Name the Captain's New Sidekick!

Stopped in at Hill City, SD today. The great thing about the general Black Hill's area in late August is the vendors are trying to unload all their Sturgis crap they couldn't sell during the rally. Ergo something that was $50 (like a leather vest) is now $15.

Then I saw this little guy;







Now keep in mind, a fair amount of motorcycle riders don their motorcycles with a stuffed buffalo as kind of a "guardian angel" sort of thing to protect you from spills, crashes, teen age girls and their 30-40 something soccer moms yapping on their cell phones while obliviously driving their SUV in and out of three lanes of traffic.

The only question is what do we name this little shaver?

He is a FULLY DEVELOPED buffalo, he does have FOUR LEGS and a tail, they just seem like stumps. He's just a little small, that's all.

Any suggestions for the name?

Thank You Sidewinder77

Looked at my stats and said, "what in Hades is going on here?"


Many thanks to Sidewinder77 for posting to reddit.

This is a reminder that the Captain fully endorses his Lieutenants to forward, mention, e-mail, post to Reddit, etc., any of his articles, postings, books or papers. And even though Reddit is basically more or less a 20 something leftist site, any traffic is good traffic.

Plus, how else is the Captain going to attain Drudgereport-like status so he can sit on a beach and write far far away with Jennifer Aniston serving him Rumpleminze as we converse with each other;

Captain - "Dear, isn't it wonderful living off of my wise investments into Aussie dollars?"

Jennifer - "Yes, my sexy, libertarian stud muffin, it is. I just find your ability to predict and yet at the same time, enjoy the decline enamoring. Another shot of Rumpie?"

Captain - "Why yes my darling. Wait, isn't that the same bikini you wore last week? And how do you manage to walk in the sand with heels?"

Jennifer - "Oh, I practiced before you picked me up in your personal F-18 Super Hornet. I think I have it down. Can I pull out the 60" LCD screen, the surround sound stereo system onto the beach, rig it all up and throw Kelly's Heroes in the DVD for you?"

Captain - "Oh sure, what the heck."

My Tutoring Is Not SWPL

I like the reference to "SWPL" tutoring (warning, crass language, but good link)

When I taught college econ I also ran the tutoring lab for the college. I was not SWPL. I was blunt and direct alpha.

Of course that offended the soft, eggshell-strong sensibilities of the kiddies who "didn't like math" and "didn't need to know none of that stuff" because they were all going to become great chefs or travel agents or entertainers or poets.

This was of course when I still cared about educating the kiddies and improving their futures. Of course, after getting lectured by management for making tests too hard and not passing the 89 out of 92 students who plagiarized their term papers, I learned to give up on that and just shut up, pass them, incorporate Halo tournaments into the curriculum, collect a pay check and let real life teach the kids the real lessons for me in the future.

The good news is that today I do private tutoring, primarily MBA students who (laughably) think it will improve their chances of finding gainful employment. But it's much nicer to tutor adults who care about their education than 18 year old "adults" who are still effectively children.

Recession Medicine

HAR!!!

The Economic Lesson of the Day

I shall make this as short and simple as possible, because it really is that simple.

Labor force participation shows the percent of the population that CAN work, that actually DOES.

You will notice the dramatic increase after about 1968 which is 100% due (look it up, please dont' question me) to women entering the work force.

You will then see the dramatic decline since this latest recession began which is about 95% due to men leaving the workforce (look it up, please don't question me).

Ergo, I have this simple question to ask.

If more and more women entered the work force, this should then increase the economic growth of the country (which it did). If economic growth increased, then government revenues should have gone up (which it did). Thus, in theory, with "twice" the amount of the population working, yet no need to double infrastructure, double military spending, and other public goods, then government spending as a percent of our total output should DECREASE.

But it has not.

Matter of fact it has more than doubled.

Now, fellow junior, aspiring, deputy, official or otherwise economists I ask you the simple question...

why?

I know the answer, but the question is whether YOU know the answer.

And the answer is two fold.

It is also a very TRUE answer, which will make it an incredibly politically incorrect answer. But since we're in an economic crisis, methink the people are starting to realize the economic costs of being politically correct at the expense of being truthful and living in reality.

Answer away.

The Captain Predicts the US' Economic Future

As you know the Captain holds classes regularly on stock valuation and a basic introductory course on investing. And every once in a while, through the online discussion boards, a student or the Captain himself will write something that is Cappy Cap worthy. Ergo I present to you a quick prediction of what I believe will happen in the future;

Well, it is my humble opinion (and nobody can predict the markets) that inevitably the stock market will crash as Americans fail to generate the economic production that is necessary to provide the profits necessary to drive up stock prices.

I also believe, slowly, but surely, Americans and institutional investors will start to realize the huge bubble retirement programs have formed and when the baby boomers start drawing their money out of the market, this will cause a general downward pressure on prices.

I doubt the federal, let alone state and local governments, will ever balance their budgets and it will lead to an inevitable collapse of the dollar (which has more or less happened anyway) further crashing the stock market.

Gas will shoot up to $5 easy, and will cripple discretionary spending, but only for those who are lucky enough to be employed, the remaining 10% "officially" unemployed and the other 40% "underemployed" will just suffer in limbo in "working poor" status or "lower middle income" status.

China will get REALLY mad at US and will stop buying US treasuries, and not until we all have a "Come to Jesus Meeting" and we realize we can't just prop up stock prices let alone the economy with puppies and unicorn talk, will any of this get fixed.

Of course to convince 300 million Ameircans about the severity of our economic problems is laughably impossible, but I think when bread lines start to become longer than they were in Soviet Russia, people might have the time to ponder what economic events led us to this.

You and I will probbaly be very old, if not passed away by the time this economic epiphany hits the general population, but thankfully, in the end, I believe people will be watching less "Jersey Shore" and more "Fox Business" by this time. In the meantime, based on my numbers, the Dow Jones should really be trading at around 8,000.

But again, that's just my short 1-2 take on it.

He Will Never Be Ronald Reagan

What did I tell you about housing starts?

Trust me guys, you don't have to worry about the economy all of the sudden "exploding" and Obama winning a second term.

When Governments Replace Fathers and Men

This is the result.

Just for the record, and so all of you lefties and feminists out there know, the government will never be able to replace fathers or husbands.

Never.

And you will find that out regardless of how much Sex and the City you watch and how much Maureen Dowd you read and how much government money is funneled to you.

And sadly, you will find that out when it's too late and your chances at having a real husband and a real father and a real family are long gone.

We Elect the Worst of America to Lead It

In my super awesome piece "Why You Have Bad Government" I linked the cause of bad government to the fact that the people who typically go into government have the following traits;

1. They did not have to work for a living.

2. They did not care to work for a living.

3. Because of this they majored in worthless subjects.

4. Lacking any real world experience and only knowing how to spend their parent's money, their solution is simply to spend more of other people's money.

5. They are the epitome of greed because they put themselves first ahead of society in that they ultimately do not care whether they have the wisdom, experience and morality to lead. They just want a job to make themselves feel better about themselves. I have termed them "Crusaders" (which if you want to pour yourself a martini you can watch the whole seminar on Your Tube).

I proved this by creating a pie chart of the majors of the congressional members of the Minnesota house of representatives showing, at the time, most of these people are worthless and possess no real skills or experience that would be useful to the rest of society.

Now another piece just on the national level confirming what I, your Captain knew a long time ago.

All this behooves one simple question;

Will anybody ever realize the Captain's super-awesome economic genius, or do they need to wait until markets crash and societies collapse before they have the same epiphany?

Krugman Has Lost It

Honestly, and you people on the left have no idea why the economy isn't recovering;

Ignore That Deficit Behind the Curtain

It really is a daily fight against the amoral old timers in the established MSM. And as time goes on I have a growing and intensifying hatred for the people in the "fourth branch of government" who have not only failed to do their job, but purposely advance an agenda that is against the best interests of the people by misinforming them about the all-important issues of economics.

Today's latest example comes from CNBC where they manage to put a positive spin on a $1.28 trillion deficit. Which is of course like trying to put a positive spin on Ebola or Nirvana.

So once again, your Captain fires up his P-51, replete with drop tanks and ammo and takes off into the sky to shoot down this latest assault from the mercs that are on ZeroPrez's payroll.

Below are the deficits as a percentage of GDP for four countries. Australia, Norway, Greece and the US. Remember, we are told we are able to bail out Greece, we are no Greece, why Greece could never happen here. When in reality we are now officially running higher deficits than Greece. I simply threw in Norway and Australia to show you what an EVIL OIL rich country looks like and what a functioning western society SHOULD look like.

But, again, to quote Michael Savage,

"No, no, you don't want to hear about this. YOu want to hear about some guy who hits a ball over a fence."

Ergo, I present to you guys hitting a ball over a fence.

Yep, It's S&P's Fault

Just like Katrina was Bush's fault.

And how the Tea Party (which is advocating a balanced budget) is also to blame for our financial problems.

Methinks when the markets open me little dollar short positions should be doing just fine.

Jobs Creation in Illinois

I learned to charleston in Illinois. Met Mel Gibson when he was filming "Payback" there. Had my first Pot Belly sandwich. And it was the only time I spent 45 minutes looking for a parking space.

And that was about it.

However, in an effort to maintain something the majority of my lefter leaning counterparts simply refuse to (intellectual honesty), I will note that the chart's Y-axis is HEAVILY skewed to make the drop look way more dramatic than it actually is.

Such trickery is unneeded when using data and statistics to point to the merits of capitalism.

Your Daily Dose of Dalrock

As I have been in the middle of moving, unpacking and then off to western Wyoming for fossil hunting, I have been thankful to have other people write allowing me not to...err....allowing me the time to share relevant and timely pieces written by other highly talented writers.

Dalrock, as you know is one of them.

The reason I like linking to him is I don't have to add anything. I mean, I'm pretty lazy and all it takes is a copy paste and I'm done.

So for the lazy blogger I highly recommend another succinct and complete piece by Dalrock.

This particular piece calls for you to pour yourself a drink and enjoy watching those who brought about the decline suffer under it.

Epic Fail

So I'm out west, decided to stop in Casper enroute to Kemmerer which is reported to have fish fossils. And I happen upon a nice little funeral home;



Ah the west, no state income taxes, great fossils, and cheap gas, but some pretty interesting people.

Today's Word is Agorism

FSK with an insightful post in response to my theory on how to privatize governments.

Cry Baby Municipalities

I am so thoroughly enjoying the decline.

S&P finally decides to grow a spine, call them as they see them, and downgrades several municipalities and counties. And what does S&P run into????

A spoiled brat, entitlement mentality that can only be found in trust fund babies and the public sector.

But what is better than a perfectly grilled steak served to you by Jennifer Aniston is the reaction of these municipalities. They shoot the messenger and "fire" S&P.

So to all of you in LA, San Mateo and all the other municipalities that are nearly insolvent, permit me one simple question;

"How does "firing" S&P help fully fund your pensions?"

That decline is coming whether you idiots like it or not. And your arrogance and ignorance just makes it Hershey's syrup on the ice cream.

Won't Somebody PLEEEEASE Think of the Children!

I'm sure there's no consequence to this.

Hat tip (and analysis) to the always insightful Dalrock.

Where Is Futureman?

Remember "Futureman?"

Heck, remember Wall Street Week?

Here's How to Enjoy the Decline

You think I jest, but if you think about mortality, you will realize how important it is you enjoy the decline.