It's Called "Capital Flight"

You hipster 20 something Steve Job's worshiping DB's better start learning about economics.  Zuckerberg and his cohorts are laughing their asses off at you.

Is anybody else enjoying watching the country collapse as much as I am?

Alec Loorz

Professional crusader whose ego is more important than your standard of living.

What

did

I

tell

you

about

CRUSADERS???? (and no, don't just watch the first video, watch the whole damn thing)

Shooting Themselves in the Foot

I had linked previously to this post before about various governments (CT, MN, etc.) trying to unionize day care providers which I was originally against, but after thinking about it, I am totally for.  Unless my logic is flawed, the majority of women vote democrat and are always "for the children."  Of course they never pay for whatever the latest, bloated and completely unnecessary government program is, the taxpayer does.

However, if day care providers are unionized the price of an already expensive service is going to go through the roof and most parents do pay for that.  Even without unionization I've heard anecdotal stories of mothers opting to leave their job and (GASP!) RAISE THEIR CHILDREN because they were actually losing money going to work.  You throw in a 40% price increase with a 50% drop in quality and competence, women will not only be rushing to pull their kids out of day care, they'll abandon the democrat party in droves.

Or is the Captain just high on enjoying the decline on this one?

Shame on the Chronicle of Higher Education

I'll be brief because I'm hungry and it's Rumpie Time.

The Chronicle of Higher Education fires a blogger for being truthful and blunt about the merits (and I might add, employment prospects) of a hyphenated-American studies degree.

THEN they interview a PhD in History who can't find a job who also happens to be a minority. 

Are the people at the Chronicle of Higher Education TRULY THAT STUPID and IGNORANT they can't piece it together?  Or are they so cowardly they don't have the guts to tell minorities the realities of the labor market and that their degree is worthless in fear they'd be branded a racist/homophobe/sexist/bigot/etc?

Presumably the purpose of the Chronicle of Higher Education is to HELP PEOPLE in HIGHER EDUCATION. 

Speaking the truth about the worthlessness of various liberal arts degrees, ESPECIALLY those whose primary victims are minorities, might be a great place to start.

Oh, but that would require a spine now wouldn't it?

"Permissive Parenting"

Holy crap, I thought one of my readers was just making it up.

Apparently it is true.  And apparently you idiots think somehow a generation brought up on this tripe is going to have the gumption and industriousness to produce enough wealth to pay for everything, not to mention protect us from hordes of Chinese invaders with weapons.

I better order some more Rumpie.

Success Story of 1970's Feminism

You too can achieve such great results.

For the Patron Saint's Name of Frick.

Head Further West Young Man

I'm already pretty far west, but I am going to live a childhood dream this weekend and visit the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

Any Agents in the Field recommend anything in that particular area of Utah for hiking, dust devil chasing, fossil hunting and other activities that scare aware American females?

A Spectacular Failure of a Father

She has a ring.  Which indicates a husband.  She has a kid.  Which indicates a father.  She's on the front cover of a national magazine with her 3 year old boy nursing.  Which indicates she has anything but a real man heading up that household.

Blame feminism all you want, this is more of a damning conviction of the lack of real men in this country. 

The Captain would have put his foot down a LOOOOONG time ago before anything like this would have happened with his theoretical wife.  Not to mention there is no way in hell I would let my child, ESPECIALLY A BOY, have this hanging over his head upon entering middle school.  This would be immediate grounds for divorce in the Cappy Cap home.

I predict she'll cheat on her husband, that's if she hasn't already...heck, I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't even the husband's kid.

The Romney Obama Harlequin Romance Paradox

Permit me to chide a group of people in desperate need of chiding:

People who vote based on whether a candidate is good looking or not.

Now this can fall on both men and women (I am of course partial to Kristy Noem - she scores Super Num Num Points on the Cappy Cap Scale), but when it comes to presidential elections, since we've had nothing but male candidates, my ire in this particular instance is towards female voters.

So a question to all you ladies out there who've never watched CNN or Foxnews and instead get your political news form "The Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report" - how can you possibly choose between Romney and Obama?

I mean, it's gotta be like one of those Harlequin romance novels where the female hero is sought after by a rough and tumble blue collar stud AND AT THE SAME TIME a posh, Cary Grantish fellow, who is of course rich and powerful.  How does the poor woman's torn heart choose?

Of course in this upcoming election your choice isn't between a bad boy and a rich man (both are rich, both are powerful), but rather a much simpler choice-

pecks or hair?

Now I can see how you all fell in love with Barack Obama and deemed him worthy to be leader of the free world - pecks.  Yes, they were nice weren't they.  And the media was all too willing to post pictures of them glistening as he walked out of the ocean.

But you have to admit Romney has some really GREAT hair.  Not only is it full, but it has that touch of gray.  And he is a mature man, an accomplished man a "real" man.  Dare I say he almost has a twinge of "The World's Most Interesting Man?"  His hair screams "stability" and "don't worry, I'll take care of you, I'm an accomplished man."

But how does the uninformed, uneducated and ignorant female American voter choose?  Because unlike pulp fiction, there can only be one president and I'm very curious about the though process you ladies use to make such an important decision.  Does People Magazine speculate about who would be better on a date?  Does Cosmo give you detailed gossip about the private lives of both?  Or do you and other Harlequin Political Junkies just gather around Starbucks after you drop your kids off at daycare and sup cups of cappuccino on your husbands' dimes and debate the merits of pecks vs. hair?

Regardless, I am VERY interested in how you come to an informed and wise decision, ESPECIALLY given how nice Barack's pecks are and how full and lush Romney's hair is.

Though methinks I know how you're going to vote anyway, despite what they've been trying to do to you.

Icky, Yucky, Gross Capitalism

These are pictures from East Germany before and after reunification.

I originally thought it was bombed out buildings after WWII UNTIL I saw one picture with graffiti.  Then it dawned on me, it was a simple, but stark comparison of the effects of socialism vs. capitalism.

Of course even this simple visual aid will fail to convert the Leftianity zealots.

For Your Wednesday Night Reading Pleasure

Most fathers could be reached for comment, but let's imagine we're holy and virtuous like widows anyway.

A chart of hell and where California sits in it.

New Yorkers deserve to pay higher prices for everything...and they do.

Didn't I just explain this?  It's called Jennifer Aniston Economics!

Oh ho ho!  Dr. Helen, you sure are funny.  "Picking up the check!"  That's a good one!

I just refuse to donate because statistically chances are my organs would go to a liberal.  I'm not joking.

Charlie goes into more detail about "Black Studies" than I cared too and pulls up what we all suspected.  Leftist claptrap that does nothing to actually help blacks.

See, see!  I included Tam this time!  I didn't forget! (unlike how she forgot about me and my book...sniff sniff).

Have At It

Hell, I say let them.

In the meantime I would like Megan Fox to show up at my doorstep with a new F-22 fighter plane and Barack Obama to resurrect Frank Sinatra so he can sing in my new 3,000,000 square foot house located on Mars.

Eliminating "Black Studies" Would Help Blacks

I'll try to be brief.

Understand any "hyphenated-American" studies doesn't teach its students a skill or a trade that would help them secure employment in life.  It doesn't increase their earnings power, it doesn't help them close any wage gaps.  All it does is teach them woeismeism and brings about a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure (not to mention a healthy dose of racism, sexism, and bigotry of the left's side of the isle as well).

In my book I PURPOSELY WARN minorities and women about degrees that PURPOSELY target them because of their gender or race, NOT because these college programs desire to help them, but because of the exact opposite.  They wish to profit off of them and the victim mentality they want to instill in them.

It is here, of course, we run into the paradox of people who genuinely wish to help minorities, women and other non-white-male classes, are usually punished by the powers that be, not to mention (ironically) accused of racism/sexism/whateverismleftistshaveintheirinventoryofbullshit.

I once tried to stand up for women being treated poorly in second and third world countries and was called a racist because I critiqued the cultures that kept women at home and out of schools.  Ironically no women or women's rights groups in this country came to my aid, matter of fact, they merely also accused me of racism, and so, now you know where the Captain's loyalty stands today in America and what he thinks of chivalry.

Ergo, I say, just remain quiet and let these people waste their money and lives majoring in worthless subjects.  If they're going to accuse you of racism or sexism or whatever variant of bigotry is being served this week, when you're merely trying to prevent them from making a major mistake in their lives majoring in a worthless degree, to hell with them.

They can continue to enjoy their pay gap despite our best efforts to close it.

The Captain Pisses Off a Dean of a (ahem) "College"

Uh oh!

Tom Fisher said...

The fact that these new faculty each bring in millions of dollars of outside funding that would not have otherwise come to the state makes them a real deal. They more than pay for their salaries and support tuition reductions for students working as their research assistants. The reason tuition has gone up at the University of Minnesota is that the state has cut its funding of the University so severely in recent years that it now comprises only 15% of the overall budget. Before you dismiss the University, you should get your facts straight.

7:32 PM

Captain Capitalism said...

Hey Tom,
Shove it up your ass and shove it hard.
Where do those "millions of dollars come from?"
Not the private sector I bet. Great, I get to subsidize spoiled people's hobby of "design" at a public institution. Can only imagine the quality of design being on par with the west bank's art department.
And yeah, I do have my facts straight. I stopped over at the old Art school (forget what it's called now) on the west bank to compile salary data going back to the 1970's because it isn't available on the internet. Something tells me your stats don't go back that far.  Mr. "Recent years." (added for post)
I also noticed how since my time there's about 40% more employees at the U of MN and only about 12% more students.
And you jerk off "deans" and "administrators" not only increase in numbers, but your salaries MAGICALLY never go down. Only up and up more than inflation.
And GOOD if the state has cut funding to your worthless programs (though, if I recall as a percent of GSP it hasn't gone down as much as you purport). Two of my friends went to the U of MN's "School of Design" back in the 90's and they sure as hell aren't working in design. I think living at home in their 30's is their primary occupation because ST. PAUL MINNESOTA ISN'T THE MECCA OF FASHION DESIGN YOU MORON!
Yeah, I sure Tommy Hilfiger recruits heavily from the St. Paul campus.
But hey, don't let me and my FACTS get in the way of you milking naive kids from the Twin Cities suburbs out of their tuition money while fooling them into thinking they're going to become the next Ralph Lauren.
Cripes, "University of Minnesota School of Design." You rank up there with degree mills like "Globe College" and "Arts Institute Intenational" and "University of Phoenix."

Kids, don't waste your money on a degree at the University of Minnesota's "School of Design."  Buy "Worthless" instead.  Save your money, save your time, HAVE THE EXACT SAME EMPLOYMENT PROSPECTS in the fashion industry WITHOUT the debt and the worthless piece of paper.

Jennifer Aniston Economics

As I have gotten older, done more and more research and honed my "Super Awesome Economic Genius (TM)," I have learned that we folks of the capitalist, liberty, free-market stripe are not so much battling a legitimate counter theory to our free-market economics, as much as we are a spectacular level of ignorance.  So spectacular that I wouldn't even call it "ignorance" as I believe it really is more of a mental disorder ("delusional" is what I believe psychologists call it).

Of course I am miffed in that I foolishly credited my ideological opponents with having intelligence, veracity, intellectual honesty and a desire to seek what is best for mankind.  Miffed, not because they turned out to be nothing but self-serving spoiled brats with no interest in searching for the truth, but miffed because I wasted so much time trying to engage them on an intellectually honest and mature adult level.  Literally thousands of hours wasted compiling chart after chart, pulling up data, crunching numbers, all the while thinking,

"Ah, this will prove my point and convince them!  And soon they will vote based on fact, empirical data and what's best for the country.  And soon our country will reap the benefits of an informed and educated population and we'll achieve new heights and income per capitas of $100,000."

But now that I've been proven to have overestimated the honor and integrity of my ideological opponents, there's just one thing left to do.

Mock them.

Of course they make this laughably easy in that they exhibit their delusion daily, refusing to live in the real world.  And I know that in violating The Reality Principle they are merely setting themselves up for an even harder crash in the future, but it's still fun to make fun of them while they're accelerating their lives into an inevitable brick wall.  But their behavior is so delusional it almost warrants it's own subsegment of economic study.  And so with this let me introduce a new concept:

"Jennifer Aniston Economics."

As you know the Captain has a soft spot for Jennifer Aniston.  If  she were to show up at my doorstep in a drunken stupor, I suppose I would do the good, correct and right thing all preacher's kids do and help the poor girl out.  She would make lewd advances at me and I would have to refuse those advances because it would be inappropriate.  She would no doubt recognize who I am and say,

"Say, aren't you Cappy Cap?  World famous economist, ballroom dancer, motorcycle rider, author and fossil hunter extraordinaire?  Please, let me don this french maid outfit I conveniently have in my car!"

And again, because of my pure and virtuous nature, I would have to refuse her wanton advances.

But that is the point right there about "Jennifer Aniston Economics."

I'm delusional.

Never mind the chances of Jennifer Aniston showing up at my apartment in an inebriated state is unlikely.  And never mind she has no clue who I am (despite my world-renown Super Economic Economic Genius (TM)).  I'm not going to let FACT or REALITY get in the way of what I want to  believe.  That is the epitome of "Jennifer Aniston Economics" and a trait that is the hallmark of every liberal and socialist in the world.  And so permit me a little case study in "Jennifer Aniston Economics" that prompted me to write this little post. 

I saw this article about people voting in the "anti-austerity" party or "voting bloc."  And it really drove the point home to me not only how delusional people were about the fiscal REALITIES of their countries, but how pervasive and widespread this mental sickness is.  In France the majority of voters spoke and opted to pursue a delusional, impossible reality.  In Italy and Greece people are starting to rally against the "austerity parties."  But whichever country and whichever the case, you have to realize the sheer insanity and sickness these people have.  Voting against the "austerity parties" is like voting against "gravity" or "air" or "Newtonian physics."  It's REALITY.  There's nothing you can do about it.

For example, I could show this chart to every idiotic moron in France, Italy and Greece who thinks the party can continue on;

and they'll all ignore it, no doubt calling me names in the process.

So that leaves us with only one option.  Let's test our Junior, Deputy, Aspiring, Renegade, Official or Otherwise Economist skills, shall we?

Do we:

a)  vote for more government spending
b)  pray to the gods that Jennifer Aniston shows up at the Captain's house in an impaired state
c)  work harder to pay more in taxes
d)  enjoy the decline
e) b and d
 

How Gen X & Y are Prohibited from Investing in the Retirement Ponzi Scheme

In addition to the social security ponzi scheme, a lesser known, though probably larger scheme, is the retirement bubble.

I've gone into detail at length before, but in short, with trillions of dollars already invested into retirement funds over the past 40 years, prompted by tax breaks provided by the government, all that has done is inflate stock prices above their intrinsic value.  This makes mutual funds, stocks other investments a bad deal for any Gen Y or Gen Xer's entering their earning years and looking to stash away for retirement.

But there's another funny little aspect to this whole retirement program thing.  Oh, you'll call me "cynical" for making this observation, but that makes it all the more true.

It's not an issue of whether younger generations SHOULD invest in retirement plans.

It's an issue of whether they even CAN in the first place.

In order to invest for retirement you need money.  And not just money, but enough money to pay for food, clothing and shelter AND have enough disposable income left over for retirement investing.  But given the wonderful economy we've had under President Fluffy Bunnies not only is that disposable income non-existent, the jobs necessary to provide ANY income is non-existent.  And thus without jobs the retirement bubble ponzi scheme I believe will collapse quicker than I thought before.

To see if data had bore me out, I pulled some stats recently from the ICI (which provided me the statistics to the post I mentioned above 6 years ago).  Since then they've made the data private, but I was still able to find two telling charts showing you that the flows into mutual funds just isn't there to continue to support the retirement bubble:

First is the net new cash flows into mutual funds.  The ICI breaks it down between regular mutual funds and money market funds.  Particularly shocking is not just the collapse of contributions to money market funds, but the complete withdrawal from them during 2009-2011.  And not just a withdrawal, but more than enough to offset the NEW contributions into the other types of mutual funds.

Translation - people are selling their mutual funds to make ends, NOT reinvest in other funds.

Also notable in the chart is how (despite the summer of recovery) investment in mutual funds just plain stopped in 2011.  Aside from the financial crash of 2008, this is the lowest level of investment into mutual fund AND THAT INCLUDES THE RECESSION AND DOTCOM CRASH OF 2000-2001!

To paint an even clearer picture, just look at net contributions into equity funds.  Ignore the red line as they are merely providing that as a reference to global stock price performance, focus only on the volume of money going into or out of equity mutual funds.  What is not only painfully obvious is that no new money is flowing into equities.  Worse still, is the volume being taken out of the market in 2011.













Again, what this suggests to me is not only is it so bad people are wary of the market,

not only is it so bad that the replacement generations don't have the money to invest in the market,

it's SO BAD PEOPLE ARE PULLING MONEY OUT OF THE MARKET TO MAKE ENDS MEET!

But, as you know, your beloved Captain always likes to end of a positive note, and thus the title of this post.

For you see, if there's one good thing Barack Obama did for the young blind lemmings salivating over his pecks or his turgid speeches it's that he made the economy so bad these 20 somethings won't have the money to invest in an overpriced market in the first place.

And that is the definition of "forward."

Enjoy the decline!

PhD in Medieval History

Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

You go grrrrrl!

You know, for the 1/20th the amount she receives in food stamps every month she could have bought "Worthless!"

Can't Imagine Why Your Tuition is Going Up

Hmm...lemme see.

Pay raises for everybody.

Three new staff members for Minnesota's PRESTIGIOUS "College of Design" (I know, it's world renowned!)

And you idiotic college students can't figure out why your tuition is going up.

Epic Fail

Oh you funny Keynesians.  I sit with giddy anticipation to see how this is going to be spun as good news.

Thanks Frost!

Freedom 25 wrote a nice little review of Worthless!

Remember, Worthless is available on both Kindle and paperback for prices that are MUCH cheaper than what you'll pay for college tuition.  To show just how much cheaper, I made a pie chart showing the Kindle cost ($5) as a percent of $50,000 in tuition.  You'll have to click on the image and magnify it to see the Kindle, but I highlighted it in the green.

You see it?  See it?  It's there!

That's right boys and girls, mom and dad, uncles and aunts, "Worthess" is definitely worth the MINISCULE investment to make sure that you or your loved ones don't impoverish your entire family for a degree in "Anthropology."

So don't be stupid.  Don't be naive.  And for god's sake, don't become an OWS protester.  Buy "Worthless" today!