The Evil HR Lady

As you all know, I don't hate HR.

I loathe HR.

Aside from an oppressive and growing socialist government, HR is a closely ranked second in terms of what is holding America back from it's halcyon days of 4%+ average RGDP growth. It certainly is the #1 non-public sector problem, and it embodies pretty much everything I hate about the anti-American forces - feminism, overregulation, anti-capitalism, legal/law/lawyers, socialism, affirmative action, etc.

But then I saw via Snarks "The Evil HR Lady."

Apparently, this lady DOES get it. Not only does she acknowledge most people view HR for the evil it is, she makes valid posts about labor and labor force relations. Most notably is her position that firms are failing to realize that facebook, myspace, blogs and other social media is the main means by which the latest generation communicates and that ultimately it's none of their damn business what is said on these sites. ie-if firms will discriminate against against social media users and go Gestapo on them, they will soon have no labor pool to chose from. One could make a very good argument it is age discrimination.

Naturally I don't think one sane HR lady is going to make a lick of difference. For every genuinely concerned and intellectually honest HR professional like her, there's 10 genuinely evil and power hungry HR ladies with no real intent to help her employer. So "The Evil HR Lady" will have to forgive me when I still stand by my pledge that when I am king, I will ban all HR departments.

Katie Kieffer

This is not a hit piece.

This is a sincere and legitimate piece that is very important and (frankly) is a piece I should not have to write.

Katie Kieffer is hot. I'm sure she's very nice and I'm am certainly happy to have her on the conservative side of the force, but...

that's about all she is.

However, because she is a "conservative," she is now exalted to an undeserved level of celebrityship because she has that seemingly mutually exclusive combination of traits;

Hot and conservative.

And that combination makes the typical conservative/libertarian males' IQ drop by about 50 points.

Now, the reason I am compelled to write about this (and unfortunately give her due linkage and press) is because I have had more than one middle aged male, salivating over her, asking me if I've read her or not.

And what is particularly irritating about this, is these are presumably men who should know better, but lower the standards for genuine intelligent writing and philosophy because of a cute little piece of conservative T&A.

This is a weakness, but more importantly, it is a hypocrisy I find among conservative men. So desperate are they for a good looking conservative female, they lower their standards in a very affirmative action way and qualify what is literally mindless 20 something ditz blather as genuine and serious political commentary just because she's "a hottie."

Now, look, if you want to open yourselves up to genuine (and well-deserved) criticism from the left for thinking in your pants, go ahead. It will only undermine our larger goal and make us look to be the fools that we really aren't. But if you can permit yourself the intellectual honesty to identify Mr. Kieffer for what she is, and give her no more credit than that, then we do ourselves a favor calling a spade a spade, and focusing our efforts on more important issues, not to mention showing ourselves to be serious people that abide by intellectual honesty and giving credit where credit is due.

Now if Ms. Kieffer wants to put together a calendar along with some of the Fox News Babes in kind of a cheer-leading sort of effort for liberty and freedom, fine. But she, and equally lacking intellectual "conservative hotties" are not the ones on the football field. That would be the likes of Matt Drudge, Joe Soucheray, Peter Schiff, Zero Hedge, myself, Dalrock and the thousands of others out there who actually do the heavy lifting, the pulling of data, the serious commentary, etc. But honest to god, to exalt her to a similar level just because she's good looking, really does give credence to what some of the most evil and reviled feminists out there claim.

We are better than that. More importantly, our morals, standards and ideology should reflect that. We judge people by their skill, merit, worth, character and intelligence.

Not by their creed.

Not by the color of their skin.

And certainly not how hot they look.

POST-POST - Guess what her major is!? I told you, crusaders can be right or left.

Financial Services as a Percentage of GDP

If you hate bankers and politicians you aren't alone. But you may find it interesting that (aside from these two groups of people being notorious for corruption and greed), you may hate them for another reason - they really don't produce anything.

Now of course, your Captain works in banking and you would be asking him the question, "why are you ripping on yourself?" But in maintaining intellectual honesty I have to admit, the banking industry doesn't produce anything. We provide a service. And that service is risk assessment and capital. Sounds boring, but it's vital to any economy. Why, could you imagine if banks did their job during the build up to the housing bubble that we would not be in this problem we're in now? But that aside, in the end, banks ultimately provide a service that should support the rest of the economy. They should not really become the economy themselves because "banking" is not really a consumable item. It's a supporting service.

Ergo why Henry Ford (I believe it was) said something to the extent of "if banks and finance companies become too big relative to the rest of the economy, you have problems."

So, in my biennial perusal of the NIPA accounts, I decided to calculate the financial services industry as a percent of GDP.

Now, normally at this point in time I would continue on about the ramifications of this, and how this is more proof the entire economy is a debt inflated bubble, but I think we have all been reading Cappy Cap enough now that the economics lesson is self-evident.

Besides, why waste time reading something you already know when you really should be enjoying the decline!

Didn't They Get $50 Billion?

I'm amazed how these banks are being downgraded. I mean, didn't we give them billions of dollars in TARP?

What makes it better is it's Wells Fargo. The bank that took billions in bailout funds, and then never refinances anybody. I also had the displeasure of working for them as an "analyst." Where there was no such thing as "analysis" going on as much as it was data entry. This was also the bank where when I was a 21 year intern I was writing the sovereign risk reports in their economics department but the senior international economist would be her name on my reports. Doing the work of the senior international economist and getting paid $10 an hour to do it.

Ahhhh, those were the good ole days.

Ode to Rumpleminze

In my superawesome financial classes that I teach, I had a student actually ask about Rumpleminze. My response I realized was an ode to Rumpleminze, so allow me to post it here;

Ah, "cordial" is actually a euphemism. "Super Uber Schnapps" is more like it.

When the economy was booming back in 1998, the problem I faced was not just doing finance seminars, but dance classes as well. My voice started to go because I was speaking/teaching about 3 hours a day and the human vocal chords are just not made for that much use.

Thankfully God created "Rumpleminze" (or at least some alcoholic German did).

And the world was good.

Actually, Rumpleminze is a Canadian schnapps that is VERY thick, is ALWAYS chilled, STRONGLY minty and 50% alcohol.

So when heading back from a dance class or finance seminar in some far flung Minnesota town I would stop in at the local VFW or American Legion (I prefer to give my money to the vets) and 100% guarantee they would have Rumpleminze.

Have a shot of that and you could feel the 27 degree liquid not just coat, but completely revitalize your vocal chords.

Additionally since I started drinking that regularly, I haven't gotten sick in terms of flu, cold, infection, etc. The only thing I've gotten sick from has been food poisoning in the past 8 years. Could be my constitution, but I really do believe it's the Rumpie.

Because X-Box 360's Can't Sprout Legs

It was 1994.

I was a freshman and invited to a party being hosted by my boss at the U of MN Police Departments "Campus Cops" program.

I showed up and sure enough everybody was drinking and my corporal, after drinking for several hours challenged me to a race from his house to Como avenue. He would wear his boots and I could wear my regular shoes.

He was about 6'1" and I was much shorter. I knew he had me. I knew he would beat me and was doing it just to prove he could.

Of course I took the challenge in the outside hopes of proving him wrong in front of everybody and winning some street cred (which didn't exist in 1994).

Sure enough,

On your marks,

Get set,

GO!

I booked.

I mean, I just booked. Waiting for him to pass me I could have sworn he was just toying with me.

But when I stopped hearing his boots hitting the pavement I permitted myself the luxury to look back and see he had not only given up, but was puking on the street.

Lesson to be learned?

Don't assume people are always chasing you. Especially when you girls play "hard to get." Because we may have been chasing in our teens and 20's, but stopped chasing long ago.

The question is whether you have the wisdom in your 30's and 40's to look back.

Oh, and hey, enjoy that decline!

The Captain Conquers Hallet Peak

In my effort to enjoy the decline before either I die or the country declines so much I must don my Mad Max gear and set forth, I made the 6 hour trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. I didn't get there until the afternoon on Saturday so I drove around the entire park, and entered into Denver from the west on I-70 wherein I found a sushi joint, a cigar bar and a salsa club all within 1 mile of each other.

To quote Eddie Izzard, "Fantastico!"

I was particularly impressed with the salsa ladies of Denver because 70% of them said yes to a dance. In Minnesota you can expect a success rate of only 30% because, well, it's Minnesota and the women always presume you're trying to get with them instead of you just simply and honestly asking them for a dance. It's a foreign concept to them, "hey, I just want to dance, I don't want to get with you." But then again, if I grew up on a regiment on 90210, The Mall of America, billions of dollar's worth of daddy's money, and Sex in the City, I might be a bit presumptuous too. Regardless, the ladies of Denver, I salute you for using that horrible word, "yes."

Regardless, the next day was to conquer a real mountain, Hallet Peak, a short 5 mile hike up to the peak, all of which could be done in an afternoon. I took pictures and I am happy I brought my windbreaker because not only was there wind, there was a ton of snow.

I will brag now and mention that this hike took me a total of 4 hours and 15 minutes. That included looking around, taking in the view and hiking behind piles of rocks at the peak to shield me against the wind and maintain a normal body temperature. Enjoy the pictures!

This is Hallet's peak form across the valley you hike up.


This is the sign that tells you you made it to Flattop Peak. Hallet's peak is in the background. It's actually no more than 1/2 a mile away, but the lack of oxygen gets to you and that little jaunt took at least 30 minutes.


I got lonely and made myself a friend.


Hallet's Peak about 1/2 the way up the climb.


These are mountains to the East of Halley's peak, I have not yet consulted the map to find out which peaks they are.


There was this young 25 year old punk kid that actually passed me near Flattop. I thought I was doing a pretty good clip and this young guy with all of his youth and everything SLOWLY passes me (he too was suffering from a lack of oxygen). Anyway, we inevitably hit the peak at the same time so he was kind enough to take the picture. He (ahem ahem!) did not decide to move onto Hallet's peak, once again cementing my status of "30 something guy with 25 year old body Awesomeness."


If you jump juuuuuust right, you might land in Emerald lake.


I will post videos later that will explain why the icicles form horizontally at the top of the mountain once I compile them into one youtube video.

Pay Pal Problems

If you love the Captain, you know the way to his heart!

Rumpleminze!

That's why the Captain has put a handy dandy link to the right there with a big ole bottle of Rumpleminze.

However, as some of you have e-mailed me recently, the paypal link does not work.

The reason is because Paypal and Firefox do not get along well together.

If you still wish to make a donation I suggest using Explorer.

I do apologize for this inconvenience (NO, REALLY, I DO! I LIKE MONEY!), but it's easiest to just opening it up in Explorer and it should work.

If it doesn't please let me know!

El Capitan

No, We WON'T Invest in the Children

I read this on OneStdv via Dalrock, and thought the comment had enough merit it was worthy of its own post. it is in reference to men "not growing up" or "manning up;"

Also, jobs are far less stable, which makes guys less stable. The days of working for the same company for 30 years are over. Finally, there are fewer prospects for advancement these days. The Boomers have all of the senior jobs, and don't want to leave them, which means that young guys can't move up as easily.

Also, and this is harder to explain but I am sure there is something to it, I think there is an intangible component to all of this. Back in the day, the institutions of our society actually reached out to young guys. Big companies had "executive training programs," the unions had apprenticeship programs, etc. The institutions of our society were actually reaching out to young men, saying "come work with us," and "we need you."

That stuff really doesn't exist today. Instead of going into an "executive training program" for IBM or GM, most people who finish college do temp office work for a few years until they eventually find something permanent, and then they change jobs every couple of years because they have to.

I am 40, but this is basically what it has been like for me. When I started out doing temp work, it wasn't because I was a slacker who wasn't "interested" in a real job with real responsibilities. I desperately wanted a permanent job. but there just wasn't one to be had. Similarly, no one wants to still be clubbing at 30 or 35. Most guys are a little leery of the responsibility of having kids, but they still want to get married.

It's almost hilarious to think at one point in time there were recruiters approaching college campuses and looking to incorporate young people into the workforce. I, like the commenter, am more or less the same age and now with enough distance between graduating from college and now, I'm actually a little appalled at the blatant indifference of employers and industry had towards employing youth.

Admittedly Gen X was not known for its reliability, but the amount of scrutiny, let alone political and outright corrupt BS I, and I assume others, in my generation had to tolerate was just not justified. Tell me if you haven't had to deal with this type of behavior in your 20's?

1. Misleading job descriptions and titles. "Analysts" "Interns" "researchers." And all you did was file and fax and do meaningless data entry.

2. Psychotic bosses. One 42 year old woman would keep me hostage in her office complaining about work. A conman and a liar who damn well knew what he was doing just to make commission. And an outright megalomaniac who specialized in getting naive Asian investors to invest in his "dotcom" company, as he just took the proceeds and bought cars and flights with it. This one runs the gambit I'm sure, but a disproportionate percent of my bosses had genuine psychological problems or just completely lacked a moral compass.

3. Lack of training. "Must hit the ground running" means "we're too damn lazy to train you and we'll blame your guaranteed future mishaps not on the lack of training, but you." Did ANYBODY out there EVER had ANYONE train them in adequately? I'm not talking an abundance of hand holding, I'm just talking showing people the ropes to the point they're functional on their own.

4. Suffering the inanity of HR. I could go on for pages, but you know precisely what I'm talking about.

5. The BS of "if you work hard and put your time in, you will be rewarded." No, they'll just give you more work, and that's if you're lucky enough to have an employer that is managed well enough to be around and not file for bankruptcy.

Of course at the time, I thought I was a failure. I couldn't find a job, I couldn't find a job that would use my skills, heck, most of the time I couldn't get past the 23 year old girl asking me stupid questions. But then I had an epiphany much like when I was 23 about dating 20 something women. It wasn't me, it was the system.

When I was about 30 I noticed the sheer corruption infecting the banking industry, and how incompetent corporate America had become. I was able to step back and maybe grant myself some credit, and noticed how poorly managed corporate American was by its stewards. I realized just what a psychotic, sick and twisted game our elders were playing on us. There was never any intention of "helping out" the next generation get their feet wet and incorporate us into the working world. There was never any "grooming" or "preparation" for us to inevitably get the experience needed to take the helm as they retired off into the night. And there was never any desire on their part to mentor or train. It was just "forget long term planning and forget long term consequences. Just use them and get rid of them if they aren't a "self-starter." Or they can't handle the "steep learning curve." And, just like men in the manosphere started waking up to the systematic problems in American courtship, people are waking up to this systematic problem too.

There will be a consequence. Heck, there already is. A stale and increasingly ineffective managerial and executive class that can't get this country out of a recession. Additionally a managerial and executive class, that as far as I can tell, can only increase the bottom line through rent seeking, lobbying and graft. None of which will lead to genuine economic growth or a boost in standards of living. They are what the Japanese referred to as "dinosaurs," and is yet another parallel between the US economy today and that of Japan in the 1990's-2000's. Economic decay will be one thing, generational resentment and indifference will be another.

But still, I'd like to think that back in the day, there was a time where such outreach programs did exist to help bring aboard the best talent. I'd like to think back in the day companies wanted you to join their team and would deal with you honestly and directly. Of course, I know those days are gone. To quote a friend of mine whose brother recently graduated with a Harvard MBA;

"So, did he learn anything that common sense wouldn't have told him?"

"Oh, no, of course not. But he didn't go there for that. He went there for the connections. He's got a digital Rolodex of all the children of east coast billionaires who went to school with him."

Surely there is no consequence to cronyism.

Future Unemployed Losers of America

Honest to god. And you idiot leftists claim we don't spend enough on education.

How to Tell When to Short a Currency

When they elect a hyphenated-named leftist to their premiership.

Who also happens to be young and good looking (gee, where have I heard this before?)

What's the Danish currency? Would provide for a nice diversification since the Swiss central bank decided to get interventiony with their Francs.

regardless, time to pull the ole OECD stats and files on Victor Borge's home country.

But You Don't "Need" Those Freedoms

I had a conversation with a middle aged female friend of mine. I can't exactly explain why she's my friend, aside from I believe her to be a good person deep down in side. But she is a raving typical middle aged American female liberal and thusly has never really had to ponder or think about where she is and is NOT allowed in terms of other people's business.

It started with the smoking ban and no matter how much I tried to convey to her the concept of private property, private owners doing what they want on THEIR land, she still lacked the intellect to admit other people have the right to do what they want on their property.

After discussing abortion, smoking, gun ownership underage drinking, etc. etc., she still failed to grasp the "15 year old could understand it" concept of "live and let live."

No, she thought it her place (albeit unconsciously) it was her place to dictate to other people what they should and should not do.

Ultimately she said (and again, unconsciously no doubt), "but you don't need those freedoms."

It is ignorance and idiocy like that, that makes me no longer care about the difference between;

1. conscious evil, KNOWINGLY trying to get you to forfeit your freedoms to take advantage of you (ala Obama).

2. Unconscious evil (aka ignorance, Peggy Joseph, my friend), blindly going with emotion to unknowingly vote us into a state of tyranny.

So (to quote your lover President Zero)

LET ME BE CLEAR and link to something that may convey the concept of freedom to you ignoramuses out there. Freedom is the right of a person to make a decision for themslves. Good or bad, right or wrong, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else, it's none of your god damned business. And if you can't get that concept down and respect that, you are simply tyrannical, conscious or not, and your "voting freedom" should be stripped, by force if necessary.

I guess what makes me so angry about this is how so many adults (and by "adults" I mean people who I view to be older than me and would have been adults when I was a kid) are still so damn stupid. As if age and experience has taught them nothing.

I Guess I'm Shorting Rupees

Well, now all we need is China to go that route and we'll all tank together as one big global family. There will be NO economic growth ANYWHERE!

Again people, GLEOC is the wrong paradigm (ooo! Look! I used a fancy liberal word!)

I'd Rather Have President Camacho

Idiocracy is a great movie that you need to watch. If for any other reason it is already a reality. Regardless, I cannot help but realize how I really would rather have President Camacho for president than President Zero. So some lighter fare for you folk.

It's Called Capital Flight

But you don't want to bother yourself with such matters.

Liberals Don't Know the Difference Between a Million, a Billion and a Trillion

Was reading this great article about capital flight. But then I see in the comments something that has confirmed my fears about the youth in this country;

They don't bleeping know the bleeping difference between a billion, a million and a trillion.


Of course this makes sense because I really believe most people who vote for Barack Obama, let alone still support him today, probably don't know the severity or the weight of annual and perpetual trillion dollar plus deficits.

This Encuero idiot ACTUALLY BELIEVES taking "half a billion" and spreading it across the 455 million Americans (did we all just start making with the hanky panky here to magically boost our population by a full third in the past year????) will result in an additional 455 million MILLIONAIRES.

he's so stupid he doesn't realize the real math would be that you would have simply given 455 million people a whopping....

$1 each.

In other words ladies and gentlemen, how on god's great earth can you fight this ignorance?

one of the biggest problems I face when teaching finance and economic seminars, or even having political discussions or debates, is the herculean task of;

1. Convincing people they are wrong
2. Deconstructing their erroneous beliefs and showing them why they were wrong
3. Teaching them how things work in the real world.

But when you've been believing something for 45 years and never bothered to figure out how it works or to confirm it whether to be true (let alone be so effing stupid you don't know the difference between a million and a billion), it becomes pointless. It becomes sheer futility.

So just stop trying to convince people. They'll find out soon enough what the difference between a billion and a trillion is when we have to use truckloads of dollars to buy a loaf of bread.

Poetic Justice Hits Minnesota

I have managed to "temporarily" escape my "captors" and will soon be held hostage again.

However, I was sent this piece that mandated I break free and write about it.

Ahhhh, Minnesota. Ignorance and naivete gets hit upside with reality.

If only, IF ONLY there was some guy, who maybe graduated from the U of MN, a home boy hero that could have (literally) singlehandedly saved the state economy.

But no, no such man existed. Besides, you all wanted to invest you money with the Tom Petters and Denny Heckers of Minnesota. You know those up and coming "businessmen" who frequently made the front pages as hometown heroes.

On a related side note, it just keeps getting better and better. We don't have a professional sports team in South Dakota.

Hey, you Minnesotans and Dayton voters, you crazy kids enjoy that decline!

The Captain is Being Held Hostage

The Captain is being held hostage.

He will not be released, and therefore not be able to make any new posts, until he receives 100,000 new hits (or he raises $5,000 from book/kindle sales ahem ahem, cough cough!)

The following brilliant posts (full of super-awesome economic genius) will be forwarded, linked to, facebooked, "reddited," etc., BY YOU until our 100,000 new hits demand is met.

The "Great Liberal Economic Oort Cloud."

A "Cold Detroit"

My "Bondage A Go Go Girl Story"

Women's Rights Movement Felled By a Collapse in the Division of Labor

Since Christmas shopping season is coming, You WILL Buy Your Children TOYS!!!!

And at the request of our good friend Sr. Ortega, "Unfortunately, Men Do Exist."

No additional future posts will be forthcoming until YOU, fellow Cappy Cappites!

post!

paste!

link!

reddit!

delicious!

mention at a party when you're totally trying to get with that hot chick and said to yourself, "hey, you know, I could totally get her to come back with me to my apartment if I lay down some SUPER AWESOME ECONOMIC GENIUS! where or where could I find that? Heh! Wait! I know! The Captain has that stuff posted on his super awesome website! I should go there and plagiarize some of that stuff and totally swoon her off of her feet even though it should be sweep off of her feet, but I like to say the word swoon because that ooooo sound is about the coolest sound in the entire English language."!

to the point we achieve the 100,000 new hit mark.

Until our demands are met the Captain will never write or post again.

Compliance is mandatory!

Conformance is required!

Heck, it'd be real swell if you just forward some posts or make some linkage.

Epic Fail

Patricia D once again proves that the average American adult is too ignorant and stupid about basic economics and that we should test people before we give them the right to vote.

OK, one more time, just because I love flogging this dead horse.

Liberals, leftists, socialists and other people who generally disagree with me about all matters economic.

Your understanding of how the economy works is wrong. You believe in the GLEOC model which presumes investments in education, health care, welfare, etc. will some how magically spur jobs. To pay for this you have only one, very tired, very worn out tool;

Tax the rich/corporations.

The problem is that you are once again putting the cart before the horse. Education, health care, welfare and whatever other things you call "investments" have no merit unto themselves. They do not spur jobs. It is the pursuit of profit, material items, wealth and the happiness that creates jobs. And when you punish people through taxation and (as it actually pertains more to Obama's policies) scare those "evil businesses away" with taxation and regulation for DARING to make a profit or DARING to buy luxury items, you kill the one thing that creates jobs.

If you don't believe me, think of it in another way. Is there any purpose of getting an education if there are no jobs? A lot of former Obama supporters who are recent college graduates are getting to face this question. Of course those who are too ashamed to admit they were wrong will claim "education is not about finding a job, it's about becoming a better person and getting an experience." I wonder how long they will stand by that argument when there's no food on the table.

If that doesn't convince you, then ask yourself this question. Does the existence of a government result in the creation of a society? Or is it the existence of a society that results in the creation of a government?

The short version of GLEOC is that the government does nothing to produce real economic growth and therefore real jobs. Simply because by its nature it can't. It GOVERNS society. It lives off of society. If there was no society, there would be no government. Ergo it is society that needs to create the jobs, not government.

Regardless, you keep voting in what deep down inside you all know to be true ignorance. You keep letting your ego and your feelings get in the way. You keep on telling yourself just like an aged 1960's hippie-turned-burnt-out-professor you were right for all these years even as the economy collapses around you DESPITE having more or less complete liberal policies enacted. It won't do a damn thing for you, and worse, it will make your children's future truly worse.

Or perhaps as my friend John said, "I love watching liberals have children nowadays. It's great entertainment. They now finally have skin in the game."

Enjoy the decline!

Holy Sane City Council Batman!

Rosemount, which I have driven through many times, has actually LOWERED property taxes!

This is the first time I've ever heard of a city LOWERING property taxes...well...ever. At least in the state of Minnesota.

Of course, I will continue to relish watching the rest of the Twin Cities implode as the good little Scandinavian liberals keep voting to fleece themselves because that's what good, guilt-ridden liberals do. I'm just waiting for the day 3M moves out of the state and they do not have the intelligence to ask "why," but will instead blame it on "evil big business" simply being "evil" and pout.