We should all care about this....

I'm fascinated with the lack of disgust that people seem to have about what is going on right now on Wallstreet and Washington. This article is a clear demonstration of how things continue to work against the tax payer. The US Government just committed an additional 300 BILLION in the form of a housing bailout. It largely props up Freddie and Fannie Mae without any real change to the way they do business. I guess we can understand why......


http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121728651034091275.html

What's Next?

I should have never read 'Atlas Shrugged'. There is nothing that politicians like more than "protecting" us from ourselves. Who are they to judge? I would love to meet the concerned parents that organized the assault on this manufacturer. I'm fairly certain that it wouldn't take too long to expose these people for the hypocrites that they likely are. Here is an idea; if you don't want your kid playing a bear pong video game, then don't let them buy it. I'm guessing that would involve paying attention to what your kids are actually doing and those not the ideal solution.

When little Susie gets knocked up at 18 because these people were a terrible parents I guess it is a lot more convenient to blame video games, rap music, the school system, etc. I hope this article was just planted by the company's PR department to stir up controversy, but somehow I doubt it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080731/us_time/thewaragainstbeerpong

You tell Em' Jimmy!

Here is a good rant by Jim Rogers. He's always entertaining. I'm amazed that he hasn't dropped from a heart attack. He's been barking about how poorly government's run the economy for years.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=8598765621847589311&q=jim+rogers&ei=COiJSJWJLZeQ-QG6r6T_Bw

amen

Here is a great editorial by Jim Grant of Grant's Interest Rate Observer. I encourage everyone to read it.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB121642367125066615-lMyQjAxMDI4MTI2MzQyMjMzWj.html

He addresses a question that I have been asking myself over and over again. Why does it seem that no one cares about what's going on with the current financial mess? The silence is deafening to me. I think there are a lot of possible reasons:

1. The bull market in equities over the past 20 years has conditioned people to believe that all bad news is good news ( to buy stocks ). The violent rallies that we see in financial and consumer stocks whenever the boys in Washington give us the A-OK sign is evident of this. The fear of missing the next big rally is far greater than the fear of losing money.

It's fascinating to me to hear how little people know about their own investments. It's as if all is well provided it's in a mutual fund. News flash folks, mutual fund managers do not get paid to make you money. They get paid to beat their bench mark. How many are aware that the S&P 500 has been flat over the past 10 years? So what you ask? Well if you have invested in large cap mutual funds chances are you have lost money due to fees over this period of time.

2. The housing bubble made everyone that owned a house feel rich. Although housing stopped rising in 2005/2006 people still vividly remember the euphoria of perceived equity going up 10%+ per annum. When did owning a home become one of Americans sovereign rights?

3. Wall Street has created such a complex ponzi scheme with their structured finance products that you need to be a PH.D to understand it. Scratch that, I know a PH.D that has a degree in structured finance that would readily admit to no understand all of these products. If he can't understand what the risk is how do we expect our government officials to understand it? I read recently that a reporter had called someone at the MPLS fed to get a comment about a derivative product written against US Treasuries and the Fed official didn't even know that product existed. Seriously???? This same story has been told over and over again.

4. I think the biggest obstacle to solving these problems is admitting that the US simply living beyond our means. We have unbelievably large unfunded entitlement programs ( Medicare, Social Security, etc. ), ever increasing deficit spending, and ongoing costly wars going on. We will not be able to continue this course without a severe lowering of our standard of living.

I could go on and on....

John Stewart

This was a pretty funny bit about the press conferences last week by W and Helicopter Ben. Good for a laugh. Too bad it's funny because it's true.


http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=176740&title=headlines-its-the-stupid-economy

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Fw: Join me in solving the climate crisis

My buddy Hugh sent this to me this weekend. Al Gore has been in the news this past week for throwing down the gauntlet on Global Warming. He believes that the US should strive to rid itself of its addiction to fossil fuels within the next decade. Very Kennedy-esque. I think we are up to the task, but it won't be easy.

Take a look at this Thomas Freidman editoral on the topic. He's been beating the war drum on this topic for years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/opinion/20friedman.html?em&ex=1216699200&en=6ebf1840d585fce4&ei=5087%0A

Global warming is an urgent, but solvable problem. That's why I've joined the We Campaign, a powerful nonpartisan movement of concerned citizens that was founded by Nobel Prize Laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. We're already a million strong -- and growing each day. Will you join, too? Visit this site to learn more and add your voice: http://www.wecansolveit.org/ The We Campaign is working to ensure that elected leaders make the climate crisis a priority. Visit: http://www.wecansolveit.org/. Here, you can learn about solutions to global warming, take action steps and even find events happening in your community. Although it's not too late, global warming is very serious and there is no time to lose. So please don't wait any longer to get involved – sign up today: http://www.wecansolveit.org/ Together, we can solve the climate crisis.

Fw: Food Supply

Food for Thought:

I found this lecture to be completely fascinating. It is about the impact of the modern day food chain on our health and environment. My belief is that we are entering a period of sustained commodity inflation due to many factors: peak oil, emerging populations, global warming, etc. etc. The higher prices that we are paying for energy and food are just starting to be felt within our social fabric. There is still a lot of denial and hope that prices will come back down. I'm not counting on it. When the migration away from that hope moves to acceptance it will create a great opportunity to affect some positive changes and policies that will be more environmentally friendly. What our government hasn't done on it's own is going to be dictated by a force they simply cannot control...supply and demand.

Which leads me to this lecture about how our over consumption of animals and processed foods is impacting us in ways most Americans do not understand. The water and land resources that we use to raise animals for slaughter is simply not sustainable. And this is before you count the contribution to global warming from methane. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to stop eating a juicy steak or Dorritos anytime soon, but I will try to eat them less often. I hope this gives everyone a little food for thought!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html

Enjoy.

J