Last Words from Lehman Brothers

I teach a class on stock valuation and analysis and one of the exercises I put my students through is to go online and download an annual report of whichever company they like and quote the first sentence in the chairman's letter to the shareholders.

I then relate this to what I call the "Green Bay Packer Syndrome" wherein during my youth growing up in Wisconsin the Green Bay Packers would never, ever, ever win a super bowl, or for that matter a game. And true to form, when they finished the season 0-28, you could rely on Green Bay Packer fans like Obama to spend more money to say, "wait till next year." The same thing applies to ALL publicly traded companies. Doesn't matter that they lost billions. Doesn't matter their product kill 5,000 babies. Doesn't matter they're about to go bankrupt. With lying smiles on their faces they look straight into the camera and say, "Though we may have had some "slight" difficulties this year, we look at it as another opportunity to capitalize upon in our great tradition here at the XYZ Corporation."

Thus I thought it appropriate to post a screen shot of the overpaid, preppy blue blood schmucks, sitting in their hoity toity office at the now befallen piece of Bulge Bracket crap that is known as "Lehman Brothers."



I think I speak for America when I say, "Go ef yourselves!"

Damn He's Good

I don't agree with this cartoonist politically, but damn he's good.

Your Responsibility as an American

People are complaining a lot about the bailout.

And I have one simple point to make;

You are an American. It is therefore your responsibility AS YOU ARE A CITIZEN OF A DEMOCRACY to call your respective congressmen and scream at the top of your lungs that you do not want this bailout (or,maybe you do, I don't know).

But I think a lot of times we forget that we have a responsibility living in a democracy to tell our representatives what we think and what we want. And sometimes, especially if their job is on the line, they will listen.

Pretty much every senator and representative has web page contact info thing you can fill out. It takes about 15 seconds to fill out and then you've probably done more for democracy in those 15 seconds than most do in a year.

American is Great Because It's "America"

Because we're America and that's why we're always great. It's not because the WWII generation kicked ass and took names. It's not because our industrialists created pretty much every invention out there that is carrying the rest of the world into the first world with 100 year old technology. It has nothing to do with those evil rich white men back in the 1700's who created that worthless constitution of the United States or that dumbass "Bill of Rights."

No, it's because we support America and wave flags and cheer really loud and we've always been great. That's why we'll continue to be great! Because our greatness is great and we're America! Cheery happy soccermommy-Apple-Bee's-and-Blockbuster-America!

Like Duh!

Excellent Video on the Housing Crisis

It's almost kind of like a power point version of my book.

I love the charts.

Time to Start Cheering for the Good Guys

Whilst tirading against the bailout and mourning the slow and inevitable slouch towards socialism the US seems hell-bent on, a reader made an excellent point that deserves further attention. I'm paraphrasing, but it basically went like this;

"You're like Hank Rearden when he realizes that it's not society that is behaving irrationally, but given the bail outs, corporate and social welfare, taxation rates, etc., it is your economic behavior that is irrational."

Now I confess I have not read Atlas Shrugged, but the point was still very well made. I, as well as all of you out there are suckers. We're rubes. We're the dumbsh!ts for working hard, paying our taxes, living only in houses we can afford, spending within our means, and otherwise supporting ourselves. That with all the benies government pays to the losers and parasites of society, why on God's green earth would we be working in the first place?

It's an outstanding point. I look back at my life and see just how much work and sweat I put into college, my career, my side jobs, only to have what is essentially the parasites of society lob off 33% of it, and now $700 billion more, and I have a hard time seeing how it was worth it. I'm trying to find out why I slaved and toiled working full time and going to school full time, when I could have just taken the easy way out and said "screw it, I'm collecting welfare and going on MinnCare (Minnesota's state health care) and refusing to work a day in my life." I'm trying to find out why I paid WaMu religiously and timely for every mortgage payment in the past 7 years, only to have their deadbeat leaders come to the government with a cup in their hand and ask for more of my money. I should have just defaulted like everyone else and stayed at home and played video games all day. But the key point is that whereas we berate and loathe such behavior, given the progressively socialist environment foisted on us by the government, how could a rationale person NOT avail themselves of all those benefits? Yes, we detest the parasite, welfare, sub-slime deadbeats who lived in better houses than we did, drove nicer cars than we have, and did it all with no ability to pay, and ultimately on the dime of us responsible members of society, but can you blame them?

And thus, why the entirety of this whole financial/banking/housing situation is so enraging. We did the right thing. We worked hard, we paid our bills, we budgeted, lived within our means and adhered to other simple concepts that 3rd graders can understand. The losers of society, whether knowingly or ignorantly (though I'm going more with knowingly), spent themselves into oblivion. And while they enjoyed luxury cars, sushi diners, trips to Europe and SUV's, we scrimped and saved and conserved, only to ultimately subsidize and bail out these degenerates. But to add insult to injury, as we look back at it, we were the ones who were idiots. We were the ones who were taken. To do the right thing, to work hard, to pay taxes, to pay your mortgage to live within one's means for the past 5 years was laughable and idiotic. We were voluntary hosts to parasites. It is arguably the most angering and depressing feeling a lot of us are feeling right now.

Alas, we are faced with a choice. Do we become "rational" human beings and capitulate to this wave of socialism sweeping the nation? Do we tell our mortgage company to ef off and refuse to pay our mortgage? Do we go out and sign up for welfare and state-paid health care? Or do we continue in our idiotic, archaic, obsolete 1940's old-school-American ways and continue to work hard and live within our means? Let me argue for that "stupid" "old school" Americanism.

First off you must realize the honor that comes with being one of those dwindling few that support themselves. If it weren't for us, the entire human race would cease to exist. I'm not saying this as hyperbole or rhetoric, I mean that dead-seriously. If it weren't for the producers, the human race would cease to exist. There'd be no New York, there'd be no X-Box, there'd be no ice cream there'd be no wiener dogs. The reason is very simple; if you don't produce, if you don't support yourself, then by definition you will die. And the same thing applies on a society wide level. I've always asked myself "what would happen to the country if all the Libertarians, republicans, conservatives and other varied sorts of capitalists, just ceased to exist?" And the answer is very simple; there'd be no country. We are the people who work and make this country go. We are the people who made America great. It is the workers and producers and entrepreneurs of the world that are the sole reason for advances in technology, creations in medicine, democracy, flight, cars, scotch and everything else. Everybody else is in the most literal sense, irrelevant to humankind and human history.

Second, is the nobility of independence. I don't know how many times back in college I heard some little 20 something girl, fresh out of a women's studies class bravado about how she was "independent."

Oh sure, dad bought her a brand new car.

And paid her rent.

And paid her credit card bills.

And her tuition for her worthless sociology degree.

Oh, but she was "independent."

And the womens studies professors. Certainly even more adamant about their independence than their student.

Oh sure, nobody in the private sector would hire them.

And the only thing they do is teach a study whose only function is to be retaught to the next generation of kids with no practical application outside academia.

And in most cases, these professors are in the public schools thereby necessitating the only way they'd get paid is if the government forces tax payers to cough up the money for something they wouldn't have spent money on otherwise.

But they're independent.

And those preppy frat boys soon to become Wall Street's finest as they kiss ass and suck...errr...I mean "work real hard" pulling off C's and D's in college because they know daddy has a job lined up for them in the end, so why work anyway?

Oh yeah, they're "independent."

Especially when they go to the government and need a bail out for Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, AIG. Oh yeah, real independent.

Let me tell you who is really independent.

The burger flipper at McDonald's who is slaving away to make ends meet and doesn't have the luxury of being a suburbanite prince or princess. He's independent.

The security guard who works the third shift so s/he can go to school during the day so they might be able to better themselves. They are independent.

The blue collar family that lives within their means and BUDGETS (any of you parasites ever hear of that word), to ensure they don't spend more than they make. They are independent.

And the capitalist or entrepreneur that saves their money, starts a company, fails but then doesn't go to the government for a subsidy or a check. He is independent.

Independence is arguably the most noble trait to have. It means you are truly and genuinely supporting yourself and do not rely upon others. Furthermore, it means you are a contributing member to society. Even if you think it a menial task or job you have, the burger flipper at McDonald's has done more to advance society than the highly paid Wall Street investment banker who's asking the government for a bail out because he's truly and genuinely INDEPENDENT. And it is because we are truly independent (not just "told" we're independent by some academian putz) that makes us (and I mean this seriously) better people than those who are dependent no matter what our financial background.

Finally, to give those of you who are independent, self-supporting contributing members of society one final thing to think about; who would you rather be?

I've often opined what would it be like to be a welfare bum or suburbanite prince/princess or "professional activist" on their death bed. To have all those years of lying about, not producing, not making anything of this one, precious finite life you have, and then when the end of that life is upon you, don't you have just a little bit of remorse or lament you've pissed it away?

When I die, I will be proud. I have taught thousands of people how to dance. I've taught thousands of people about personal financial management. I've gotten hundreds of little kids interested in paleontology and fossils. I hope I educate millions about the housing crisis. And for my day job (though it sounds nerdy) I've allocated capital efficiently. I can point to something so when I'm on deathbed I can say, "hey, good or bad, sub-prime deadbeats parasiting off of me or not, I achieved some amazing sh!t."

The dependent, the deadbeats, the losers who we are currently bailing out, can't say that. All they will be able to say is "I sat around and watched TV while collecting a government check."

"I helped bring the world's largest economy to recession as well as the global economy while I pocketed $100 million in a severance package."

"I filed for bankruptcy 3 times and had the consumer eat the extra costs."

When you die, you will leave a legacy. Maybe you aren't Tony Stark. Maybe you're not Bill Gates. But in the end, you will be able to point to your life and say, "I didn't waste it." You will go down in history as one of the producers. One of the independents. Alas, rational or not, there's nothing wrong with wanting to be Hank Rearden.

The Blame Game

It was requested that I repost this, so here it is, newer posts follow this one;

If you ask the majority of American's it's Alan Greenspan's fault.

If you ask Barack Obama, it's George Bush's and the Republicans' fault.

If you ask John McCain it's Wall Street's fault.

And if you ask Nancy Pelosi it's anybody, but the democrats' fault.

So who's to blame then?

None of the above.

In intellectual honesty we have to give credit where credit is due. Nancy Pelosi is "most right" when she says the democrats are largely un-blamable when it comes to the country's current economic woes. This ignores the fact that the democrats and leftists in this country have effectively cut off the supply of oil in the US and therefore did contribute to the increase in prices and thus the economic slow down, as well as pressured lenders to lend to the lesser qualified to get them re-elected, but these are very tangential to the current crisis.

Second "most right" is John McCain. Wall Street and their mortgage backed securities gurus highlighted in the Sub Prime Primer did provide a venue for which banks could unload worthless mortgages and effectively made them brokers with every incentive for volume and very little for quality. But this is not the primary culprit.

Then you have outright ignorant people who lack the intellectual rigor or curiosity to learn the facts for themselves and become informed, educated people, preferring to just find a scape goat because blaming one person is easier than trying to learn about international finance, monetary policy and price to rents ratios. Yes, of course, Alan Greenspan, how obvious. When he wasn't tripping nuns, kicking kittens and putting hot sauce in the retirement community's water supply, he was actively plotting the destruction and demise of the US housing market.

And do I have to even explain Barack Obama's claim it was Bush's fault? What isn't? Seriously. I got behind an old fart driving on the interstate today, that was Bush's fault. The sun was shining a bit too brightly when I went to lunch. That was Bush's fault. I had a bit of indigestion. That was obviously Bush's fault. Sadly, for a man who claims to bring change, he's just playing politics as usual.

No, the real culprit boils down to two groups of people; one of which no politician has the cajones to point out and another group we all love to blame.

The first group of people who are genuinely the ones to blame for the housing crisis we're in are banks and bankers. Long story short (though I definitely go into more detail in my book) banks, their management and their foot-soldier bankers put their commissions ahead of the American public and lent, lent and lent as they racked themselves up bonuses, commissions and undeserved raises. With little to no regard to the likelihood of repayment, they lent money to deadbeat losers to boost sales and make their figures look better, and to such an extent it threatened the stability of the US (and world) financial system, all at the expense and insurance of the US taxpayer.

The second group deserving the blame is a revolutionary idea I had, also detailed in the book;

Would we even have these problems if people did what they said they were going to and PAY BACK THEIR FREAKING LOANS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Has that thought occurred to anyone? That if the people who put their signature on the loan documents, "promissory notes" suggesting they (I don't know) PROMISE to pay the money they borrowed back, then we wouldn't be having this discussion?! You know, like they agreed to return the money they took? Like how it's been done for eons? You pay back what you owe and do what you're going to say?

The fact that this group has gone completely unmentioned shows us not only how cowardly politicians are to put blame where it is richly-deserved (the deadbeats and losers of the American public), but how personal responsibility has been erased from the American lexicon. Not only do people lack personal responsibility, but society almost fails to expect or demand it. No longer is it the deadbeat trailer trash mom borrowing $50,000 to start a hair salon (I've seen it, this is a real loan), it's the "poor disadvantaged heroic single mom of 14 trying to make her claim in the world." It's no longer the moronic suburbanite brat who drives a fancy import who lacks the basic math skills to put together a budget to find out he can't afford BOTH the import AND a house (again, true story), no, it's "a poor disadvantaged youth who is a victim of Bush-Cheney-Inc."

It is this group of people, the literal, veritable, epitome of financial deadbeats and losers that is to blame, in conjunction with the greedy moronic bankers that lent such fools taxpayer-insured money in the first place. These people are why you have a house worth $100,000 less than what it used to be. This is why you're facing the specter of recession. This is why you might be losing your job. So blame Greenspan. Blame Wall Street. And hey, be REAL original and blame Bush. The banks and the deadbeats of America should be the target of your pitchforks.

How to Measure Global Cooling...Er, I Mean "Warming"

The chart above shows the difference between how the NOAA measures warming vs. people just reliably and consistently going out and checking the temperature.

I'm glad we spend so much money on the NOAA way.


ht to SDA

The Best Is Yet to Come

Not to burst any one's "bubble" (heh heh), but once we're done with this little financial crisis thingy, the west will face another crisis right around the corner; social security.

And not so much social security, but here in the US, rather medicare, which is actually going to be a bigger problem than social security. It reminds me of the ending speech Robert Shaw gives in "Force 10 from Navarone;"

"Yes, we did it. But before we can start awarding ourselves Victoria Crosses and Congressional Medals of Honor and so on and so forth and such like, I think I better point out, that;

1. We're now on the wrong side of the river.
2. We have no hope whatsoever of rejoining the partisans.
and 3. This neck of the woods will soon be crawling with very bad-tempered Germans.

And 4. I don't think that our little genius, Sergeant Miller there, has even got a box of matches left in his suitcase.

And so therefore I think we can it gentlemen, that we are going to have a very

long

walk

home."

And in a similar manner I like to point these dire things out. Which brings me to my chart o' the week; Pension Entitlements as a Multiple of Economy Wide Earnings


See, the concept behind this ratio is that pensions or pensioners have to be funded/paid with earnings from the economy. It's not like once you hit retirement age, the money just all of the sudden POOFS, there it is. It has to be funded some how. And as a means to measure how "generous" or "stingy" a country is with their childrens' money..er...I mean... towards it's elderly,
you can take the entitled pensions and divide it by the economy wide earnings to see how much in pensions people are entitled to for the amount of work they do in any given year. A lower multiple means you work a lot, but don't get a lot. And a higher multiple means you work a little, and get a nice big fat pension. I like to put it into political terms, basically calling it a measure that shows which politicians figured out they could bribe a voting block by promising grand retirement benies in the future, knowing full well they'd be dead by the time people figured out there was no way to fund those benies. But hey, those politicians had nice hair and nice smiles. And they cared. Can't forget that, they cared, and that's all that matters.

In any case, while we think it's going to be bad here in the US (as I surmise there is also a Baby Boom wave about to hit retirement in Canada and Europe as well) it's nothing compared to places like Greece where your pension "entitlement" is 15 times a year's worth of Greece's economic earnings.

Maybe I should visit Mexico.

Captain Capitalism's Great Western Adventure!

So I get back from my trip from Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons and I just didn't have any time to post these. Now, half bombed from some strong horseradish vodka I finally have a little bit of time to share with you some of my cooler pictures.

Aside from the visually stimulating pictures, I found some of my best fossil specimens yet, not to mention the largest snake I've found yet (although it was no poisonous).


















Damn bear stole my adventure hat.

Another Supporter for Obama

Eeeesh!!!

Remember, we on the right are the party of hate!

ht to Michelle Malkin.

It's Raining Investment Bankers; Hallelujah

I can only wish.

Ah, Nationalized Health Care

Nationalized health care anyone?

ht to Kate at SDA

Who Is "Fuller?"

As some of you have gotten your copy of Behind the Housing Crash, I've gotten a couple e-mails inquisitive about the scene I cite from "A Bridge Too Far" and this "Fuller" character.

Here is the clip (which I think really provides a great backdrop to the book) and here is the now-over-a-year-old-post I used it in.

Just So We're Clear

I'd like to point out or clarify something, and it's a very important clarification.

The outright highway robbery that is going on now with this $700 billion is NOT the failure of capitalism. It seems there are many people out there, namely of the leftist stripe, that are heralding the problems of the economy as a "end of capitalism." Worthless professors who never set a foot outside academia and never produced one ounce of GDP, who still wear pony tails as if it were 1968, salivating as if this is the rapture they've all been waiting for. Something they "saw coming for a long time" as if capitalism was some kind of cute, novel social experiment bound to fail, but on a more spectacular level than communism did.

They could not be more wrong.

First off, it is necessary to point out a government bail out is NOT capitalism. The idea of capitalism is that companies and individuals compete and the government gets the ef out of the way. There may be some universal goods like roads, defense, judicial systems, etc the government imposes on the people, but when it comes to commerce, the government does not decide who are winners and losers. The free market, ie- the people or society does. And if banks or airlines or railroads or Leftist Lucy's Coffee Shop fails to generate more income than expenses, to hell with them, they go under. A bail out, LET ALONE A $700 billion bailout can only be described as the epitome of socialism.

Second, this is one of the rare (and I do mean rare) moments where self-avowed socialists and genuine capitalists will agree on something. We are both livid over this bail out of financial deadbeats and corrupt bankers. This is nothing more (and admittedly, I'm over-generalizing here a bit) than the rich and the poor, stealing from the hard working middle class. If anything, this should be a call to vote out pretty much every congressman up for re-election this year and to hunt down the bankers and deadbeats that did this to the nation. In any case, it seems universally agreed upon across the political spectrum that this bail out should have ramifications and consequences for the guilty, but it is vital you understand this bail out is socialist in nature, not the other way around. This should give those of you out there who "claim" to be socialists or democrats great pause to evaluate or at least understand the basic tenets of your ideology before going and trumpeting a socialist for president.

And finally, and I cannot emphasize this enough, capitalism is not a choice. It's REALITY. You can impose a socialist or a communist system all you want, the end result will be the likes of Cuba, North Korea or the USSR. It is not coincidence countries with lower taxes and higher economic freedoms grow faster, alleviate more poverty and have better standards of living. The reason why (and I want you to put this to memory) is that capitalism is an ideology based in reality. It is not based in falsehoods or "pie in the sky" hope and dreams and puppy dogs and flowers. It is based in simple principles such as;

You don't work, you don't eat.

People prefer more to less.

People will make decisions in their best interests.

There's so such thing as a free lunch.

No, you can't just print off more money.

ie-the closer your ideology, political structure, or economy is to reality, the more success you will have. The further away you get from these realities, the worse your economy will do.

This you can see in everyday life as the decisions people make, if not based in reality, suffer the consequences.

You took out a mortgage you couldn't afford? You get to file for bankruptcy.

You majored in sociology? You get a crappy job a $30,000 a year.

You drive 200 MPH on a motorcycle? You get a serious headache when you crash.

And when you make it so nobody has any incentive to work because you tax them, or you make it so there is no penalty NOT to work, or worse still incentive them not to work with a multitude of government programs, you destroy the ability of an economy to produce any kind of wealth.

So ask yourself the question; is a $700 billion bail out a product of the capitalist ideology or the socialist strain? And ask yourself the question what kind of perverse incentives does this provide you? (I for one am more than half tempted to just not pay my mortgage anymore and rack up a ton of credit card debt, and say "ef it!" Aren't you?) And then ask yourself the final question;

Why on god's green earth are you a socialist?

(And remember to buy my book! ;)

Sadly, How I'm Progressingly Seeing America

We don't work.

We spend more money than we make.

We blame all of our problems on everybody else.

We're entitled to everything.

So why are we so great?

Because we're Americans and, um, well, uh, by that fact not only are we great, we'll be great forever.

Yeah, just like the Romans.

Child Labor

I surmise most of you who read Cappy Cap here had at one point in your life had to do "real work."

What do I mean by "real work?" Work that sucks. Things like working at McDonalds. Working the late shift as a security guard. Perhaps you were a poo shoveler like me. Regardless, because of these jobs we not only learned the merits of getting an education, but also appreciated how the real world works. How you cannot have wealth without production. How you must produce something of value to get employed (and how most of us became capitalists and conservatives in the first place).

But what gets me is how "child labor," no matter how noble, no matter how helpful to form the ideological senses of a youth, is kind of frowned upon. How parents nowadays are having their kids join various charity organizations because it "looks better on a resume" than working at McDonalds (which is complete BS). How illegal immigrants are getting hired to do the jobs the youth of America used to do in the past. And if you hear "child labor" you think of some poor third world country kid working in the sulfur mines in Indonesia for 30 cents a day. Which is why I found this interesting;



I forget where I found it (National Geographic perhaps), but, seriously, I'm supposed to feel sorry for this kid? This kid has a cake job! This is not shoveling poo or pouring out grease bin or cleaning up cow remnants at a locker plant. This is taking apart electronics AND, might I speculate, a great way to learn about computers and electrical engineering. This kid is not only getting paid for a pretty easy job, but getting an education as well.

Now I know I will get a bunch of e-mails from leftists who never had to do work as dirty as shoveling poo. I know I will receive a bunch of e-mails from spoiled brats who never changed a diaper in their lives berating me about how dare I insult this poor kid. These intellectually inferior comments will be summarily ignored on the ground none of you got your fingers dirty or had a real job in your youth so go back to eating arugala (I don't even know how to spell it) whilst discussing your Amber Crombie and Fitch collection with Obama.

In the meantime I invite all the hardworking folk, left or right, who know the value of a work ethic to regale us with your-crappy-jobs-during-your-youth-stories.

The Bail Out Simplified

HAR!

It's Like Being in Bastogne

So I've been listening to the talk radio show hosts and guess what they're all talking about?

That's right, the housing debacle.

And not that I'm criticizing them, or belittling them, but they're talking about this as if it is something new and shocking. That the collapse of Wall Street just kind of "sprung up" on them. Again, its because I had the "advantage" of working in banking and saw this coming, but I kind of analogize it to being in the 101st Airborne during the Battle of Bastogne and then getting relieved by the Third Army and having them ask "So, what's going on?"

I want to yell back at them, "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

Regardless, the timing of this housing/banking debacle more or less mandates that I address something about how to prevent this in the future (and coincidentally publish a very appropriately time excerpt from my book). The premise being;

Would this have even have happened if we mandated personal financial management classes in school instead of worthless subjects like "psychology" or "foreign-languages-you'll-never-use."

Enjoy.

"Education:

But of all the recommended courses of action, the single best thing to prevent another housing crash or any other economic catastrophe from happening ever again is quite simply education. People do not realize how powerful and what the potential is for a nation that adequately educates its population in finance and economics. Not only would such debacles like the housing crisis be avoided, but bankruptcies would dramatically decline, debt levels would drop, crime would plummet, unemployment would be perpetually low, standards of living would jump to levels never dreamed possible, and recessions, just like Polio or the measles, would be eradicated. It is merely a question of whether we care to eradicate the ignorance that causes these ills. It is a question of whether a society is willing to be intellectually honest enough to abandon the Thin Skinned Economy, take the time to study economics and live in the real world.

Not that we don’t make some efforts to educate ourselves when it comes to economics and finance, but it is an absolute disgrace the poor job today’s education system does. If at all, economics is a token requirement usually taught by a history teacher with no real background or understanding in economics and finance. Worse still anybody with real world experience is prohibited from teaching in the public schools on the flimsy grounds they don’t have a “teacher’s license” (Alan Greenspan himself could not teach economics at the majority of our schools). Furthermore, as no doubt has been the majority of people’s experiences, economics was such a boring class that instead of embracing it, it was loathed and feared by millions of high school students. It is no coincidence Ben Stein’s accurate depiction of an economics teacher in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” resonates so well with society.

This is just as much as a tragedy as the housing crisis itself, for in failing to educate the masses in finance and economics, we have failed to educate ourselves on one the most important, if not the most important aspect of our lives. Furthermore, it is almost criminal because the costs of such ignorance are so severe. Had personal financial management been taught in the schools would the sub prime market even exist? Would most 25 year olds have credit card bills larger than their student loans? Would there even be a housing crisis? Would the Baby Boomer generation be so woefully unprepared for retirement? Blame the bankers, blame the brokers, the utter failure of the education system to instill any semblance of fiscal discipline is just as much to blame...."

There's more where that came from.

America Deserves to Be Mocked

Europeans mocking the US, and deservedly so.