Moving 3M to Canada

The Captain,

because of his calm demeanor,
patience for office politics,
passion for traffic laden commutes,
capacity to endure inept leadership and management,
and tolerance for incompetence

is primarily self-employed.

The majority of his income comes from him instructing others be it dance classes, finance seminars, or writing books because, frankly, in all instances he has no boss. He gets to decide how things get done and (surprise surprise) it GETS DONE BETTER, FASTER AND CHEAPER than if he had some middle management yutz looking over his shoulder all the time.

However, whatever success the Captain has had, has been preceded by many failures. And that is the trick to success - failure.

For every successful venture I've come up with, there's been at least 3-4 ideas that just never took. It's very much like dating. In my youth I was considered a player. But for every girl that said yes, there was at least 8 that said no. Still, the frequency of my success led men in my cadre to believe I was a player, and this principle still applies to economic adventures.

So the Captain's come up with a new one. And, like all the other ventures before it, he's planning on this one failing too. But if it takes...hooooo boy! The Captain might just buy that Pontiac Solstice he's always wanted.

The idea is based on "capital flight." And essentially your beloved Captain would be a broker, brokering deals to get companies out of the US and move their headquarters to.....

Canada.

"Canada?" You ask.

"Yes, Canada." I reply.

"Why Canada?" you might ask.

Well here's why.

First, you have an increasingly hostile environment here in the US towards "big business." If you can stomach the outright lies and ignorance, listen to the Ed Schulz Show and you cannot go 15 minutes without one caller calling in and saying,

"You know, when are we going to have policies for the little man? When can your hard working Joe get a job? Where are all those jobs?"

and within 5 minutes another caller calling in and saying,

"You know, it's these damn corporations that aren't paying their fair share. We need to tax them and the rich! When are these criminals going to be forced to do their part for society?"

The entire time Ed just blatheringly agreeing with them.

But it goes beyond lefties listening to commie radio. There is a critical mass of people who are so blindingly ignorant of basic economics, they blame almost all problems on "big business" and "the rich."

Ask your average 22 year old "college graduate" the solution?

Tax the rich.

Why are we in the economic situation we're in?

Big business and George Bush.

Why are their nuclear reactor problems in Japan?

Big business cut costs just like they did in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Of course the solution is to tax and regulate (and then whine when there aren't any jobs), but in the end the business climate in the US is simply hostile. Businesses should be looking to relocate.

Second, where does a business decide to relocate? Well among other things you look for a stable country, with the rule of law, relatively uncorrupt, and an educated population. Well shucks howdy, Canada not only has all those things, but they're right next door to the US. And not only are they next door, they speak English. And not only do they have these things, guess what? Despite the Magic O bringing Kumbya Nirvana to the US, it seems Canada is trouncing the US in terms of corruption. 8.9 vs 7.1 (the color is misleading as the US is at the bottom of that color spectrum while Canada is at the top).


Third, have you looked at the finances of Canada vs. the US? I'll take Mr. Harper over Mr. Obama any day.

Fourth, and here is where the ole Captain hopes to bag some great clients. Statutory corporate tax rates in the US are 40%. In Canada, they are slated to be a mere 15% come 2012. Mexico, 30%.


Now is the time you can fully expect the automotonic response from the left about "the corporations don't pay that amount. They use LOOPHOLES. Their effective corporate tax rates are MUCH lower."

Yeah, "much" lower. try 32%. And forget the whole concept a corporation wouldn't be engaging in the accounting trickery in the first place if corporate tax rates weren't 40%. And never mind if they move to Canada they would still beat the effective corporate tax rate by more than half.

But I am not here to preemptively strike leftist arguments about corporate taxes (no matter how fun and easy it is to do). I'm here to simply point out a very lucrative market.

Say I approach 3M (whose CEO has been hinting he might make a great client). Well, of course the leftists here hate big business. And since 3M doesn't pay any taxes here at all because of "loopholes" then nobody should miss them if they up and leave, right?

Well here's 3M's latest income statement;



Wow, I guess they are paying taxes after all!

Not the 40%, but just shy of 30% on average.

Now assume good ole George of 3M decides to hire the Captain. The Captain arranges for some meetings, and we get 3M to relocate to Canada.

What kind of savings did the ole Captain bring to the 3M shareholders?

Well, under the Captain's plan 3M shareholders would have to pay $863 million in taxes.

In 2010 they paid $1.6 billion.

A savings of $740 million.

The type of dollar figures I'm talking here are on par with the other brilliant idea I had about...oh.....5 years ago. Back then I had this funny idea there was a housing bubble forming. And that if the entire financial services industry just listened to me (or Shiller, or Roubini, or Schiff), I would have saved the country hundreds of billions of dollars.

But nooooo. You don't have an MBA and didn't go to Harvard like our dear leader, Obama.

Regardless and sarcasm aside, you throw in a 3M, a General Mills, a Best Buy, a Cargill and soon we're talking real money. And not only are we talking real money. We're talking huge economic ramifications for the country.

For you see, the ole Captain, along with all of his readers, can go ahead and laugh at himself knowing due to the lethargy of corporate America, such a revolutionary idea is nearly impossible. And the Captain, like when he went up and asked out Charmin Michelle not knowing who she was, is fully aware his chances are very slim. But for all of the people in the US who love to hate corporate America and blame "big business" for everything, don't worry. The Captain is working on it right now to get those evil, icky, yucky gross corporations out of here so you don't have to suffer under them any more.

A Twist of Irony

As some of you may or may not know, I have a little moonlighting career as a dance instructor (which thanks to the housing crash is the only form of employment I have).

That being said, I found it interesting that one of my students is named "Adam Smith."

Coincidence?

I think not.

The Gods of Economics watch over me.

Should Obama Lose, He Can't Blame Racism

Sadly, it's become such a broken record that Republicans are already forecasting it. If Obama wins the democratic nomination, then if he loses the presidential race it will be proof once again that "oh, what a horribly racist country this is," and "oh, what a horribly injust society this is" and "oh, what a bunch of racist bastards those evil Republicans are." And so you can see them practicing their walking on eggshells already.

But I posed a question/poll a week ago or so, because I had a hunch that reflects what I believe to be the majority of people's views. That it's not about your race as much as it is about the policies you endorse. And if you endorse socialism, doesn't matter what race you are, you're probably going to lose. Oh sure, you'll win state offices in California or Vermont, but you won't win the presidency. Unfortunately there's still too many of those damn hard working, independent capitalists out there.

Thus I was not surprised to find out the results of my poll. That when asked "What concerns you more about Obama? The Che poster at one of his campaign offices or the picture of him dress in some kind of Somali garb" the vast majority of people said the Che poster concerned them more.

Also keep in mind this question was posed to readers of Captain Capitalism, who of course are racist, bigotted, hate filled puppy kickers. The rest of society would presumably be even less concerned about the Somali garb.

Regardless the point is I've just delivered another softball to the Republicans. Should Obama lose to McCain, I don't want to hear a peep about racism. Obama will lose not because of his race, but because the man is a socialist. (Note how I'm just assuming Obama will win the democratic nomination)

(OK, I just took a closer look at the chart and noticed that this damn MS Excel 2007 converted the numbers to percentages, but not the actual percentages, it just put a percent sign in front of the number and a comma. Anybody up for taking up pitch forks and torches and heading down to Microsoft's HQ to kill the bastard that created this latest suite of MS Office? I swear, I'm saving my old version of Office 2003 till I die).

Can't Have It Both Ways Boys

The Dow Jones today continued its gains after the Federal Reserve said it'd do all in its power to prevent a liquidity crisis. However, the price of oil shot to an all time high above $110, this then triggered a sell off and brough the DJIA into negative territory.

What angers me about this is that the stock market went up and then down for THE SAME REASON. In other words, the cause for the increase in the stock market was the same cause for its decrease.

The Fed swore it would come to Wall Street's rescue even if that meant pumping the economy with hundreds of billions of dollars in liquidity.

YEA!!!!!

But in pumping hundred of billions of dollars into the economy, it further weakened the dollar. And if you've been paying attention, the reason oil has been going up in price is not that oil is becoming more valuable, but the dollar is becoming less and less valuable. And so by vowing to save Wall Street, the Fed hurts the dollar and drives up the price of oil which drove stock prices down.

Boo!!!!!

So Wall Street, Ivy Leaguing, Bulge Bracketing gurus, which one is it?

I Are Sick

Sorry for the lack of posts Captain Capitalismites, but I haven't been this sick in a while. And maybe some of you medical capitalists out there can explain to me that when I get sick why do all my dreams revert to dreaming about solving mathematical or physical riddles and repetitiously. Almost as if your brain is trying to figure out the DNA code of the virus you got.

In any case I am also working on that book, which is 14 chapters out of 22 done. Many thanks to Bucktown for his help.

Regardless, I am sick and in being sick you cannot contribute to GDP. But I was glad to see Americans, true to their work-avoiding form, decided that despite a housing crash and an impending social security crisis we've now reverted to credit cards to maintain our consumption (without any additional production).



And you wonder why the dollar is tanking

A Friendly Reminder - If Corporations Really Cared About Global Warming...

Given the price of gas going up and we're facing $4 gallon of gas, I thought this little post I made a while ago might convince those corporate social responsibility types up in the executive offices about just how much they're contributing to global warming by forcing millions of Americans to pointlessly commute. Think of how much publicity your corporation would get if you made telecommuting an official corporate policy!

What I don’t get is power.

Money I can understand, but power, that is something very human, maybe the key to evil.

The reason I say that is I look at all the people running for office and you wonder, why would some of these people even bother? They’re so loaded, you’d think the last thing they’d want is a full time job and instead should be off on a cruise somewhere soaking up the rays, eating sushi till their death.

John Edwards is the perfect example. Multi millionaire, set for life and yet he chooses to work.

His senior running partner from a presidential election ago, John Kerry, had the sweet set up. Married to a ketchup heiress. Why run for senate, let alone the 80 hour work week president?

And a local here in Minnesota, though he is no more on the political scene, Mark “Daddy’s Boy” Dayton, heir to the Dayton empire, decided to buy himself a senator’s seat two terms ago.

Alas they still run, by the droves. Pretty much everybody in congress and the presidency don’t need the job, but they fight, lie, cheat and take donations from illegal sources to maintain their position of power like there’s no tomorrow. Alas, I cannot figure out why.

But “power” isn’t an addictive drug that just affects politicians. You look at pretty much any institution and “power” is a reward unto itself. Government, non-profits, political organizations, corporations, militant groups, you name it. But the place I see the irrational addiction to power most flagrantly violating common sense is in corporate America, particularly when it comes to telecommuting.

I don’t think I’ve had a job in the past 10 years where I HAD to be at the office to do it. With “today’s” technology (which has been available for about a decade) the vast majority of office and corporate jobs could be done from home.

E-mail, attaching documents, conducting research, calling people, presentations, etc., all the duties, functions and responsibilities of your typical office job can be done from home. And not to mention pretty much every American household has the computer, fax and other machinery to accommodate this. But try to get your boss, let alone anybody with the power who could make it a corporate wide policy to endorse telecommuting is like getting congress to get a flat tax; it would all make our lives incredibly easier, but the politics of power block it every time.

However, this time there is a little political twist. Far from the comfort, job satisfaction and happiness of millions of workers everywhere being the impetus to implementing telecommuting, global warming is providing the political incentive to cut back on greenhouse gases and gasoline consumption. And with this political twist, corporations are bending over backwards to present themselves as “green” companies. NBC with their ridiculous “black out” during a football game comes to mind. However, wouldn’t it make sense, such an unbelievably, incomprehensible simple, simple sense to endorse and aggressively pursue implementing a “maximum telecommuting policy?”

I mean, come on. It’s a win win win win win situation.

The corporation not only gets to feign being green, IT ACTUALLY IS BEING GREEN!

Employee job satisfaction would rise like you wouldn’t believe, not to mention the resulting increase in labor productivity.

Greenhouse gases would drop more than any worthless Kyoto Protocol or “Carbon Trading Indulgences…errr I mean “permits” would cause.

TRAFFIC! Good Lord! Could you imagine the elimination of rush hour from every major metropolis? Nobody would be going to work!

The TIME saved from wasting your time commuting. Instead you could spend it sleeping, improve your health, and spend more time with your family instead. Maybe even divorce rates would go down?

And let’s not forget about the costs we’d save on the transportation budgets at the state, federal and local levels! We wouldn’t need any new roads, it would just be maintenance. Tax cuts all around, or if you’re a lefter leaning sort, “more spending for more worthless social program X.”

And if corporations really, REALLY wanted to help the nation become independent from oil, how about not requiring us to drive to your lousy, stinking office in the first place? Could you imagine what would happen to the price of gas if we didn’t have to commute?

All these benefits are certainly achievable, but there’s just one thing blocking the way;

Power.

Specifically corporate power.

For whatever sick twisted reason, I have to drive to the office. I certainly don’t need to. I have a computer at home, a fax at home and even a web cam. But no, my boss insists I drive to the office. Why?

So I can do what I would have normally done at home.

Of course when confronted with the option or request of telecommuting, there is no good reason they can give you, other than they want you to be under their control. They want you to be there, where they can see you, because lord knows that if you were working from home, you’d be drunk, high and bringing hookers over on a coke while you play Halo 3 all day and sell corporate secrets on E-Bay.

And if you think my claim that corporations do this for purely power and political reasons, consider the most obvious and egregious use and abuse of power by corporations;

The meeting.

Cripes. Does a bigger destroyer and depleter of productivity, GDP and work exist? The meeting must have been a creation of communists in a desperate attempt to slow down capitalist economies.

The meeting works like this;

Big time, gray haired bosses like to see how much of other people’s time they can send into a black hole. ALL people, no matter how irrelevant their job is to the presumed purpose of the meeting are required to attend. Nobody is listening to the current speaker because it’s irrelevant to their job. Meanwhile, the brown nosers, who like you have no purpose of being at the meeting either, ask a litany of questions or blather on about their project to make themselves sound busy and productive, which only lengthens the pain and suffering of those who actually have REAL work to do. Meanwhile the boss sits there, laughing inside, knowing he or she is exercising their power forcing you to waste your time and made you spend the money on gas to attend the meeting.

It is proof positive the only reason you commute is because irrational corporate power wants you to jump through hoops like meetings, commuting, participating in “corporate charity events.”

So my fellow junior, deputy, aspiring, official or otherwise economists, just like the US’ tax system, just like the raj system in India and just like Kim Jong Il in North Korea, the masses are expected to suffer some more for irrational power. For while a life of never commuting again, spending more time with your family, sleeping in for a full 9 hours a day, eliminating the country’s dependence on oil, not to mention finally ending this stupid debate about global warming, as well as the limitless economic benefits telecommuting would provide we’re going to continue to pointlessly drive billions of miles for the sole reason of petty, corporate power.

Not Out of the Woods Yet When it Comes to Housing

It will get worse before it gets better. Some charts that have been burning a hole in my pocket from the WSJ;

The Captain Tenders a Question

So I finish my dance class in Minneapolis. And I have to drive through the town of St. Louis Park, which has a heavy Jewish population. And I hadn't eaten since 2PM and a good ole fashioned, Jewish deli sandwich sounded heavenly. But it's about 930 at night and I wouldn't mind having a drink.

And then it occurs to me.

They have Irish bars.

They have German bars.

They even have Italian bistros.

But I've never heard of a Jewish bar.

And the more I drove through St. Louis Park, and the more I realized I would literally have killed for a good rye sandwich with a tall beer next to it, the more I started asking myself;

"Why isn't there such a thing as a "Jewish Bar?" I think the idea would be amazing.

I am only Jewish via bloodlines, but can somebody who is a practicing Jew explain to me why there isn't a Jewish bar??? Seriously, I think it's a million dollar idea.

What Disturbs You More About Obama

I mean this as a serious question, I am not mocking or making fun of Obama, but which of these two images disturbs you more about Obama;

1. The fact he wore some Somali/Muslim garb



or

2. The fact he has a Che Guevara poster in one of his offices.


(BTW ef Che, he's a loser)

I have a feeling I already know the answer, but I ask for a reason so that I can predict something that would be of significant importance should he lose either the democratic nomination or the presidential election. I would appreciate your truthful and sincere opinion.

Just a Friendly Reminder How Right I Usually Am

Found this old post.

Good ole Hugo.

If you're about to lose power, start a war.

Actually, how are the leftists that love Hugo going to rationalize their love for him now? He started a war, just like Bush! He's a warmonger!


Ahhh, but he's their warmonger.

Beggars Can't Be Choosers

What I find sad is that the state of education in the US is so pathetic, that your average American doesn't know that Dhabi and the UAE are probably the best allies we have in the middle east and prove that the West, Islam and capitalism actually can get along, even benefit one another.

Captain Capitalism's 2008 Annual Chart Contest!

It occurred to me during the busy season of dance classes, taxes and writing a book, that now would be a great time to implement 2008's Captain Capitalism's Annual Chart Contest!!!

Yes, you too can be a great chartist (not the British political party) like myself!

Just submit your charts to captcapitalism@yahoo.com (remember it's CAPTcapitalism@yahoo.com, not CAPTAINcapitalism) and in doing so, not only will your chart be posted, but whoever comes up with the best chart wins...

$50

AND

A signed photo of the Captain

AND

The Official Junior Deputy Economist Award

AND

The Captain's instructional dance video of your choice!

How can you NOT enter????

So start sending in those charts! (Besides, I am serious lacking time to post any serious commentary and chartage, so help me out!)

How the Dollar Affects the Price of Oil

There was a chart in the WSJ yesterday and it’s important that you understand it.

People will blame cartels and “Big Oil” for the rise
in oil prices.  Somehow thinking that evil
corporations are conspiring against them.  In the same
line, people will also wonder how is it the price of
oil keeps going up when the world’s largest economy
has stalled in terms of economic growth, which logic
would dictate would cause oil prices to go down.  The
two are not unrelated.

The key thing is that in terms of the US dollar the
price of oil has skyrocketed.  Compared to other
currencies the price of oil has not (and compared to
gold – remember that currency – oil has not even
changed in price in the past 4 years)  This is proof
that the price of oil is going up not because of evil
oil companies or even OPEC is cartelling against us,
but rather the value of the dollar has been dropping,
losing its purchasing power and thus buying less oil.

The question of who to blame for high oil prices is
not “who is controlling the oil” but “who is
destroying the dollar.”  And the answer is three;

1. Greedy, dumb, spoiled Americans that spent
themselves into oblivion by taking out home equity
loans with no ability to pay it back.  If people don’t
pay back their debts,  the currency will suffer.  Just
like the debt defaults of Argentina, Mexico, Brazil,
Russia and so forth, when the people of these
countries (actually their governments) defaulted on
their debts, what was the value then of their
currency?  The same applies here.  You don’t pay back
your debts, nobody wants to invest in your country,
and so the value of your currency will plummet
relative to countries where people have more fiscal
austerity.

2.The specter of recession directly affects the value
of the dollar in that the only thing that gives a
dollar value is the stuff you can buy with it.  An
economy is not about how much money you make (the
government can print off money all it wants).  An
economy is about how much stuff it can produce.  Cars,
food, movies,  cake, video games, planes, etc.  In a
recession an economy “contracts” meaning it produces
less stuff.  So with less stuff, but the same amount
of money (more when you consider the monetary moves
the Fed is making) your money becomes worth less.

3. And the final culprit to blame are those that blame
big oil, namely leftists ;P  For what do they produce?
They protest.  They campaign.  They “bring awareness”
to the issues, but what do hard core activists really
produce?  The answer is nothing.  This wasted labor
does nothing to produce any goods or services that
have value.  Taylor the American protesting Big Oil
(or CAFTA, or what have you) majoring in “peace
studies” is not going to produce anywhere near the
amount that Punjab or Khan is going to produce
programming code or developing a new computer.  And in
doing so, does nothing to help contribute to the
purchasing power of the dollar.

So if you’re sick of high oil prices, how about you do
the following;

1. Pay off your debts.  I had an ingenious idea about
making extra principal payments tax deductible.

2. Find a job and produce something of worth.
3. Quit protesting stuff you don't understand, drop
your major in philosophy, and get a degree in
accounting and start producing something of worth.

See?  This economics stuff ain’t so hard.

Back of Napkin Economics

I posted this exactly a year ago on February 28th, 2007. Thought it timely given all the recession talk and bad news coming from Wall Street. It reminds me of Sinfest where the author of the comic keeps waiting for one of the larger media firms to pick him up when he's supremely talented. Anytime you nearly bankrupt banks admit you need help, I just want to let you know I'm here for you...for a fee...and my dog, you have to let me bring my dog to work...and my cheerleaders too, they have to be part of the deal. I need them for moral support when I'm working. "Go Captain Go! Predict the economy! Model those interest rates! Make middle aged real estate developers cry! Go Captain Go!" Oh, and the office of your president that made you lose millions, I'll want that too. Matter of fact, while we're at it I could really use a bank paid squire with a trumpet to announce my coming. There will no longer be power point presentations. He'll read from scrolls and announce my findings at meetings. Any way, here's the original post, A YEAR AGO MIND YOU NOW!

I always fathomed in the back of my mind kind of a "Museum of Economics" where various artifacts of different economic lore would be stored.

In particular the napkin that Arthur Laffer used to draw his "Laffer Curve" on (although he does not recall writing it on a napkin).

But why does Arthur get all the attention for his napkin? What if I came up with some economic genius of my own and just wrote it on a napkin? Would my napkin then be included in this Museum of Economics? Probably not, but what they heck, we'll give it a shot anyway.

So I happened upon an interesting statistic in The Economist that said for every $100 drop in one's home value, there would be a $3-5 drop in consumer spending. And based on previous research I pulled together, housing looks like it would have to drop by about 33% in order to bring price to rents an price to incomes back in line with historical values;

Now the median home is roughly $240,000 if I recall my stats correctly, implying a $79,000 drop in price in order to correct. This translates into 790 $100 increments which (assuming $4 decrease in spending per $100 drop in house price) results in a $3,160 decrease in consumer spending per house.

According to the Census Bureau there are 126 million housing units which results in a decrease of $400 billion.

$400 billion out of a $13 trillion economy suggests a contraction of 3% which would be enough to send us into a recession.

Now to emulate Arthur Laffer and increase my chances of having a piece of my economic work put into the future Museum of Economics (as well as my chances with the laaaydaaays), I put these quick calculations down on a napkin (actually it toilet paper because I couldn't find any napkins in the office). It's only a matter of time that urban legends spread about me and my napkin writing prowess!

Why Is It Communist Countries Don't Have Bigger Budgets Than Capitalist Countries?

Many thanks to Mr. Hunt for sending me this link that shows Hong Kong CUTTING tax rates because its economy is growing so fast it has that much of a surplus. I was thinking about writing about it, but when I responded to him via e-mail I figured it'd make my point well enough;

Yeah, I saw that. Was going to make a post, but I'm just so damn busy. I really like it in that it shows you something fundamental about economics;

"Communist" countries that are supposed to have high government taxes and therefore high government revenues are dirt poor and can barely afford anything.

"Capitalist" countries that are supposed to have low government taxes and therefore low government revenues, actually have the largest budgets in the world.

In other words, North Korea's government should have TONS more money than the US. But it doesn't because it doesn't have a base to tax.

This shows government for what it truly is; a parasite.

It needs a healthy host to parasite off of. If the government gets too big and the tax base (economy) shrinks, then it doesn't matter what your tax rates are because there's nothing to tax. Which is why I get a kick of how the left wants to "raise taxes" by raising the tax rates. It as the opposite effect. If they really want to "raise tax revenue" then they should lower taxes to attract more commerce.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080227061713.sqghg27b&show_article=1

Big Wheat and Big Iron Obviously Conspiring

Not doubt colluding!

Time to Play "How Much Does My Bank Suck" Game

Hey kids!

Are you a hard working individual that deposited your hard earned money at a bank?

Are you slaving away at a job and paying taxes to make sure the government has enough money to go around?

Were you one of those idiots that actually was responsible and paid your bills and mortgage on time?

Well then, see the latest group to parasite off of you as the FDIC bails out your local neighborhood bank that made crappy real estate loans!

Yes, just click on the link below to the FDIC's financial institution directory and type in a bank of your choosing to see just how bad their financial statements look!

http://www2.fdic.gov/idasp/main.asp

Even if the bank is privately held, it's insured by tax paying suckers like you and therefore they have to make their financial statements public. Why, just today I looked up my previous employer and shucks howdy, their write offs went from $1 million in 2006, to $15 million in 2007 and they don't have enough reserves to cover their potential losses! If only they had a non-conforming independent thinker on staff to warn them about this!

So don't delay! Look up your friendly neighborhood banks today!

What I'd Really Like to Hear the Candidates Talk About

I would love, LOVE to hear a candidate talk bluntly and forthright on how we're going to pay for this;


Of course if they spoke the truth, they wouldn't get elected. Thus, we're going to get;

"This country is in a health care crisis and unless we do something about it, we will have no hope and we're blaming Bush."

The Cost of Insuring Crap

Finally. Risk is being priced reasonably in the market.


Gee, if only housing prices never went down.

Feminism and Anti-Feminism Summed Up in One Succinct Cartoon

Yup, that about sums it up.