How William Shatner Could Reform Health Care More than Obama

So I apply for health insurance online because the Captain is one of those swashbuckling, self employed entrepreneur types that answers to no one, drives a motorcycle, calls his own shots, and ultimately as a result of his non-conformance has to get his own catastrophic health insurance.

I shopped online at esurance and noticed the application process was nearly identical to looking for hotels and flights. The only difference was that unlike Hotels.com, you can't "name your own price."

Thus I wish I had the Priceline Negotiator with The Big Deal backing me up when I got my quote.


It was a fair quote, but I noticed the one sidedness of it all. I either had to accept or not. There was no way for me to talk to the underwriter and say, "look, I use tobacco, but it's a cigar every 2 months. I'm not smoking a pack a day, cut me a deal or I'll go look elsewhere."

Alas, this option does not exist. However, if it did, I wonder what effect it would have on health insurance prices? Not that there are a lot of margins to be squeezed out of the insurance industry, but by simply having The Negotiator and The Big Deal on your side, perhaps some savings, or at least cost control would be realized.

Liberal Arts Majors Get Hit Upside the Head By Reality

This is absolutely priceless.

It's a 30 minute long podcast from NPR and basically it's the host taking calls from listeners, specifically, recent college graduates to tell him about their current job prospects.

It's a lengthy broadcast, but if you have the time I suggest downloading it because you will get a good guffaw out of it.

In any case, allow me three quick points;

1. The only people calling in are liberal arts majors who cannot find jobs. This unto itself makes it worth listening to, but what is really great is how the host and guests cannot get up the gumption to tell these children their degrees are worthless. The hiring expert users terms like "that's one of the weaker degrees for the current labor market." I especially like how they explain to the "environmental science" major how green jobs are not there for her.

2. They then turn their attention to the employment gap between minorities and whites. And instead of actually helping out minorities by pointing out a disproportionate number of them major in fields that are not in demand, they lie and say, "they don't know" why there is an employment gap. Their cowardice angers me because if you really cared about helping out minorities you would grow a spine and tell them they should major in engineering and computers. But no, that would be "hurting their feelings" and we can't have any of that tough fatherly love (no matter how much it would help out our fellow minority brothers and sisters) now can we?

3. At the tail end, what do you suppose the solution is they recommend? Federal government intervention.

Ah, liberal arts majors and the adults who lie to them.

If only they read my book first. It could have all been avoided.

Dow 8,000

A new twist I hadn't factored into my Dow 8,000 prediction was the risk of war on the Korean peninsula. Regardless, enjoy the decline!

I Shall Never Complain About My Dating Life Again

I actually know a couple guys like this.

Was led to confirm this fact by this.

You Mean We Have to Grow Up and Be Adults

Seriously, this article should be titled, "Europe realizes it has to grow up and become an adult."

I grow so tired of trying to explain the simple concept that in order to have such luxurious benefits a country must produce an insane amount of wealth and production in order to have the tax base to raise such a infantile-dream level of benefits. I then get enraged when I hear not only people my age (35) but people who should know better (50 year olds) dismiss it as "right wing talk" as well as dismiss all my research and experience and a triffle with youth and a cute childish experiment in economics. But then I have to tell myself;

"Cappy, Cappy, now come on now. You told yourself you were going to ignore this and just hunt fossils and go fishing and play Bio Shock 2 and purposely force yourself to enjoy life. You can't let the ignorant people of the country get you down. Besides, you don't have any kids and you are not encumbered by any real financial obligation. And even though becoming the world's next best and highly paid economist will be a never-realized dream, the next best option is to barely work and head out to North Dakota and Wyoming on multiple fossil hunting expeditions. Nobody is going to listen to you now. Nobody is going to listen to you tomorrow. But someday, when they've slaved away, socking hundreds of thousands of dollars into an IRA account, only to have it confiscated by the government they voted into office, you will bit sitting there pretty with over 4 decades of fishing, fossil hunting and video gaming under your belt asking them the ultimate question in economics;

"Did you spend your finite time on this planet wisely?"

I shall now go ride my motorcycle and NOT contribute to GDP today.

Dow 8,000

Another post in my series "Dow 8,000"

Apparently the "Puppies and Flowers and Unicorns" fiscal policy isn't working. Who would have thought!

GM Payback

This math reminds me of the good ole days when a client would have one LLC hemorrhaging money, but another LLC that was just squeaking by on profitability. Of course overall his entire business was losing money, but we were supposed to make the loan to the one profitable LLC and ignore his collapsing "business empire."

Ahhhhh, fuzzy accounting.

Dow 8,000

I will say it again for the cheap seats;

Based on corporate earnings the Dow should be trading around 8,000.



But (to quote Michael Savage) "You don't want to hear about this. You want to hear about some guy who hits a ball over a fence."

The Ivy League Bubble

Your Captain is largely self-employed. It is because of this he greatly appreciates your contributions. However, because of his self-employed nature (and his rebellious psychological handicaps which prevent him from becoming a cubicle slave), he needs to put food on the table and therefore has to come up with new ideas and ventures. Most of these (like his attempts to court women) fail. But because of the sheer volume of attempts made, I do inevitably succeed (in both work and the ladies).

However, your Captain is working on something very big. And by very big, I mean Gru attempting to steal the moon big. If funding is received for it, I will have to employ people and executives and probably a lot of them, however;

NONE of them will be Ivy League graduates.

And NONE of them will be MBA's.

The reason why is so blatantly obviously, that perhaps it needs explaining.

First, look at our beloved president. Barry is a Harvard graduate. Not a great marketing campaign. "Hey, look, I graduated from Harvard! I'm so smart, I spend $1.4 trillion more than we take in EVERY YEAR!"

Second, if you are on the other side of the political fence, Bush Jr also a Harvard graduate. Not a great marketing campaign. "Hey, daddy, give me money so I can run an oil company and a baseball team into the ground!"

Third, if you look at the

housing bubble
dotcom bubble
Savings and Loan scandal
Asian currency crisis
Enron and the accounting scandals

and pretty much every major economic disaster in recent history it is caused by two general groups of people;

Ivy league graduates

and

MBA's

(sometimes both)

Now who am I to claim this? I went to some crap state college and paid my way through. I don't make more than $30,000. What the hell do I know?

Well, I'm an entrepreneur. And like all entrepreneurs we fail miserably for the most part. But inevitably we break through with something. We come up with something that is so big, "it will blow this pyramid thing out of the water." And when we succeed, it is not GW taking his daddy's money and buying a baseball team. Nor is it Barry Hussein taking his grandmother's money and writing books about himself. It revolutionizes economies and entire industries and it is the Ivy leaguers that work for us. Not the other way around. And the reason why is that Ivy leaguers and MBA's are not trained to think or be creative, they're not even trained to obey. They are trained to work the system. They are trained to simply be one thing and one thing only;

Rent seekers.

Don't believe me?

Look at GE.

That entire corporation is pathetic to my smallish LLC. Why?

I don't need to force through legislation that the entirety of America buy my light bulbs. I produce something of value people want.

Goldman Sachs anyone? Matter of fact the entire bulge bracket. They can't get it up unless the government bails them out. Hmmm...so they hire from any place outside the Ivy League?

Look at all of K street. You think lobbyists exist because their company makes the best product the people want? No, they exist because corporations figured out it's more profitable for them to bribe elected officials to enact laws that give them an unfair advantage over their competitors. So instead of developing the latest and the greatest, it becomes fighting over the remains of a stagnant economy.

Of course what happens is the "old" economy while wrapped up on politicking and bribery and law suits, loses its creativity and vitality to the "new" economy where younger whipper snappers come up with ideas that obsolete the old economies, turning them into worthless bankrupt entities over night. Regardless, understand the MBA's and Ivy Leaguers can only exist and survive in a cronyistic and corrupt environment. And not only will those environments inevitable fall to new ones, the new industries that do come about are going to look at the Ivy League's "product" and MBA's and say, "Good lord, why in the Patron Saint's Name of Frick are we going to hire these charlatans?"

Thus the collapse of the education bubble, particularly the Ivy League.

Understand this and understand this well. It may not happen tonight. It may not happen tomorrow. But until MBA's and our precious "best of best" Ivy Leaguers start actually proving their worth (or perhaps just stop destroying the economy every 5 years or so), the real capitalists and entrepreneurs are going to get wise as to what a scam it is hiring these overpriced dolts. And when this epiphany hits (and also assuming our great Harvard-educated leader can get the economy growing significantly again - ha!) the demand for MBA's and Ivy legaue degrees will have so dried up, that the likes of Yale and Harvard are going to be synonymous with "The University of Phoenix" and "Rasmussen Business College."

Enjoy the decline!

You WILL Enjoy the Recession

Hey, Let's Invest In Greece!

Heh.

Commercial Bank Profits

Thought this chart would make those of you in the Capposphere a little smiley today.

Now imagine if banks were to have just paid the ole Captain a mere $10 billion to tell them not to make bad loans as a consulting fee.

My Old Digs

Riverside Plaza is also affectionately known as "the Crack Stacks" or "Ghettos in the Sky."

It is also where your humble Captain resided for 2 years of his collegiate days.

It is your classical government/affordable housing project where somebody high on pot back in the 60's was given the architectural contract to make it look hideous and be an eye sore to the city's skyline.

All that being said I have fond memories of the Crack Stacks;

washing clothes in the bath tub because you couldn't trust your clothes to be washed in the public laundromat, not to mention it was 34 stories below my apartment

carrying 60 pounds of groceries in one shot because you didn't want to make multiple trips

running down 34 flights of stairs during a fire only to realize that if there ever was a real fire, everybody in the building would be doomed because the slow old people who live downstairs back up the stairwell like a Wisconsin driver hauling horses during rush hour on 494.

Looks like it's going to get an overhaul (of course with part of yours and my dimes), though sadly, the city will continue its rapid charge to become the next cold Detroit so it's kind of like grooming your dog before you put it to sleep.

Counter Boycott

I loathe the hypocrisy and intellectual dishonesty of the mayors of both San Fran and now St. Paul "boycotting" Arizona.

Yes, how dare we protect US sovereignty and have the slightest bit of self-respect for ourselves. I mean this isn't our country. It's the world's country.

Of course, this is nothing more than a dispicable level of hypocrisy to protect an illegal voting bloc, while they sacrifice the integrity and sovereignty of the nation (I particularly like how Coleman calls it "hate.")

Regardless, listen to your Captain and do me one huge favor.

Go here and look up a company that you have a need for and FREAKING buy something from them.

I know you didn't want to buy my book (sniff, sniff, guilt trip, guilt trip), but please make the Captain happy in thinking that he somehow caused a nation-wide phenomenon to boost Arizona's GSP and interstate exports by 300%.

Effrontery

So I'm watching "Charge of the Light Brigade" and Errol Flynn just used the word "effrontery."

Meaning shameless boldness that is an insult to standard social decorum and propriety.

I shall try to incorporate it into my speech.

I Need a Doctor

Because my eyes just got stuck rolling in the back of my head.

Peter Schiff better run for president.

Sun Chips

Your Captain grills a lot. And his friends bring over "Sun Chips" as a snack. Of course you can't ignore the boasting of their green credentials because all over the bag they brag about how the bag will naturally decompose and their sun chips are made with "100% natural sun." So you could imagine my happiness when I saw this on Sun Chip's banner advertisement on You Tube.








Apparently you can all upload what you did for Earth Day. It is subject to censorship...err..."moderation." We'll see how long Michael's stays up.

Happy Earth Day...I Think

I'm under the impression it's Earth Day or something today.

Whether it is or not, it's always a good day to drive your 8 cylinder car around. I have an old GM car, the tires on which are NOT inflated properly. I shall drive it.

I will go to the grocery store and ask them to double bag.

I will then burn the bags.

I will also grill a steak because cows emit carbon and to grill I will have to use fossil fuels to heat it.

Do your share to emit more carbon than the phonies claim to save.

The Great Ugly Jean Purging of 2010

Lo!

Your Captain, not only be wise in the world of economics, but is also an accomplished ballroom dancer, extraordinary video game player, fossil hunter extraordinaire and all around funny and amusing guy. And thus, your beloved Captain would have thought this would be enough to satiate the intellectual and romantic desires of his beloved Natasha.

However, unforeseable to your humble Captain, he walked right into a trap without knowing it. Oh, it started innocently enough, but little did he know what was in store for him.

It all started when thanks to President Obama both your Captain and Natasha had no real work to do for about 2 months. Besides which we were told we didn't have to worry about our mortgage or paying for gas any more, so off we went to Missouri for a 6 week vacation. A mere week before this I had come down with a nasty bout of poison ivy, and was thusly aware of what it looked like. However, eager to find fossils in Missouri, I pulled over my motorcycle when I saw a promising strata of rock, running up to it, only to realize I went through a 20 yard patch of poison ivy.

It then became a mission to immediately get rid of the jeans I was wearing and buy a new pair. Stopping at the local Pamida, I bought a nice, big, baggy pair of jeans, perfect for riding my motorcycle.

However, Natasha protested. Not that I would swap poison ivy infected jeans for clean ones, but that the others were too baggy and did not show off "my cute little butt" (her quote, not mine).

I dismissed this as typical foolish female tomfoolery as I thought all jeans were the same. Sure some might fit better, but it was merely a whim of preference of women that would ebb and flow every other day, surely to be ignored because of it's irrelevance.

Now fast forward 6 months where the Minnesota winter has been replaced with a VERY early and VERY wonderful spring, permitting me already to put over 3,000 miles on my motorcycle. Not only has the weather allowed for me to bring out my bike early, it has also allowed me to start my seasonal running early. Your Captain is already running his goal of 7 mile runs which he usually attains come mid-May. Combine this with the wonderful economic boom promised to us by Barack Obama, and your Captain has more free time due to a lack of work which he has now dedicated in part to lifting weights.

What does this have to do with the Great Ugly Jean Purging of 2010, you ask?

Well, the combination of lifting weights AND running has resulted in...um...shall we say, a very Cappy Cap physique. So much so that Natasha, IGNORING MY INTELLECT AND PERSONALITY TRAITS, has now taken a new-found and cheap affection for my physical looks! Discarding my great economic insights and wonderful personality, she now barks orders at me to "take off my shirt."

I feel so cheap and used!

However, simple demands that I take off my shirt are the least of the costs of the Captain's new bod. The Captain's wardrobe has taken a beating as well, specifically jeans.

I had, I HAD, a nice collection of nice comfy jeans. Perfect for any kind of activity. Fishing, motorcycle riding, wearing, you name it.

But oh, no. No more. Those jeans just won't due according to the illustrious Natasha. And ever since this early spring sprung, she has declared war on my "Ugly Jeans."

The purge started much like Stalin's purge of his military officers, except with more vengeance, aggression and hatred. I was TOLD that I was going to get rid of my ugly jeans and replace them with NEW, BETTER FITTING jeans.

To this I had no choice.

And so, much like 1982 where my mom would take me to Goodwill and I would try on some stranger's jeans, with the tugging and the pulling and hemming and the hawing, Natasha took me to Old Navy (that's where the cool hip kids go if you didn't know) to replace my Ugly Jeans with new, "sexy" jeans ("sexy" apparently meaning they look worn and tattered like my old jeans, but cost 3 times as much).

And thus, at the ripe old age of 35, your Captain now has sexy jeans. The ugly jeans have been bannished, burned or otherwise taken care of, and now I can't ride my motorcycle for more than 10 miles without having to constantly...um..."adjust."

So men, beware. If you ever decide to work out, run, tone up and just become more sexy than you already are, realize there are consequences. Your women will no longer desire you for your intelligent conversation, your wittiness, or your knowledge of economics. No, they will become carnivorous temptresses, demanding a constant display of your body accentuated by "sexy jeans." You will be their little doll so they can dress you up in clothes to meet their shallow, lewd whims. You will become nothing but a piece of meat for their eyes to devour!

And alas, there's nothing you can do but grin and bear it.

How Does This Square with Reverse Mortgages?

Read the whole thing. I'll let you guys rip it apart.

Dow 11,000

Because I am in general a financial "party pooper," bringing in and highlighting facts, that "no, I'm sorry Suburban Sue, your house is not worth that much and you shouldn't have taken out that HUGE home equity loan to pay for your child's "masters in communications" degree," it is therefore behooved upon me to point out yet another sad fact for those who are woefully financially ignorant (which is most of the population).

I know you're all giggity giggity about the Dow breaking 11,000. But sadly, nobody paid attention to that all important economic lesson - CASH FLOWS DRIVE MARKET PRICES.

You see, prices can go up and down all they want, whether they are actually worth that price depends on the cash profits those assets generation. So yes, you can be very happy the Dow is up to 11,000, but did corporate earnings go up by a proportional amount?

Well, here's your answer;


You see, the PE ratio of the US stock market (as measured by Prof. Robert Shiller) compares the price of a stock to its earnings. Historically this has averaged around a ratio of 15 - 15 dollars in stock price for every dollar in earnings. And after the stock market crashed due to the housing market, stocks were ever so briefly "accurately valued." Meaning they weren't a steal or a great buy, nor were they overpriced.

Of course, that lasted about as long as sanity usually lasts in the financial markets and stock prices once again rallied, driving the PE ratio up to 22.10.

What does this mean for you the average investor? Well, for those of you who religiously invest in your 401k or 403b, you better pay very close attention to the prices you're paying for those stocks and mutual funds. For younger investors, I don't even know why you would invest in a stock market when not only it's overvalued, but it's progressively likely your "Roth" IRA or 401k plan will simply be nationalized and taken over by the government (much like they did in Argentina) to fund unfundable entitlement programs.

But I know, I know, I'm shouting into a hurricane. Why ruin everybody's good time?

Let's just party because an index broke an arbitrary number like 11,000.

The Wage Gap

Can an IT professional of the female persuasion please field this one?



With such intellectual dishonesty, the people at Newsweak wonder why their subscriptions are tanking.

Your Recession Medicine

I hear leading economic indicators are pointing to a recovery....well, not a GW circa 2002 economic recovery, but you know, actual positive growth in the private sector. In the meantime, enjoy the recession!

"...and then I will take her to the theater."

Let me tell you about a foreign friend of mine. We'll call him "Jose" just to keep him anonymous.

Jose came to the US several years ago. Highly trained in computer networking, he stopped in on one of my dance classes to learn how to dance. At that time he was actively engaged in pursuing American women. While growing up in his home country, American women, as well as the American singles scene was so glamourized on TV and the movies that he too wanted to participate in this wonderful world. He started by going "clubbing" in Minneapolis' daycare center...err....I mean "hipster" area - Uptown. He failed miserably and thus changed tactics by taking classes from "pick up artists."

Here he had limited success. He did learn the basic rules of ignoring and being indifferent, "negging" and so forth, resulting in a fair amount of dates, but the problem was that he was at heart a traditional man. Yes he wanted to play the scene, but it was for the ultimate goal of finding a wife, settling down and having children.

Sadly the "singles scene" in Minneapolis is NOT designed to produce high quality marriage candidates.

Thus when he was stood up, 505025'd, strung along, or just plain dumped when he started asking about getting serious, he become frustrated. Realizing at the age of 35 what most American native males do around 25, that finding a quality marriable woman is laughably impossible, he sank into a deep depression as he saw his imaginary wife and little Joses fade away.

However there was an unexpected life line of hope. Jose flew to Eastern Europe to do some mountain climbing, where at a small motel he stayed there was a nice central European woman. She ran the bed and breakfast he was staying at, cooked him meals, EVEN CLEANED HIS CLOTHES, and well...you can imagine what happened from thereforth.

Now, after two years of semi-annual visits, and constant contact on the phone, Jose is on his way back to this former Soviet country to marry this girl and bring her back to the states. I was driving him to the airport and asked him, "So when she gets here, is she going to work, or are you guys going to work on a family right away?"

And he said, "Oh, no. She will not work. I will go and work and make the money. She will stay at home and keep the house in order and make meals and bring up the children. I will work all day, come home and then I will take her to the theater."

It was a beautiful statement because whereas today people have been brainwashed to believe a woman staying at home doing the "womanly duties" is nothing more than a slave to the man, the reality is that Jose really does love this girl.

And the reason why is that she is not going to be some "slave" that he comes home to and yells at, "where the hell's my dinner, woman?!" It's the beautiful division-of-labor idea that one person would work, the other would work at home, they would raise a family and then my buddy Jose would look forward to nothing more than coming home and taking his wife to the theater.

Of course, what do those stupid Latino's and dumb Eastern European morons know about love and marriage? Look at how neanderthal Jose is, let alone how naive his fiance is. Why, don't they know the pinnacle of marriage is to have TWO people working TWO, if not, THREE JOBS, while they outsource the upbringing of the children to the nanny, or pay higher taxes to the state educational system? They then rush home where no food has been prepared and the children are slowly alienated from their parents. Let's not forget that Mrs. Jones-Hyphenated-Smith needs to get her masters is child psychology so she can better understand why little Johnny set fire to the couch. And Mr. Smith better work really hard to buy all those toys his children want, not to mention baseball practice, volleyball, student council, debate and racquet ball. And he better work doubly hard to buy his wife that new SUV she NEEDS, otherwise, she may just have to file for divorce because there wasn't enough jewelry to reconcile their differences.

Obviously Jose does not know what he's doing.

Bachelor Pad Economics

For all the single, swinging bachelors out there, permit me a great bit of financial advice.

Clippers.

Drop the $35 on a good pair of clippers and you'll earn back your money easy within a month or two.

Now some of you will complain that you are not barbers, let alone self-styling ones, and therefore you will not be able to cut your own hair.

That is why you hence forth resign yourself to the buzz cut.

No doubt some of you will earn back your clippers in just one shaving in that you drop $35 on a hair cut. Others it will take 3 or 4 shaves if you go to a Great Clips to earn your clippers. Regardless, by a year's time going by, you'll certainly earn more than you did your 401k.

I have also found it a great way to get pampered by women who want to cut your hair.

Don't ask me how it works, I've learned long ago to stop asking why.

Ah, Baby Rabies

A movie I shall not see.

Ready the Vomit Bags

I promise that I will remain a male, defend my loved ones with my life, destroy enemies that threaten my loved ones, be charming and charismatic towards you, support myself, and work out and stay in shape. And if that ain't good enough for you, then I'm sure one of those lovely men above are available for courtship.

In the meantime, here's an alternative.



Now, on a serious note, ladies, who would you rather date? The guys above of the guy below? Make your responses in the comments section, and I shall make a chart.

HAR!

HAR!!

Your Dizzy Fix

You will enjoy the recession;

Not a post

Link 1
Link2
LInk 3

Nice Charts

Something tells me "hope and change and flowers and chocolates" and in general wishful thinking and good thoughts is not going to solve this problem.

Ah, California

I love it.

Not a Post

For those of you who still tune in, these occasional "not a posts" are links to a podcast of one of my favorite shows, Garage Logic. The only problem is they only offer the previous day's broadcast, thus I need to post the link, but tweak the date to get previous days' broadcasts.

Link1
Link2

Housing Starts

Your economic chart of the day!




I love housing starts. Go buy my book!

Apparently It is Not Urban Legend

Didn't believe it until I actually saw it.

Of course, these were the days when we actually defended the country's sovereignty.

Instead of Going to the Movies...

you can just watch the trainwreck of a show that is about to happen.

If only there was somebody who saw it coming.

Heh.

$20 Movie Ticket

The price of a movie ticket is going up.

I stopped going to movies about 3 years ago. I think I saw maybe, MAYBE 2 two movies last year (Gran Torino being one of them).

I've predicted in the past a decline in movie-going as hometheaters, combined with Netflix, not to mention modern-day parents who fail to keep their children quiet, drive people out of the theaters and into their home theaters, just like communism drives capital into tax havens.

But $11 for a regular show, not to mention $20 in New York City for A ticket? All so you can stand in line and listen to kids make noise while you view a screen from the far left corner of a theater? Yeah, that's going to help attendance.

You'll forgive me if I just sit in my finished basement with the LCD projector, surround sound, bean bag and a bottle of Jameson with Natasha in a nice little number under my arm.

International Corporate Tax Rate Comparison

Hey Kids!

Want some fun excitement and craziness in your day!?

Want to be the cool guy on the block that impresses all the girls???

Want to be able to be the one kid in the entire college that might actually know what he or she is talking about?

Then learn your corporate tax rates!

Yes, corporate tax rates!

It's what all the cool young hipsters are learning!
------------------

On a more serious note, sadly corporate taxes are the silver bullet to end this recession. You eliminate them you not only bring a flood of investment and capital into the US, but you also immediately boost stock prices and recapitalize people's pensions, 403b's, 401k's, IRA's.

But who wants any of that icky stuff when we can blame corporations for all of our problems?

You Will Enjoy the Weekend

You will also not get this song out of your head.

Not a Post

Just reverse engineering podcasts that are no longer available on GL.

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

I Just Like the Way It Looks

Not adjusted in terms of Percent of GDP, duly noted, but even the KGB and Osama Bin Laden in their wildest dreams couldn't have done this kind of damage.

You will enjoy the ensuing chaos.

Charles Beasley

Sadly a another great one has passed on. I must have danced to his band at least 2 dozen times over the years.

Enjoy playing with Benny, Arty, Duke, the Count, and Jack, Charlie.

Health Insurance Industry's Profits

OK, one more time for the cheap seats;

THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY IS NOT THE PROBLEM. THEY DO NOT HAVE HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS IN PROFITS. THEY ARE NOT THE CAUSE OF YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE GOING UP.

This isn't an opinion. This isn't a suggestion. It's just an "inconvenient truth" (that actually happens to be true) that leftists just plain refuse to verify or confirm.

Here is United Healthcare's income statement from their latest annual report.

If you compare the revenues to profits, you'll see they have roughly a 4% profit margin. A COUPLE billion in profits. Not the hundreds of billions Obama says they have, let alone the trillions he plans on spending.

"Yeah, well those greedy insurance executives are hoarding all the money paying it out to themselves!!! That's why their profits are so low!"

Really??

REALLY???

Because, frankly, I've yet to meet a liberal, the president included, that has had the intellectual honesty to look it up first.

Look, at that. Under $1 billion in executive compensation AND THAT'S ASSUMING HEMSLEY CASHING IN ALL OF HIS OPTIONS RIGHT NOW.

If you don't believe me, just look it up here.

The ignorance of the average American is disgusting and I will be happy to watch all the idiots that were taken in by this group of charlatans ask 20 years from now why GDP per capita is down to $20,000 in the US.

Some Short Observations About Liberal Talk Radio

Well I was going to go to my favorite Irish bar and do taxes, but I forgot that today is St. Patrick's Day and there was no way I was going to get any work done, so allow me this short post.

I can't listen to right wing talk radio any more because

1. I can finish their sentences.
2. I already know everything they're going to say.
3. It's really depressing.

So, for the past month I've been listening to Air America (which I thought was going bankrupt, but apparently they are still on the air). It's really had to listen before you turn it off or change the station, but after a month, I've come up with some observations about liberal talk radio that are not biased, but just simple observations.

1. They are reactionary to right wing talk radio.

I would say the most prominent thing you notice about liberal talk radio is how about 35% of their show is responding to right wing talk radio. You can't listen for more than 4 minutes before you hear "Glenn Beck" or "Rush Limbaugh" of course referred to in the pejorative. It shows me that their entire existence was founded in countering right-wing talk radio. The problem is this doesn't really pioneer any new lines of thought. It's just them bashing on right wing radio. Not once have I heard Rush or Glenn or Sean utter, "Nick Schultz" or "Mark Malloy." Ergo, right wing talk radio is established unto itself, while left wing talk radio is merely reactionary. There was no real ideological reason for it except to debunk or besmirch right wing talk radio. It's almost like a shell corporation, no real purpose to it.

2. No "Linking" "Domino" or "Cause and Effect" Thinking

To varying degrees all right wing talk show hosts carry through their lines of thought to a logical conclusion or result. Dennis Prager in particular is good at this, but regardless, ALL right wing talk show hosts do a "Cause and effect" analysis of policy, statements, economics, etc. Their left wing counterparts do NONE of this. And it's frustrating because half the reason I started listening was to understand the rationale or reasoning behind the socialist ideology. But since there is no explanation or linking all you get is talking points or stances. For example their arguments are really no more complex than "Oh, those partisan Republicans are trying stop health care because they're rich." No consideration is given to maybe the procedure or the constitution or the real reason "why" Republicans (as well as some democrats) are against the health care bill. It's just "they're rich, they're in bed with the insurance industry" and that is as deep as they get. In other words, even though the hosts are well into their 50's, it's no deeper than having a conversation with a 20 year old theater major.

3. Hate speech

This was the most shocking one of all. Mark Malloy, if you haven't listened to him, puts to rest the notion the right wing of politics in America is the source of hate. He has threatened to kick Glenn Beck's ass more than once, you can't go 10 minutes with out him calling the Republican's nazis and cursing up a storm (amazing the FCC doesn't shut him down) and wishing them essentially death. You think I'm joking? Listen in yourself.

At least when Rush or Glenn or even myself was broadcasting, our ideas were for the overall good of the nation. Balancing the budget, getting the economy going, fighting terrorism, stopping illegal immigration. But this guy just abandons any intellectual honesty and views all conservatives and republicans as nazis no matter what you say or do. You are the enemy to him and forget being Americans, you need to be taken out of the gene pool.

4. Presumption of Premises

When callers call in, there is a whole host of premises and assumptions leftists make that they just take for granted. For example George Bush is to blame for everything. Economy, war on terror, the terrorist attacks themselves. There's no discussion of it. It's just a given Bush caused this all when an intellectually honest person would maybe suggest 100 million Americans spending more than they made was the cause of the recession.

But Bush aside, simple childlike assumptions are the bedrock of their ideology. "Rich people need to be punished." The insurance companies are out to get you. Mark Malloy even cited that some CEO at one of the largest insurance companies in the US made something like $37 million over the past 3 years. Well....yeah, that's about right. By the same logic he should LOATHE professional sports, which he might, but you never hear about it. The overall point is that you can't listen to any intellectual discussion, not matter how intelligent or insightful the people are on liberal talk radio, because they're operating from false premises and thus the entire conversation is worthless.

5. Absolute Ignorance, Pushing Cluelessness, About Economics

Perhaps what gets me to turn to another station so quickly is when I hear them spout off some statistic I know to be completely wrong or just statistically impossible. They have no clue just how much spending Barack Obama has committed the US to, but it's not that they care, they literally think there's $100 trillion in GDP to tax. If you ask them, EVEN THE RADIO SHOW HOSTS, how big the government budget is relative to GDP, or just how much in GDP we produce, I don't think they could answer correctly.

Worse still is the borderline indifference about what the economic ramifications are to implementing higher taxes, higher spending, nationalization of industries, etc. They don't seem to understand that the government gets its money from the private sector. They don't seem to realize that the government needs the private sector and not vice versa. The impression I am LITERALLY getting from them is they think the "economy" is this big, amorphous blog including the government and basically, "stuff comes from it." No concept of taxation, no concept of the Laffer Curve, no concept of income statements or balance sheets. Just, "there's the economy and we get money from it and rich people control it and they suck."

In any case, if you have the time I DO recommend tuning into liberal talk radio and I would love to hear your observations. I just can't listen for more than 10 minutes at a time because it's like listening to 10 year olds trying to explain why they don't like having to work. You don't learn anything and it gets repetitive.

"Hey, Is That an Iceberg?"

The iceberg we knew was coming for the past 40 years, but did nothing to change our course? Yeah, that one? Yeah, it's here.

But do not worry.

You want to know why?

Because Obama will fix it.

A 20 year old philosophy major from the suburbs told me so.

Ah, Reminds Me of the Olden Days

The education bubble continues.

Sophia Loren

My god, what a timeless woman. 75 and she beats most modern day American 20 something teen idol worshipers.

EelkemaCare

I took my car in for an oil change. I didn’t make it for the early bird special and thus with tax and everything it cost $42 and some spare change. It took about 15 minutes, the guy came in, tried to up-sell me on some window wipers which I declined and then off I went.

Juxtapose that with my visit to my new, most favorite doctor, Dr. Eelkema.

I don’t like him because he’s personable.

I don’t like him because he’s professional.


I don’t like him because he’s on time.

I like him because he’s cheap.

So cheap in fact that it cost me LESS TO VISIT HIM THAN TO GET MY OIL CHANGED.

I showed up, and with a militant level of adherence to time he was ready for our appointment. Checked a couple things, took my blood pressure, diagnosed my problems and BOOM, I was out the door. And the price for this standard doctor’s visit?

$38 and spare change. AND less time than it took to get my oil changed.

It was one of those times where you were happy to pay because the deal you got provided more utility than the price you even paid.

The question is how does Dr. Eelkema do it?


Simple, he got rid of the insurance companies, thereby eliminating a huge amount of overhead, time and paper work, only takes cash payment and makes you sign a waiver essentially saying you won’t sue.

Amazing.

You eliminate three things – insurance companies, collection problems and lawsuits/lawyers – and the cost of a doctor’s visit drops to $38.

Now it could be because Dr. Eelkema is an older gentleman and maybe he has earned his fortunes and can afford to run his practice that cheaply. Perhaps he is just getting older and as one ages time becomes more valuable than money. But it still couldn’t prevent my economic spidey senses from thinking about what would happen if instead of the 2,000 page health care reform monstrosity Obama/Pelosi/Reid are trying to ram down America’s throat we did a Dr. Eelkema Health Care style reform. That instead treating health insurance like a right, we treat it more like car insurance. You pay OUT OF POCKET expenses for regular maintenance of your car such as oil changes, tire replacement, batteries, etc, just like you would regular maintenance on your body (check ups, visits, tests, etc). However, you only have insurance should a catastrophe occur. You crash your car, the insurance company pays for its repair or an entire new one. You crash your body, the health insurance the insurance company kicks in to repair you. And what amazes me is that if you’re in reasonably decent shape your health insurance and general health expenditures on YOU will cost the same, if not LESS THAN YOUR CAR, BUT THAT'S IF YOU'RE USING A DOCTOR LIKE DR.EELKEMA.


In otherwords, Dr. Eelkema is the empirical proof of "what could be" or what the REAL costs of health care are if you get rid of insurance companies, lawyers, lawsuits, and government. That $38 is what you really have to pay. Not the $200, the majority of which goes to other entities that have NOTHING to do with your health care except to make it more expensive.

But, I know, I know. We’ve all been told health care is a right (forget the fact rights don’t cost anything while health care is a commodity no matter what anybody tells you). And it’s a tragedy if a single mom of 6 children from 6 different fathers has to pay a $15 copay for each of them. And it’s a travesty if a union member has to pay a copay at all. Matter of fact it’s dictatorial totalitarianism if you have to spend a single penny on your own health care. And besides, we have to make sure all those lawyers have plenty of money coming their way, not to mention government bureaucrats need jobs too and taking over 1/6th of the economy will certainly help with that.

But the simple problem is health care reform is just like tax reform. The American people are just too damn brainwashed or perhaps too damn stupid to think that it can be that simple. You can have a flat sales tax or the 13,000 page tax code, just like you can have Obamacare or EelkemaCare.


Enjoy fighting for Obamacare.

Does Anybody See the Common Trait?

I'm not joking. There is a physical trait I've noticed of liberals.

Tyranny Will Form

One way or another. In the past 3 years I've learned to loathe ignorant people who live in democracies and do not understand their duty in protecting the nation, themselves and their children's future from charlatans known as socialism.

Comic Book Guy Terrorist Potentially Caught

I will buy everybody a round if it turns out to be the Comic Book Guy.

Don't get me wrong, I loathe terrorists. But spoiled brat suburbanites when are so desperate to join a crusade that they betray their home country for something as foul as radical Islam, they deserve a special place in hell.

The Last Boyscout and Public Schools

"The Last Boyscout" which is a great movie, Daman Wayans has a great line;

"I'm going to say it again for the cheap seats. I DON'T KNOW WHERE JOE HALLENBACK IS!"

And so I often find myself saying things that don't need to be said, but apparently people aren't listening. So, in a very Last Boyscout way;

"I'm going to say it again for the cheap seats. PEOPLE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS DON'T GO THERE TO EDUCATE THE CHILDREN FIRST AS MUCH AS THEY GO THERE TO HAVE A JOB.

Until you get rid of this "teachers license" BS and allow people with REAL WORLD experience in to teach these kids, you're going to have deadbeat losers like this who have nothing better to do with their lives that they run for school board as a means of a career on account they can't be employed anywhere else.

Oh no, I know, I know. Alan Greenspan can't teach economics because "he doesn't have a teacher's license" or a degree in "education."

Yes, won't somebody please think of the children indeed.

When Liberal Arts Majors Marry Engineers

An extreme example, but will highlight the point I'm trying to make here, I know a couple where the guy got his masters in computer engineering and her a degree in journalism. Her dad was a brain surgeon or heart surgeon or something big and thus she had a house and a car bought and paid for as well as a spending account until her knight in shinning FORTRAN armor came along and took over from the father.

Now, with children, the wife stays at home, doesn't really work, but woe upon you if you dare suggest she wasn't really ever independent in her life and didn't support herself.

Naturally what irks me is the hypocrisy of people who major in a worthless field, espouse to be independent and self-reliant, and then marry somebody who actually produces something or work, YET STILL MAINTAINS THEIR lefter leaning ideology about wealth distribution, essentially taking the stance their engineering majoring spouse should be taxed in a quasi-slave-like arrangement.

Ergo, why my blood pressure rises when I see this.

Who precisely do they think is going to turn the country around or produce the wealth to pay down our debts? Additionally, how much you want to bet those liberal arts majors are going to be scurrying for engineers when the stimulus money runs out to make ends meet.

As always, enjoy the decline.

Today's Economic Comparison

Jobs losses "under Bush" vs. "under Obama."

What I love is that both presidents inherited recessions, but guess who the media loves to blame for both, even though it was neither of their faults.

Also, on a side note, anybody else sick of 20 somethings, let alone older adults blaming the economy on Bush who in the same breath then complain about how they had to go into foreclosure on their home because they borrowed too much money?

Why You Shouldn't Send Your Kids to Antioch College

In reality, this isn't really a "new" post. It is just a re-posting under a title that is more appropriate given what has just happened and some good advice for any parents in Ohio thinking about pissing away their hard earned money.

So permit me to recap;

Mom of Antioch College graduate comes in and goes to bat for "Antioch College" after I link to the Spearhead's article citing its closure, claiming her daughter got a "great" education and "immediately" found employment in her field.

I make "cynical" "evil" "republican" "nazi" predictions that her daughter majored in a worthless subject and the only reason she found "employment in her field" was because her "field" was essentially subsidized by either charity or the taxpayers. In other words, she doesn't produce anything of economic value to society and is literally a parasite.

Readers of Cappy Cap come to bat IN STYLE and prove;

1. Her daughter works at a community theater
2. That receives money from charity
3. Most of which is from the Ohioan taxpayer

The overall lesson to learn here is that Antioch College, as well as many others, simply just produce what could be considered "economic parasites" who instead of "lowering themselves" to collecting a welfare check, engage in faux, fake "professions" or "careers" all of which are economically no different than collecting a welfare check in that it is still paid for by others. They just go through the facade of having a "job" presumably to make themselves feel better.

So here is the question to would be Antioch students and parents;

Do you have the intellectual honesty to admit that if it requires a government subsidy and the taxpayers to finance you, that you are indeed an economic parasite?

We all hate GM and the federal bail out.

We all hate the big banks and the bail out they received?

What about the millions of worthless degreed people who only have jobs because the tax payer is forced to provide them some make-work job that produces nothing society wants?

If you have the cognitive dissonance skills to tolerate this hypocrisy, then send your children to Antioch. If not, then send them somewhere else.

Ball Throwing vs. Brain Cutting

Unlike all the other professional football players, this guy will actually produce something of worth for society. Sadly there will be no play-by-play radio coverage of his brain surgeries on AM 1500.

Unions and Environmentalists

Are the root of this problem.

Don't worry, I hear hope and change is on the way.

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.