from it, and therefore we enjoy our lives more, thus increased standards of living.

This is a logical assumption in that typically, TYPICALLY, we produce what we want to consume. We produce things that are only going to benefit us. Nobody produces ebola for consumption on account that why would we? Nobody produces styrafoam dogs. Nor do we make our roads out of cake. It not only would not benefit us, it just plain doesn't make sense.

However, this assumes an INCREDIBLY important assumption about how we go and produce things. We ASSUME that the free market is going to be in charge of what is produced. We assume that a free people, in control of their own money, is going to decide how many Big Macs we should make, how many I-Pods we should produce and how much sushi we should make. But what if this assumption is faulty?

The reason why it is faulty is the progressively less and less money is being spent by the people. A higher and higher percentage of our economy is being spent by the government. Going from essentially 3% of GDP in 1900 to 46% today.

Now the reason I bring this up is because our stimulus here in the US is much like it is in Ordos. The government is spending money to help boost the economy. And sure, yes, because of the formula;

GDP = Private Consumption + Government SPending + Investment +/-Trade Balance

it is a mathematical fact that these government spending plans will increase GDP, however they won't increase standards of living simply because NO UTILITY IS BEING DERIVED FROM IT.

For example, enroute to one of my many dance classes, I drive through a small town that had its entire main street redone with Obama's stimulus plan. Before the stimulus plan I drove through the town just fine. The street lights worked just fine. The parking was just fine. People were talking on the sidewalks just fine and the road was in fine shape.

However AFTER IT WAS REDONE WITH YOUR TAX MONEY, GUESS WHAT!!!

NO

DIFFERENCE

IN

MY

DRIVING

EXPERIENCE

WHATSOEVER

NOTHING HAD CHANGED. The ONLY thing that changed was the type of concrete used (oh, and there was a daily traffic jam for 4 months in this small town)

In otherwords the American tax payer paid millions of dollars for the "honor" of boosting GDP.

Standards of living did not go up.

The utility derived from driving on this road did not go up.

We just inconvenienced everybody who drove through this town for 4 months AND indebted the American people several million dollars more.

This is the lesson that must be learned about economics. Economics has NOTHING to do with GDP. Sure, great, wonderful, GDP is positive according to the BEA. "Hurray, the recession is over!!! Warm fuzzies for everyone!!! Hurray!"

But your lives have not improved simply because the money was wasted.

This then behooves a very important question;

WHO SHOULD BE IN CHARGE OF SPENDING THE MONEY?

a. A government bureaucracy headed up by one president and 535 congressional members, the VAST majority of which have never had to work a day in their lives and have nothing in common with the average American

or

b. 300 million individuals who are acutely aware of their own personal financial situation

This is such a simple question, I'm actually pissed off I have to write about this, because apparently a majority of people in America can't answer this question correctly.

Obviously the individual, who is more in tuned with their own personal finances, is going to make better use of that money than a centralized government. This not only stands to reason, but history, with the collapse of the Soviety Union, the eastern bloc, Cuba and now Venezuela, provides us the emprical evidence as well.

Heck, I would even be willing to meet leftists half way on this one. Fine, go ahead and indebt the nation. Fine, go ahead and do this wealth transfer from future generations to today's generations. Just don't put the government in charge of spending the money. Instead, just take the $2 trillion in stimulus money an cut every worker in America a roughly $15,000 check. That money would then not just show up in GDP (thereby satiating bureaucrats' idiotic and pointless goal of boosting a now-meaningless number), but the money in each individual's hand would be better spent, thereby ALSO BOOSTING UTILITY AND STANDARDS OF LIVING!

But no, no. We have to send our money...well...not really "our" money...our children's money to the great Obama and Pelosi and Reid and have them fix roads that just don't need fixing. Repair bridges that don't need repairing. And buy art that doesn't need buying. Because, afterall, that will boost GDP!

From Our Friends at API

Yes, the ones who make sure the whole economy has enough energy to run. A little lighthearted fun.

Chinese Bubbles

"Chinese Bubbles"

Kind of like a 1950's pop song sung by Frank Sinatra;

"Tiny bubbles in the sea"

or

"Pennies from Heaven"

or

"American Rose"

Natasha Calendar and Other Stuff

Got a couple e-mails/posts about the Natasha Calendar and whether it is still available.

Yes, it is. Just shoot me an e-mail at;

CAPTcapitalism@yahoo.com

Also, should you miss your Captain, remember you can still get more of his wisdom by purchasing his book (guaran-freaking-teed to put your kid to sleep and educate you with charty-goodness about the housing market not to mention a heck of a lot of economic wisdom is imparted as well).

You can also take his two online courses (which benefit him immensely).

One in basic, personal finance (I CANNOT emphasize how important this class would be for a 15 or 16 year old. It is an INDISPENSIBLE piece of education necessary for all people).

The other is quite simply (and I'm not bragging) the best course/class you will ever take on how to analyze and research stocks.

Also, since it is free, I strongly recommend viewing the speech I put together on Capitalism vs. Socialism. What is sad is everybody watched the first you tube segment and failed to continue onto the other 13 which is WHERE ALL THE FREAKING DATA AND GOOD STUFF IS. I didn't put together that speech so you could watch the intro. Get your asses into gear and get educated. All you ever need to fight socialism is right there in 10 minute segments which I command you to enjoy while sipping a hefty scotch of your choice.

Oh, and you can always donate also. If I raise $25,000 in donations then I'll blog regularly. I figure between 3,000 regular readers that would come to....some puny amount per person. Regardless, it might be worth $5 per year in a subscription fee which might be mutually beneficial for both myself and the readers.

Anecdotal Evidence of Cooling/Warming

A short observation and then I must go.

A common critique (which I actually agree with) that the left dishes out of "global warming deniers" is that they "foolishly" use examples of record cold temperatures in specific areas and ignore the overall macro-empirical evidence of global temperature trends. This is usually couched in a phrase such as;

"Those stupid right-wingers no doubt are going to use a snow storm in Spokane to prove that globally the planet is cooling. Those morons!"

However, by the same logic, and assuming they are adult enough to adhere to intellectual honesty, wouldn't every anecdotal bit of evidence that "proves" global warming be equally worthless?

Things like;

"Glaciers in this particular mountain range are eroding."

Or

"Polar bears in this particular area are less populous than they were before."

Or

"Global warming will kill this particular group of frogs."

I mean at least the "dumb-moronic right wingers" are talking about temperatures directly and therefore are at least speaking directly to global warming, not hypothesizing about the theoretical indirect, tangential effects, 6 times removed having some adverse effect on some endangered species according to a computer model that failed to pick up this recent trend of cooling.

Just a thought.

New/Guest Bloggers Welcome

Well I received a lot of suggestions for having some of you guys co-author/write for Cappy Cap.

I am certainly up for that. Shoot me an e-mail at CAPTcapitalism@yahoo.com and we can discuss.

Cpt.

The Captain's New Year's Resolution

The Captain has many New Year's resolutions.

Boost my bench press to 175.

Keep Natasha's cooking off my waist and keep under 145 lbs.

Get Cisco certified.

Increase revenues for my various ventures by 20%.

However, sadly the Captain has another one.

The Captain will be scaling back Captain Capitalism.

This is not an end of the blog, but rather a drastic reduction in posts. The reasons are multiple but basically boil down to two things;

1. I've made a conscious decision to spend more time with Natasha. Fun as this blog is, it doesn't really pay the mortgage, plus you have to have your priorities straight. And as much as I all love you, Natasha is that special kind of dame.

2. The blog has already achieved what I wanted it to and that was to establish the empirical data that proves whether capitalism or socialism is the optimal economic system. After 5 years I now find myself simply updating charts or reiterating topics I've already written at length about. The posts are just simply short posts or links to other posts that highlight either the proof that capitalism works or the inanity of liberals and leftists.

This of course does not mean there won't be any posts, but the posts I do make will basically be one of three things;

1. Long, more substantive postings that could be considered essays that will tackle larger concepts than simple correlations between economic growth and taxes.

2. Short, quick charts where there will be little, if any commentary in that I trust you are all smart enough junior, deputy, aspiring, official or otherwise economists to figure it out on your own.

3. Video/audio of some speeches/seminars I plan on putting together which I think is the new way blogging/media in general are going.

I certainly welcome any links you guys want to send that you think are post worthy, and as always, all Cappy Cap readers are allowed to contribute their own writing if they so desire (CAPTcapitalism@yahoo.com). However, posts on my own will be of no particular frequency, probably averaging around one per month.

Regardless, I wish you all the best in 2010 and the best for capitalism. However, if there's one thing I've learned about capitalism it's that it doesn't need luck. It's reality. It's the people that need the luck if they ever decide to abandon it.

Everything Wrong with California

Summarized in one succinct proposal.

C

R

I

P

E

S

I would go on my regular tirade about how the sciences and what not, not only gets people out of poverty if you study and major in them, but is also the primary factor in what drives the wealth producing capacity of a nation. I would also point out this is the bonafide definition of racism. I would also point out some saying about "socialism" being "equal misery and poverty for everyone" but why bother. It's Berkeley. Self-prescribed medicine couldn't have happened to a more deserving people.

Ahem, Cough COUGH!!! WHEEZE WHEEZE!!!!

belated ht

The Gift of Nothing

I received many gifts this Christmas. A sweater, some chocolate, some scotch. But the best gift, the absolute best gift I received was a gift from three of my friends.

Nothing.

Three men, three of my buddies, all three of them got me nothing.

And I'm being sincere when I say I appreciate nothing. And the reason why is this;

Nothing necessitates nothing in return.

It reminds me of the scene in Donny Brasco where Al Pacino and Johnny Depp are exchaning gifts. Both work for the same mafia so they basically just give each other handfuls of cash. Never mind this is essentially what happens on Christmas anyway (except there is a loss of efficiency and utility when cash is traded via goods). What I'm talking about is they effectively gave each other nothing.

This is why nothing is the best gift. You are not compelled to get a gift in return. Not only does this save you the hassle and the money, it alleviates you of the guilt or the compunction to get somebody something because they're probably going to get something for you.

I looked at one of my buddies who got me nothing and I said, "hey, thanks for the nothing." And with a sincere face and retort he said, "Hey, no THANK YOU for getting me nothing."

Now in general girls have a hard time understanding this. They seem compelled to get SOMETHING for every one. Can be the most worthless freaking crap trinket on the face of the planet, but they still feel compelled to get their far-removed acquaintences something. And the reason why is they think that if they don't display some kind of action or show some kind of affection for their friends via buying them gifts, their friends are going to somehow think they don't like them anymore.

But men have this unspoken understanding that we basically don't like spending money and our true gift to our true friends is to make it so they don't have to spend money either.

Even on birthdays. I don't know when my dad's birthday is, and he knows mine is sometime in July, but he doesn't know the day. We don't exchange gifts either on birthdays or Christmas and we're fine with that. The true gift is the convenience of not having to worry about it, nor compelling one another to do something about it.

Ergo my fellow junior, deputy, aspiring and otherwise official economists, take it from the Captain. The best thing to give your fellow chum is nothing. Nothing is the greatest gift an economist can give. I wouldn't recommend giving "nothing" to a female loved one, but for the guys nothing is as good as it gets.

San Francisco 2030

Is the Detroit of today!


ht

Spoiled Brats

Listen to me and listen to me well.

The world's worst can more or less be sourced from the upper classes where they are brought up rich, have everything handed to them, and then find some kind of religion or cause by which they can go on a crusade that makes them feel better and allows them to become a hero.

What is the epitome of evil (and listen to me VERY carefully now because this is a gem) IS WHEN THESE PEOPLE PUT THEIR DESIRE AND EGO AHEAD OF THE LIVES OF OTHERS EITHER BY KILLING OTHER PEOPLE OR FORCING THEM TO DO SOMETHING THE EGOMANIAC WANTS THEM TO DO.

Karl Marx was a rich spoiled brat kid of a lawyer.

Lenin a physicist.

Castro the son of a plantation owner.

It is only kids who have everything paid for whose minds get idle and concoct grandiose ideas about what they're going to do with their lives. And it never involves real work. It never involves real production. It invariably involves finding a way to criminalize the current system, so they can heroically "rally" against it, inflating their egos, while silently living off of daddy's dime while they try to bring down the system that puts money in their bank accounts.

Adam Gadahn, though not terribly wealthy, is another perfect example of a idle-minded spoiled brat from the suburbs who was too fat to kiss a girl and instead of making something of himself joined Al Qaeda because it was instant celebrityship, "heroism" and attention/meaning in his worthless meaningless life.

Why is this relevant?

Well not that they're going to try to bomb planes or carry out terrorist attacks, but one group of people I do know have no problems avoiding real jobs and make careers by telling people what kind of lives they're going to live as if they're on a life-long crusade;

Congress.

Tell me, does anybody know one person in congress that paid their own way through college?

Anybody See the Common Trait?

Real tough one for you economists out there!

What Did I Tell You?

I will not pay $9 to be lectured.

Why Live There?

Seriously, why does anybody live in that state?

Are You a Good Deficit or a Bad Deficit

See, "good deficits" are those under democrats. "Bad deficits" are those under Republicans, because, well, uhhh, because republicans are nazi poopey heads.





And sadly, that is not a simplification of the argument they use.


ht

Why Avatar is a Netflix Movie

Tea Party goers

People who bitch about socialism taking over the US

and in general those who would like to see the US in its former 1940's greatness should put their money where their mouths are and not see this movie.

I was immediately skeptical of the movie when I saw obviously "Americanized" forces landing on a "undisrupted, virgin" land to take over "people who didn't look like us humans."

Sure enough Avatar is nothing more than a political statement.

Oh, sure, glitzed up with lots of special effects, but my economic spidey senses were tingling and I deep down inside knew this was going to be some kind of lecturing speech about either evil Europeans invading America in the 1500's or some kind of "Gaia" Earthy, feeling, enviro kind of thing.

Rumor has it is the "hero" is a Marine who decides to defect and some "planet nature force" helps the natives win against an obviously superior technological force. I really don't care to back this speculation up because I'm going to go out on a "crazy" limb here and take it for truth until I'm proven wrong, kind of like straddling a Texas Hold 'Em bet in that I'm supremely confident these rumors will be proven true because that's just the slant of Hollywood, and of course if I'm proven wrong, please let me know and I will take down this post. Until then, I'm going to take a wild guess and predict this Hollywood movie is going to prove my cynicism right.

Regardless, so for all you people who are all upset about socialized medicine being passed you have a choice.

Continue to throw your money at this political/propoganda machine or for once, truly boycott something that is nothing more than leftist propoganda.

I have a nice LCD projector with no children, no lines and no parking hassles in my basement. I fully intend on watching it at my house, Rumpleminze in hand, knowing I've denied these leftists sales and attendance...not to mention who in God's name actually enjoys going to the theater nowadays?

PS- I will be burning lots of wood to counter the fact I did not emit carbon driving to the theater so as to continue my contribution to global warming.

More Cooked Data

I wonder, what is wrong with "raw" data that is needs to be cooked all the time?

Bob Carter

Philosophy Degrees Are Worthless

The sad truth is that majoring in philosophy is like paying some aging baby boomer professor $4,000 a quarter to tell you to read Plato.

This is a much cheaper alternative.

Maybe Google is Capitalist After All

Effing brilliant.


What I love though is how they make it seem that Google "avoided" paying a British tax bill.

No, Google looked at corporate tax rates in the EU and said, "To hell with all you high-tax socialist places, we're going to Ireland where it's 12.5%." Google set up its subsidiary in Ireland and "avoided, schemed, side-stepped" nothing.

Google PAID the Irish government its taxes. It never owe or was behooved to Britain for anything.

Welcome to "capital flight." The leftist's worst nightmare.

China's Largest Mall

Not that you'd watch the whole thing, but

1. imagine all the carbon they emitted building this.

2. Did they do the "appropriate" environmental impact study on this?

Haiti - The Model of Socialism

Hey, but at least they had good intentions.

Right? Because that's all that matters, right?

I mean, forget whether it works or not. It's just that a bunch of rich spoiled brats in the west who never worked a real job in their lives "meant" to do good and that's all that matters.

Right?

You leftists mock and ridicule capitalists and free marketers all you want. In the end capitalism has done more to eliminate poverty than any government program. But of course, it's never been about ending poverty with you people, now has it? It's been about making you feel good and finding you a cushy job at a non-profit so you can feign like you care and can fake like you actually are doing something of worth in this world, just as long as you can avoid having a real job and avoid doing real work.

Failed Bank List

Here's the chart

Here's the link.

Here's something that would have prevented it all.

This Makes Me Happy

You get the government you deserve.

This Chart Deserves More Attention

Natasha, as you know came out with a calendar and if you have not ordered it, I recommend you do so (shoot me at e-mail at CAPTcapitalism@yahoo.com).

Sadly we did not reach the 1 million sales mark, even though she is obviously deserving more along the lines of 10 millions in sales.

However, even more deserving than that is this chart right here, which I am now ordering you to forward to people because it is that important of a chart. Forward it to Glenn Beck, forward it to Rush Limbaugh, forward it to liberals who just plain don't get it, but forward it because it is very important.


What this chart shows you is America's economic production over time. It is the rolling 20 year average of RGDP growth and the reason it is a rolling 20 year average is because GDP growth is very volatile and no discernible trend can be seen with the naked eye. However, when you average it out over generations you see essentially a HALVING of our ability to produce.

The ramifications of this are so severe that I am literally stunned so little commentary was made about this and it got such little traffic, thus behooving my re-posting this chart with a little eye candy and basically a direct order you forward this.

1. The obvious fact our ability to enrich ourselves has been halved should be of immediate shock-and-ponder value. This chart alone should trigger people across all political spectrums to ask "Why is this happening" because if it keeps going you can expect the country to not just plateau, but decline. This means we will suffer a decline in our standards of living per capita over the long term.

2. This speaks volumes about the future of Obama-Ponies-and-Puppies-for-All government entitlement programs. Where, precisely, is the economic production going to come from to fund these government programs that are growing faster than the economy. There will come a point that ALL economic production will go to finance medicare and social security, not to mention the debt servicing of our national debt.

3. Pensions? 401k's? IRA's? I dated a rather rich girl one time. She got her job due to her grand-daddy and by no intellectual merit or skill on her own. She make insane amount of coin, kept getting promoted and had banked more money in her 401k plan than I could ever hope to dream. Well the jokes on you guys who have been banking on your pensions and 401k plans. Unless they're invested in gold or foreign countries or something where economic growth is actually occurring, you can expect your pensions to go unfunded when you need to retire. Who knows, by that time rolling RGDP growth will be 0% and you'll then really start to ask about the methods of discounted cash flow to value stocks.

4. Can we please lower the freaking taxes already? You want to spurn economic growth and all you can do is think about spending more government money? Where do you think the real production in this economy comes from? ACORN employees? Government funded art projects? Rebuilding roads that needed to repairing?

5. Can we also please knock it off with the worthless liberal arts degrees and start channelling our children into studies that actually produce stuff? What ever happened to that big push into the sciences back in the 1950's to keep up with the Ruskies? You want to have a nice nursing home? Well too bad, you let your kid major in "art history" on the grounds that "we don't interrupt, we're hands off parents, whatever our child thinks is gold" and now he can't even afford the rent on his coffee barrista income let alone the gas to come pay you a visit because he's taxed at a 60% rate on a dwindling $27,000 per year income.

Sorry, sorry. I have to keep telling myself, I don't control this. I can't get excited about this. There's nothing I can do when the masses are so ignorant. All I can do is play video games, drink heavily and listen to some Lawrence Welk.

Mean Duration of Unemployment

Wow

Not your average recession now is it?

Glad the stimulus is working though. Good thing we didn't have to resort to lowering corporate or personal income taxes. I mean that would have made things "worse" right?

And boy, look at all those green jobs that are saving the economy! I'm sure glad we have that HUGE "green industry" providing us all those green jobs. All the green money that is being yielded from that green industry.

*end sarcasm*

I know, I know, it's like urinating into a hurricane.

I'm going to go back to my bachelor basement, stoke up the wood burning stove, play some Left 4 Dead, and enjoy some Rumpleminze all while blasting some James Brown on the stereo system. Because what? Like there's something I can do about this?

Mathematics By the Captain

OK Captain Capitalismites!

Time for that fun game we all love to play:

"WHO CAN DO THE MATH!!!!"

What math problem do we see here that explains why this kid is more or less condemned to end up where daddy is?

How Does Greenpeace Like It?

It angered me to no end when Greenpeace had a couple of their zealots scale Mount Rushmore and unfurl a banner begging Obama to do something about global warming. It angered me because Mount Rushmore is one of the few places I would deem "holy" or "sacrosanct" in my world in that I'm not religious.

But how now brown cow?

Pension Tsunami

A very very bad site, because it is so good and you'll waste a lot of hours just looking through it, is Pension Tsunami.

Friend recommended it to me and I won't lie;

It's great reading about all the California municipalities and counties who did absolutely NO actuarial study about just how much their pensions would cost. And not just California, but just people, counties, municipalities etc., of other states who promised themselves the world and are now facing a bankrupt pension.

Call it economic Schadenfreude, it's comeuppance for those who refused to be financially literate.

Why China Will Dominate Over the US

I love stories like this in that THIS was what the US USED TO DO.

We'd just do it.

Hoover Dam.

Horseshoe Dam.

The Interstate system.

You name it.

We wanted to build it, and BAAMM!!! There it was!

But now, good luck trying to even get windmills up with all the environmental regulations, not to mention protests by groups like Greenpeace or the Sierra Club. Heck, Minnesota is just trying to get a much needed bridge across the St. Croix. A whopping 1/2 mile long and the Sierra Club has held it up for the past 10 years forcing everybody in the eastern metro to wait cumulatively decades worth of human time in traffic. We can't even get a 1/2 mile bridge up, while the Chinese in a paleo-American way "just do it" with a bridge 60 times as long!

Ah, and you wonder why economic growth is decreasing over time.

Link the Dollar's Value to this College Class List

In Garage Logic, a popular radio show here in the Twin Cities, the host Joe Soucheray likes to link things to one another. It is a sociological version of "for every force there is an equal and opposite force." Therefore one thing will inevitably affect the other.

However, in economics, just like a car engine starting, there are many different individual actions and movements of car parts that occur between turning the key on and the engine actually igniting. So to the layperson, they may not understand why increasing property taxes may turn Minneapolis into a cold Detroit because they don't understand how higher property taxes, lower property values, lower profits and drive capital and labor away.

So I shall test all you junior, deputy and aspiring economics. Link this:



to the value of the dollar.

Many thanks to Elizabeth for the link!

GDP Growth vs. Government Spending

GDP growth is chaotic.



Therefore to see if there's any kind of trend you need to average it out over longer periods of time. I did this on a 10 and 20 year trailing average, where I simply took the past 10 and 20 years worth of economic growth and averaged it out into a "rolling average."


I like to call this figure, especially the 20 year rolling average RGDP growth, "Generational RGDP Growth" because the 20 years spans a generation, economic booms and busts included, and shows their overall economic productive capacity over those years.

Now what I'm going to do is very simple, because that's what economics is. It's very simple (plus i don't want to confuse any leftists and socialists).

I took Generational RGDP growth and compared it to government spending (state and federal) as a percent of GDP. And wonders upon wonder, guess what? The relationship is inverted.



What this means is that as government spending has gone up, economic growth has gone down.

This simple chart has many economic ramifications, most of my readers already intuitively understand. But, for those of you who vote for your presidents based on their pecs, let me spell it out for you.

1. This is why the stimulus and by large Keynesian economics won't work. Understand the government DOES NOT PRODUCE ANYTHING. It does NOT PRODUCE WEALTH. It doesn't make X-Boxes. It doesn't make food. It merely TRANSFERS WEALTH FROM ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE TO ANOTHER. Now there are some genuine services that the government provides that helps society and does show up on GDP. BUT STIMULUS MONEY TO ART INSTITUTES, ACADEMIA AND WHATEVER OTHER FLOWERS AND PUPPIES POPPYCOCK HAVE YOU DOES NOT PRODUCE ANYTHING. The reason why is that even if an Obama-fanatic sculptor produces a worthless and sinfully ugly government piece of art for the local building, the money used to pay him came from somebody else, ergo a net production increase of ZERO.

2. The government is less efficient than the private sector.

Do you want growth?

Do you want jobs?

Do you want food on the table?

Then you better let the people have the majority of the money and not put it into the government. History has shown you this via this chart. Your eyes are not deceiving you. Look at the chart again. And no, I'm not Michael Mann or Phil Jones. The data has not been tainted and comes directly from the FRED Database at the St. Louis Fed. You can recreate this very same chart on your own, whereas I cannot recreate the hockey stick chart, so if you believe in global warming, you better damn well believe this chart.

3. No, majoring in sociology or planning on becoming a government worker will not help this situation.

See, I know what a lot of you are thinking. "I want to help people because it sounds like an easier job than engineering...errr....I mean, because I am noble and moral. Ergo I will go and work for the government as a social worker, a professor or run for public office."

The problem is none of these jobs PRODUCE ANYTHING THE POPULATION NEEDS NOR REALLY WANTS. And as a higher and higher percentage of the population goes and majors in worthless subjects in the hopes of a cushy job that doesn't produce anything, but merely transfers wealth, you can expect GDP to drop further.

4. If growth keeps dropping, then where precisely are you people going to come up with the money to pay for...

social security
medicare
nationalized health care
the Obama-corps
the stimulus
education
government financed day care

not to mention the extra money we'll need to pay back the national debt?

You see, the governments combined (state, local and federal) already spend about 45% of GDP, leaving only 55% left to be taxed (difference in revenue vs. spending duly noted), how much more do you think the economy will take before people just stop working altogether?

Is everybody supposed to work in government?

Who, might I ask, is going to produce the I-Pod you want?

Who, might I ask, is going to produce the Wii you want?

Who, might I ask, is going to produce the computer networking system so you can e-mail your friends, let alone put the food on your table?

Or are we supposed to be like the Pelosi's, the Bush's and the Gore's. Generation after generation of losers who never worked a real job in the private sector?

Of course, I know all of my regular readers understand this. My regular readers get this simple logic. Not to mention before they form opinions, they get the facts first. Not form opinions and then find facts.

But good lord, to the 60% of the population who voted for Obama, when does reality sink in? What does it take to get you people to grow the hell up, drop it with your naive, college-age thinking and idealism, and intellectually and honestly admit you have no FREAKING clue how the real world and economy works. LET ALONE take the time to study the federal effing budget and do some simple mathematical calculations much like you would your own personal finances to see if any of this socialism BS is even affordable, let alone feasible. Let alone (and this group really confuses me) for those of you with children, start to stop and really think about what you're doing to your childrens' financial future? When do you wake up?

Alas, what can I do aside from make a record of it here on this blog so that a thousand years from now historians will look back and say, "Wow, look how insane the population was. There was this one guy over here that saw it coming, but the rest of them were all doped up on REality TV, Obama's pecks, bread and circuses, they couldn't even understand how everybody working as a social worker and nobody farming the fields would result in a collapse of society!"

I'll be long dead by that time, and I'm supremely confident I'll be proven right, but in the meantime, good lord, why would anybody invest in America?

Barbara Boxer

I got another name for her.

And it's one syllable.

Congratulations, feminism, you have won.

The Christmas Present Game

The irony is that though I loathe children and find them more or less the root of most problems that plague society today, I do actually remember being one and come to bat for them more often than not. For while I think they may bring in communicable diseases from day care to the home, and while I think they cost roughly $500,000 to bring up, and while I think too many children too early in life is the primary cause of poverty, they are human beings. And not just human beings, but INNOCENT human beings that are all too often the victim of parents who forgot what it was like to be a child.

Ergo, a lesson in the “Christmas Present Game.”

Since the beginning of time, it has been a tradition where the children and parents battle it out over the determining of “what am I going to get for Christmas.” The parents, on the side of patience and discipline would say, “No, you must wait till Christmas,” while the children just being plain children would take whatever means was necessary to find out what they got for Christmas BEFORE the 25^th (unless of course you were one of those cheating Catholic types that open their gifts on the 24^th) This entailed a whole host of tactics including simple things such as shaking and studying the box, to sly, coy interrogative tactics used to coax valuable clues unconsciously from the parent opposition, to night-time clandestine operations with a Swiss Army knife to surgically cut key pieces of tape and grab a peek of what lay underneath the wrapping paper, only to reseal the presents with identical lengths of tape to cover one’s tracks (none of which I ever engaged in).

This time-honored battle has been a cornerstone of parent-child relationships and should be a much-looked-forward to event during the month of December.

However, as peers in my generation start breeding, I am sad to hear what some of them are doing. And that is

DENYING THEIR CHILDREN THEIR GOD-GIVEN RIGHT TO FIND OUT WHAT THEY GOT FOR CHRISTMAS BEFORE THE 25TH!

They actually refuse to let their children try to guess what they got for Christmas!

How do their cold, callous, oppressor parents do this?

By threatening their children that if they catch them trying to sneak a peak of their Christmas gifts then they will TAKE THE GIFTS BACK TO THE STORE!

I had thought we defeated nazi Germany, but obviously there are still some ideological remnants left.

Now what is really going on here is half-hearted parenting. Parents who are either too lazy or just plain don’t have enough of the Christmas spirit to realize just how important the Christmas Present Game is.

First you must realize that half the fun of gifts is the receiver not just trying to guess what they are, but the giver doing all in their power to confuse and throw off the receiver. My mom inevitably had to resort to the dirty underhanded tactic of wrapping my gifts in multiple boxes with styrafoam and papers. This game, the constant battle between the parent and the child, the child scheming and crafting ways to identify his gifts, the parent always keeping a watchful eye over their shoulder is what makes the Christmas gifts all that more exciting. And for you just to not participate in it is throwing all this fun away.

Second, come on, don’t be a sore loser. If you’re so bad at hiding gifts, lying about the gifts, or crafting a propaganda campaign to mislead your 4 year old into what he got for Christmas, then you just have to up your game. I know it’s embarrassing that a little toddler has outdone you, but that doesn’t give you the right to end the game. You must be a gracious loser and look forward to next year’s battle.

Third, if you’re too damn lazy to play the game, well then shoot, why did you have kids then in the first place? Why don’t you just store the gifts offsite and then truck them in Christmas Day? Heck, why even do that, just get the little varmints gift cards then. Better yet, become one of those people that makes a donation to a charity in their honor. Or even better still, just cut them a check the day of. That takes the least effort. Of course if you fall into this category you no doubt buy your children sweaters for Christmas instead of toys which is a violation of the game. Regardless, if you can’t play the game, then don’t even rile them up in the first place with presents.

The larger point is that if you have children and you are going to put gifts in plain site, then there IS going to be a battle regardless. Kids are kids and they will be curious and the Christmas Present Game is on. And you have a choice. You can either have fun and play this game, counter-scheming their schemes. Wrapping fake gifts and hiding the real ones. Or going so far as to tie off the gifts with a perimeter of fishing wire tied to a bell (it has been done). OR you can be a party pooper and never play the game in the first place and tell them if they find out what they got for Christmas BEFORE the 25^th then you take the gifts back home.

Which one has more Christmas cheer?

My Thanks to the Democrats

This should help all my short positions against the dollar.

Thank you very much for your destruction of the dollar.

Though, I wistfully acknowledge that it really isn't the other currencies going up in value as much as it is the dollar just tanking. Ergo, no real gains.

Minneapolis Fires Cops/Denies Recruits

Minneapolis is laying off some cops and denying new recruits positions.

But hey, at least we have "walk ambassadors."

And don't forget those $50,000 drinking fountains!

Now let's do the math. 10 $50,000 drinking fountains is $500,000.

Would Minneapolis been able to keep those 7 officers on the payroll with $500,000?

Liberals? Leftists? Repsonse please? Rationale? Explanation?

The British Have Better Teeth Than Americans

I was shocked myself.

Capital Flight

Today's term, boys and girls, is called "Capital Flight."

What is so hard for leftists to understand this concept?