Today's Observation in Labor Economics

From a poster at SDA;

"the MAJOR workplace flaw I encountered in my ENTIRE working life was the reprehensible practice of demanding years and years of experience. jeezuz murphy, I even remember an interview in the late 80s. they wanted 3 yrs experience on the IBM AS 400. which had only been around for 3 years. in other words, to get that particular yob I had to be in an organization that, wait for it, picked up the 400 the moment it became available.

whut utter insanity. how in blazes does *anyone* get a god$%#m job anywhere in the face of this absurdity?

I have pondered this more than any single work related question. an unsolvable catch-22. I guess my handicap was I didn't get picked to clean the blackboards in grade 2 so that I could get picked to collect the assignments in grade 3 so that I could get picked to hand them out in grade 4 so that I could get picked in grade 8 to help the school photographer and on and on and on.

its like the kids in developing countries that desperately need to get into the 'right' primary school in order to line up their post sec. education and get that career path started. otherwise a failure in life by the age of 5."

You see, I like to think that I am not this cold hearted, evil, indifferent guy whose ass has been pampered by his rich parents who thusly scoffs at the plebs and the serfs for not trying hard enough as he has a full ride to Yale and a job guaranteed for him by Uncle Bernie Madoff. That I have seen enough corporate nepotism and BS to know that for the most part, you can advocate capitalism, but that pure, unfettered capitalism will still have its drawbacks, namely connected cronies and spoiled brat daddy's children will get the good jobs while those more deserving won't, and as a result, society will suffer as the entire corporate sector is a mere fraction of its potential efficiency. Ergo why, despite being a capitalist, I rail against the ineptitude and corruption of corporate America.

Regardless, the "how can I get the job when nobody will give me the experience" paradox is just more empirical proof of how the upper echelons of corporate America are reserved for the elites and connected of this nation.

Additionally, my personal favorite (when I was foolish enough to try to apply to Fortune 500 corporations) was when they required "X years experience working for a Fortune 50 corporation."

Oh no, they wouldn't accept 20 years experience working at a solid, small time manufacturer.

Oh no, you won't worth the paper you were printed on if you were so foolish to accept employment at a small time start up or a well established local firm.

No, you *MUST* have had 5+ years experience working for Corning or Dow or whatever other East Coast crony outfit your daddy lined a job up for you for.

In the end, and hopefully this is some consolence to you, these corporate entities will hire such inept and incompetent people that inevitably they will be ran into the ground. That is of course unless they are bailed out by the taxpayer like;

GM
Goldman Sachs
Merrill Lynch
Morgan Stanley
Bear Sterns
Chrysler
Wachovia...

Well, never mind. I guess the larger point is that you must realize the "Fortune 500" are really more private clubs than any real entity interested in hiring the best talent. So if you treat them like taxpayer subsidized country clubs, at least it makes a little more sense and you're not foolish enough to actually try to apply to those corporations.

The World Owes Them a Living

Dave Thompson, who I occasionally substitued for on his radio show, "The Dave Thompson Show" was talking about the future of the country in terms of how we were going to pay for things like Social Security and Medicare. This was when the economy was booming and there might, just might be some hope, until I called in and said,

"You know Dave, if you think Gen X and Gen Y are going to work hard enough to produce the wealth necessary to pay for yours and the other Baby Boomers' retirement, you must be smoking something."

To which both Dave and I enjoyed a good, hearty guffaw.

Alas, while it was funny then, that doesn't mean it's not reality now, or that older Americans aren't going to be up sh!t Creek in the future.

Seems less than half of the able-bodied American youth (ages 16-24) are working right now.



Now, I know, I know, "Hope and Change."

But allow me some very unpolitically correct and cold, callous questions;

1. With Gen X/Y/Millinneals having such an abhorrence to work, who will produce all the necessary economic production to pay for things like Social Security and Medicare?

2. With all of them majoring in fluff and art history and political science and peace studies, how precisely will a career in "Professional Protesting" or "community organizing" yield the necessary tax dollars to pay for grandma's prescription drug plan?

3. I know this is unopportune to bring this up right now, but doesn't this mayhaps suggest the future productive potential of this country will be shot and therefore unable to repay all those trillions Obama recently indebted us to?

I know, I know.

I'm a big meanie, racist, evil fascist poopey head for daring to ask such insulting questions.

I'm sorry, I apologize.

Please go back to sticking your heads in the sand and thinking about hope and change.

Off Color Recession Medicine

I am the by product of two very different and diametrically opposed families.

My father's side was the Wisconsin Synod, Nazi, Lutheran, EXTREMELY conservative, "ballroom dancing is a sin" type of people.

And my mother's side was the "drinking, cursing, swearing, having fun, let your kid have ice cream for breakfast" type people.

I would like to think that I am a healthy balance of both, but every once in a while I am lambasted for being too much of my father's side and not enough of my mother's side, especially when it comes to having...let's just say... "accidents" when you are a full grown adult.

This has become a point of contention between my mother's side of my family and myself, so much so, that I decided to make a "Downfall" parody to defend myself.

After showing the video to my family, it was requested by several people that I put it on the blog.

I AM WARNING ALL OF YOU IN ADVANCE that this is NOT about economics, it is NOT about finance and that it is CRASS, contains CURSING, is SOPHOMORIC and is not normal par for the course of Cappy Cap.

However!

Given these recessionary times, it may provide a bit of humor and hilarity for those who need it.

View it at your own discretion.

When an Activist Dies...

And I am being serious about this question;

When an activist dies do they look back at their life and say,

"Holy crap, I just wasted the one shot I got?"

Seriously, think about these people. Their lives are so void of purpose and meaning that the only thing they can come up with doing is protesting soft toilet paper.

At what point do you wake up, take a step back and say, "wow, you know, I've suddenly realized that I'm 45 and it's not 1974 anymore. And I really haven't accomplished ANYTHING with my life. Maybe I should quit finding things to protest and maybe, I don't know, get a real job, get married, have a family, go to college for a trade or a skill, start a business or something. But protesting day in and day out and then every once in a while I succeed in getting a local city ordinance passed which only pisses off the masses that must endure it."

Of course, I know that in order to pursue such a luxurious life where you job is to protest, you must have some trust fund money or well-to-do parents, but still. In the end, there MUST be some level of remorse or regret for wasting your finite limited life on such a stupid, pointless and idiotic cause.

Bernice Young Elementary

The Nazis are coming, hurray, hurray!



Apparently the school is not well liked. Probably because they're too busy brainwashing their children instead of teaching them.


Wow, look, their number!

(609) 386-3520

So Simple, Yet So Far Away

Socialists in the US get the giggity giggities when you mention Sweden.

Because Sweden, after all, is a superior nation with really smart people and more importantly they are socialists.

I'm half inclined to agree since they just recently decided to LOWER THEIR CORPORATE TAX RATES.

Now this is something so simple that even our incredibly stupid and woefully economically ignorant American college students might be able to figure this one out.

If you want to create jobs, why don't you lower the corporate tax rate to attract businesses which will in turn invest in your country and create jobs?

Now, i know for Cappy Cap readers, this is elementary economics 101, but my post is NOT about this simple solution to our economic problems. It is to mock the American public that has been so brainwashed to be against corporations that they cannot muster up the intellectual honesty to admit they were wrong and that villianizing corporations is in general a bad thing because...well....heh, they kind of create a lot of jobs for us.

Regardless, here are the corporate tax rates in the world;

I will pre-emptively strike the guaranteed leftist, knee-jerk, NON-THOUGHT OUT repsonse that no doubt would be offered had I not pre-emptively struck it;

"Oh, yeah, well uhh... you know, corporations, they like have these uh...LOOPHOLES..so uh, like they don't pay taxes."

Yes, thank you, never heard that one before, and from non-CPA's no less.

Here's a crazy thought.

If the US corporate tax rate wasn't 40%, would US corporations even seek out those "loopholes" in the first place?

And oh, what's that? You're bitching and whining about your 401k/403b plan and how much money it lost? What do you think will happen to stock prices if you eliminate corporate taxes?

You know, just never mind, I'm so sick and tired of explaining basic economics to people who can't make that simple link in logic. You really deserve the anti-business, socialists you've elected into government. Enjoy a really horrible, government financed nursing home when you're older.

Post POST - To the damn hippies looking to debunk this data;

The tax rates listed are TOTAL corporate taxes, including state, local, provincial, and national.

And even if it this data were erroneous it would not change the argument that lower taxes would cause economic growth. So quit nitpicking and ask yourself the question;

Do you want economic growth, or do you want millions to suffer so you can continue on your little greedy, self-gratifying, yet pointless crusade against "evil" corporations thinking it's still 1968?

In the meantime, I think I hear your mommy calling. She said something about a trust-fund check and you avoiding a real job?

Liberal Art's Majors Demand More Representation at Job Fair

It would be sad if it weren't so funny.

The sheer ignorance of basic economics of these spoiled brat children (I used to live in Milwaukee and Marquette is a private, hoity toity school) to demand job fairs include worthless majors is only more empirical proof that;

1. Economics needs to be taught not only more, but better at the high school and college levels.
2. Guidance counselors better start doing students a favor and instead of telling them what they want to hear, tell them the realities of the labor market.
3. These are entitlement-mentality children who think they can major in what is essentially a hobby and think they are somehow going to get a job
4. We need to increase the voting age to 30.

I would go into a tirade, but it will be shorter to just link to this, and this, and this.

The moral of the story;

Never hire anybody from Marquette...well...at least the liberal arts majors

University of California Berkeley

Yet another reason not to, not only invest or move to California, but never send your kids to Berkeley

Effing morons.

The OECD Goes Normative

"Normative" economics is what I like to call a "faux" sub-study of economics in that it asks "how things ought to be." The reason I don't credit it with as much as I would its sister, positive economics, is because it is not an economists' job to ask "how things ought to be." That reaks of bureaucrats and government nazi-nannies outlawing smoking or outlawing happy hour instead of letting adult people decide for themselves. Economics should only be concerned with REALITY and what "is." Let democracy or the people decide what "should be."

However, I have sensed a very disturbing trend in the field of economics which frankly will strike at the heart of the study and that is where normative economics is replacing positive economics. Specifically I am concerned about the corruption of data where previously uninfected economic research outfits are now being taken over by normative ideologues.

For example it was not too long ago The Economist (which previously advocated things based in empirical economic research such as ohhhhh....the elimination of corporate taxes) got on the American Idol bangwagon and endorsed Barack Obama. I thusly canceled my subscription and now am concerned about whether or not I can even trust the data The Economist provides.

A more serious threat to the integrity of economic data is the new appointee of the New York Federal Reserve. Denis Huges a former AFL CIO head in New York is the now the new chairman of the NY Fed. I data mine the FRED database all the time. Now I do have to worry about whether the unemployment rate really is only 10% or is it now more like 12%

However, the biggest threat I see is the recent leftist overtures at the world's largest economic database; the OECD. The OECD I thought was at least unbiased in that it was not under the yoke of the United States. That since it did not answer to the US I could trust that its data was untainted and unbiased. But two things now concern me.

1. It's aggression in pursuing tax harmony/anti-tax haven policies. Understand tax havens DO provide a VERY vital role in maintaining your standards of living; if governments tax their people too much, capital and money can just flow out of the oppressive tax regimes and to friendlier ones. This forces governments to make sure they don't just tax and spend, but rather spend efficiently, because otherwise people CAN vote with their dollars and feet.

2. The new "motto" of the OECD.

C-R-I-P-E-S

Which prompted me to write them this letter;

Hello,

I was curious as to who and how the OECD came up with it's new slogan.

I am curious because as an economist I am just looking for data, not opinions. And it seems to me the OECD has now entered the world of normative economics which now concerns me as to whether or not your data will be tainted.

Aside from replacing your current motto with some like;

"We provide data"

is there anyway you can assuage my concerns?

We'll see if they respond.

Regardless, there is a very important point to make about all this and that is what is going to be the increasing importance of outfits like the Heritage Foundation, Reason and the Cato Institute. As quasi-government, non-profit and for profit outfits that previously stood for positive, unbiased economic research get corrupted by and whore themselves out to politics, it will call into question the lifeblood of economics they provide; the data. Ergo you will need other, not necessarily unbiased sources (for the Heritage Foundation, Reason and Cato all have their biases), but other non-conforming sources that provide different data as a check or balance against previously "authoritative" ones.

Ah, intellectual honesty. We took you for granted in the economics profession.

Communists, Even in the NDP, Are Disgusting People

This is a video where a couple reps in the Canadian congress are asking for a memorial in Canada to honor/memorialize those killed under communist dictatorships. It isn't obvious, but you hear in the background an NDP member ACTUALLY HECKLING THE CURRENT SPEAKERS AS THEY SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE GENOCIDE KNOWN AS COMMUNISM.

Need I remind those at the NDP the track record they are defending????

Let me explain something to you sick people defending communism or happen to be communists yourself. THere's nothing, NOTHING noble about your cause. And frankly, I know no more than 2% of you people actually believe in it, and just use it to steal money from other people knowing full well it's downright theft. So you're not fooling anybody hiding behind somekind of "ideology." But to stand by this sick and twisted theft and not care about the literal millions of people killed by this childish obsession? You're not human. People worshiping a guy sporting a funny mustache did the same thing, though, even during a time of war he couldn't kill as much as communists did during peace.

ht

Correct

Correct

A Decline in College Education

Data, I often wish, was recorded more thoroughly and comprehensively in the past. It wasn't until after WWII that the government decided to start regularly and consistently start recording various economic data, but the sheer amount of insight and information we could have gotten had we say started recording not just economic data, but other data as well, going back as far as say 1900 would have made us immeasurably better off today.

Regardless, despite the lack of historical data we have, you can already start seeing the empirical evidence of the country slowly collapsing in some time series as short as just 10 years. Specifically in education.

I went to the OECD, much like I do going to my local bar, and knew precisely the data I wanted to get. The OECD is like a spoiled suburbanite princess. She has the money/data you want/need, but to get it takes a tremendous amount of patience to get at it in that they've organized their databases with the efficiency and logic that Obama has reorganized health care. Inevitably, I did find the data I was looking for and it was college majors by subject over time.

I wanted to get this data because I was curious to see, in general, what the trend was in terms of students majoring in something worthwhile vs. majoring with worthless "El Crapo Studies" such as philosophy, art, sociology, etc. Readers of my blog fully well know just how much importance I place on this particular issue, but for those who are new, in short it is engineers, doctors, computer folk and in general the physical science majors that are the ones who produce and make this nation go, and the others are just spoiled brats majoring in a hobby who prefer not to do any real work whilst they live off of mommy and daddy. And looking at the trend between these two general types of majors, one can get an idea of what the future productivity of this nation will be.

The news (of course) is not good;


Though there does not seem to be any rapid increase or decrease, or discernible trend in general, understand this is only 10 years worth of data. Things such as major types, don't change dramatically like say the president's approval ratings (ha ha ha). HOwever if you look at the details, there are trends and if these trends continue over time, it will not bode well for the nation.

First and foremost I took the "sciences." This is all majors in the physical sciences;

Biology, physics, math, etc.

This has gone from 9.2% of all majors to 8.9% of all majors. Not a dramatic, but a general downward trend.

Then there is engineering (engineering was a separate sub category from "science" and includes chemical, electrical, civil, etc. as well as construction). This has sacrificed a full percentage point in the past 10 years going from 7% of all majors to just 6%.

Now there were other minor categories that I did deem "worthwhile" majors that actually result in a graduate who is capable and likely to contribute to society such as accounting, but the amount of time it would take to pull that data from the OECD was not worth it. The larger point is that in general fewer and fewer students are majoring in something that is worth the tuition they (and the taxpayer) are paying for.

I then took a look at the Arts and Humanities. Again a general encompassing topic that covers philosophy majors and sculpture majors, etc., and not only do these worthless majors account for MORE THAN TWICE THE NUMBER OF ENGINEERING MAJORS, their ranks are growing quite rapidly going from 14% of majors in 1998 to over 15.5% now.

But the worst is yet to come. Separately categorized from Arts and Humanities (and is just one major I focused on) was "Social Services." Though a small major with only 1.16% of the total student population, the relative percent majoring in this field shot up by about a third to 1.43% of majors today.

Now I am getting old and I frankly do not have time to put this kindly or politically correct-like. So let me spell it out for you in a very inconsiderate, uncompassionate, my-goodness-he-didn't-take-sensitivity-training-like-we-all-did-back-in-grade-school kind of way;

Young Americans are spoiled rotten. And not only are they spoiled rotten, they've been brought up poorly by their parents and the schools in that when they graduate from high school, they are actually led to believe that they can major in a worthless subject like the arts and humanities and somehow become a contributing members of society. They are not told the realities of the labor market, guidance counselors provide NOTHING in terms of guiding these kids into real studies that will get them real jobs, and when they grow up, not only will we have failed at our job as adults preparing them for the real world, they will;

1. Not be producing members of society
2. Will more likely than not require the dwindling supply of engineering majors to pay for them in one way or another.
3. Will vote NOT for policies that will help boost economic productivity, but instead will vote for the redistribution of what dwindling production there is (because again, we've not only failed at educating them about the basics of the labor market, but have woefully educated them about basic, simple, elementary economics)

Now I'm done with the "don't hurt little Junior's feelings. He wants to become a musician and we parents are going to be supportive of that." BS. People need to wake up and accept the harsh realities of life. Ergo, let me tell you a little story of this Iranian father I knew.

I was semi-dating his daughter. She was majoring in Middle Eastern studies (because apparently she didn't learn enough Farsi or enough about Iranian culture when she LIVED THERE FOR 20 YEARS!). She was complaining about how her "mean" father wouldn't pay her way through college. I said, "Well, why doesn't he pay your way through college?"

She said, "Well he WAS paying my way through when I was majoring in chemistry, but since I switched to Middle Eastern studies he said he wouldn't pay."

Sadly not only she, but most American parents today, don't realize just how much he loved his daughter.

POST POST - Got some requests for more detail on the data, which can be located here. As you can see they do allow you to look it up by country and detail it by "general" major and then a "specific" major. Beyond that I don't know how they threw, say "graphic arts" into one category or the next. Welcome to my world of "How the Hell Did the OECD Categorize This?"

Uncle Jay Explains the UN

Towards the last half of the broadcast;

http://unclejayexplains.com/2009/09/20/uncle-jay-explains-sept-21-2009/

Rules of Publishing Comments

Behind pedophiles, nazi's, communists and trial lawyers are these little adult children called "internet trolls." And though the quickest way to eliminate them is to ignore them, I get complaints on a regular basis about how I

"Didn't publish my comment."

Now there is a very, nearly invisibly fine line between an internet troll and a leftist on my site in that they deem themselves entitled to have their opinions posted regardless of the quality of their post. And when I simply delete their posts/comments, denying them the light of day, I then get follow up posts or sometimes e-mails about how I am intellectually hypocritical, a liar, a cheat, a nazi, etc. etc.

So I thought it beneficial to all of those out there, not just on Cappy Cap, but other pro-freedom/capitalism blogs as to the logic or rationale most of us use to determine whether or not to make your post;

1. Insults - When you call the blogger a name or curse at him, it will not get posted. Not because we're insulted (we're not), but because what value does some anonymous guy yelling at us provide our readers? People don't want to read drivel, they want a point and they want it quick and they don't want to read through 30 comments of childish name calling to get to genuine true gems of knowledge.

2. Anonymous - Posting as "anonymous" will reduce the likelihood of publishing your comment by about 75%. Especially if you disagree with me. Want to know why? Because the MSM media and NPR already represents your opinion so much you don't need any more representation. My readers will not suffer repeat information they can get from Anderson Cooper. Also, now you get to feel what it's like to be unfairly treated. It's not a violation of your freedom of speech as other archaic and dying forms of media, as well as the White House and their MSM lapdogs constantly barrage the country with your points on an hourly basis. Now you get to feel what it's like to have the editorial board ignore any letters you may have sent into them in the past since they didn't fit the liberal stripe.

3. Crass/Racist/Sexist/Generally Distasteful comments - Regardless of what side of the political spectrum it comes from, if you make a post that insults people based on gender, race, ethnicity, etc., it's not going to get posted. I absolutely make commentary that is critical of different groups of people, but it is in a constructive manner intended to help those people and never blames a skin color or gender for those problems, but rather the culture or sociological phenomenon that correlates with it (for example, 67% of black children are born out of wedlock, this has nothing to do with the fact a person's skin is black, but rather a collapse in the social values attached to marriage in the "black community." Or the price of US weddings - absolutely unnecessary, absolutely a waste of time, money could be given to other more noble causes - children's cancer, scholarships,etc. - but it is largely driven by women, not men to have this profligate waste). However, insulting people saying "those stupid blacks" or "those dumb chicks" implying there is something inherent in being black or female or a jew or a muslim, etc., that causes these problems helps no one and will not get posted.

4. Cursing - In the same strain, cursing like a frat boy on daddy's dime will guarantee you do not get posted. However, I do believe the occasional curse word is called for in that at times it's the only word that carries the weight necessary to convey the severity of whatever it is you're trying to talk about. If this is the case, it will get posted. If it's just "filth and foul, foul and filth and frick and frack" forget it.

5. When I Know You're Wrong - This one is for the liberals. Yes, I know you think you're right, but when you make a comment and I KNOW for a fact it is wrong - ie- I know precisely where the data is on the OECD or FRED databases that would prove you wrong, you do not get posted. Now listen to me, because this is very important for you liberals out there, you HAVE NO CLUE JUST WHAT A HIGH PERCENTAGE OF TIME YOU ARE FACTUALLY WRONG. This is not an issue of whether I disagree with your opinion (say for example you say, "we need health reform now!" - that's an opinion). But when you say something factually wrong like "we don't spend enough on health care" when we spend 2 times the amount compared to any country by any measure, you're WRONG and your misinformed/uninformed, or just generally FALSE belief does not DESERVE to get published.

6. Illogical Arugments - There is no shortage of leftists that will tender arguments that are either wrong, based in false premises, or just plain don't make sense, but because of the complexity they think their argument will stand and is worth posting. THis is usually what you get from professors or idiots that claim things like "GDP isn't a good measure of economic production" or consider profit to be a bad thing. It doesn't make sense. And no matter how verbose or hoity toity and academic your response is, if even one premise violates simple logic, it doesn't get posted.

7. Intellectually Dishonest - These people are sick and twisted and need to be shipped off to the Arctic. Arguing for "social causes" when you damn well know implementing said policies will bankrupt the nation or otherwise cause greater harm to society means you're nothing more than a shill, a whore for a political party or cause. People like Nancy Pelosi or Arlen Specter who know FULL WELL things like lower taxes, balanced budgets, efficient government spending is what's in the best interest of the nation, but instead ignore those facts and tell the masses what they want to hear so they can get elected again is nothing more than prostitution. But what I don't get is while people like Pelosi and Specter are intellectually dishonest become so, so they can remain employed, why do internet trolls of the leftist stripe become intellectually dishonest when there is no value or payoff for them to do so? It is here that it borders a psychological problem when you have somebody arguing for socialism or free-health care or whatever, who does so, not because they have a vested interest in an outcome, but because they've joined a cause and what to feel like they're doing something, even though deep down inside they know it will bode ill for the nation OR (even worse) they don't know what the ramifications will be, but will still advocate it anyway because it "makes them feel good." I've developed a keen sense of smell for these types, the ACORN girls, the idiot who made the You Tube video on why we need health care, etc., but if you're just whoring for a cause AND NOT EVEN GETTING PAID FOR IT like Pelosi (or for that matter, all of congress), your comment does not get published (you also need psychological help).

8. Do you have a point? - I will post any comments that have a point, whether they agree with me or not, especially if they are unique or (on the rare occasion) that I have been misinformed. It is here intellectual HONESTY pays off, especially for leftists. Every once in a while you guys do have a point and can actually advance the conversation we're having.

9. Do You Agree with me? - Hell yes, I'll post you. Sure, why not, what does it hurt? Besides (and again notice the "INTELLECTUAL HONESTY") I will fully admit I'd like to give back to the MSM and newspapers of yore what they gave us for the past 50 years. Editorial pages that made it look like the country was full of communists. I want people to visit the site and feel like "My god, am I the only liberal?" You can see how it feels.

THat's about it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go for a motorcycle ride with a cute girl on the back of the bike.

Recession Medicine

This involves guns and gun play and hurt feelings and Daffy Duck yells kind of loud and a whole manner of evil things that are very anti-American. Well, they WEREN'T anti-American when they were made, but today, oh, gosh, you should poke your eyes out after watching such evil;

Duck! Rabbit, Duck!
Uploaded by TheGazz. - Click for more funny videos.

The Nazi's are Coming, Hurray Hurray!

This is why, if I ever do run a large corporation, I will have separate facilities where men and women do not interact.

It is also why I would never set up shop in a state like California or New York where there are too many entitlement-mentality adult children who are practically looking for ways to be offended...matter of fact it's just a damn good idea to never set up shop in the US in the first place.

ht.

Economic Schadenfreude

It really does put a smile on my face.

Traffic Economics

You know a recession is on when there isn't traffic in California.

Couldn't have happened to a more deserving state.

I'm Not a Doctor, But I Play One on TV

Sadly, to the youthful idiots of this nation, they don't understand just how insulting this is to them.

Please Write a Review

Greetings all aspiring, junior, deputy, official and otherwise economists!

If you would be so kind, for those of you who have bought my book would you please write a review for it on Amazon.com.

The link is here, I know it may take a little of your time, but I would really appreciate it.

And for those of you who haven't bought the book (which according to my research is about 299,998,327 remaining Americans who haven't- children included) the link is the same link (wow! cool!)

Mucho thanks!