I Can’t Begin To Thank My Congressman

Because www.house.gov is slammed.  Here’s what I got when I tried to use their site to send my Congressman a thank you for voting against the bailout rescue savior of the economy.

Messaging Service Unavailable

The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of email traffic. The Write Your Representative function is therefore intermittantly available. While we realize communicating to your Members of Congress is critical, we suggest attempting to do so at a later time, when demand is not so high. System engineers are working to resolve this issue and we appreciate your patience.

I’m sure it’s just a few computer savvy Ron Paul supporters who are causing all the problems.

Interesting Thought on the Bailout

Read it, or we’ll be facing an insurmountable economic crisis.  Here’s a sampling.

Wall Streeters pat themselves on the back all the time for how creative they are financially.  So get creative here.  Create some sort of new entity and have banks contribute toxic mortgages into the entity in exchange for equity.  Find some pension funds to invest in the new entity at a deep discount.

HT Brad Warbiany

Watching Some CNBC in Prime Time

Mark Cuban was talking about the need for transparency.  He also mentioned that one of the problems that allowed such a large drop today is that the short selling rules are keeping people from hedging their bets and keeping the markets honest.  A couple of nice soundbites too…

“Policians don’t want transparency because then they’re held accountable.”

“90% of Congress has no idea what they were asking questions about.”

Heh.

Some of us don’t want this bailout to pass because we don’t want a socialized financial system and hate corporate welfare.  Other people don’t want it to pass because, honestly, they don’t understand what’s going on.  Both are valid reasons in my book.  It’s crazy to ask people to foot a $700B bill when they don’t really understand exactly what the money is going for.

And if I hear one more person freaking out about their 401k…

Relax.  You aren’t retiring tomorrow, or next month, or next year.  If you are, chances are you’re in a heavy cash position anyway.  The rest of us are buyers, not a sellers.  Let’s be happy everything is on deep discount.

The rest of us should be more angry about the 10% penalty we have to pay to the gov’ment if we choose to withdraw our own money early.  The fact that the balance dropped 7% on one of the 11,000 days I’ll have the account as a buyer/holder and not a seller is nothing compared to that.

Illogical Markets

From Fast Company:

“The idea that the market is always right is a crazy idea. Laissez-faire is over.”

Well, until the shit hits the fan, maybe. But it can’t be stopped forever.

Here are a few observations I’ve made in my few years…

1) Unregulated markets are illogical, emotional, impulsive, abusive, and reactionary…in the short term. But in the long term they are rational and efficient.

2) Government is smart, able, and well-meaning…in the short term. But in the long term it is idiotic, inefficient, and oppressive.

3) People who act based on fear, emotion, and good intentions and only think in the short-term tend to pay for it heavily in the long term. Almost always.

Short term thinking got Barry Bonds the home run record. It probably shriveled up his nuts and took a few years off his life in the long term.

Short term thinking got people to buy houses they could afford to pay for while their adjustable rate was low. It caused them to get foreclosed on in the long term.

Short term thinking will give institutions that made bad loans investments the ability to make more loans investments. In the long term, well, I guess we’ll see, won’t we?

Take a Ride on This Dhingy

The biggest cruise liner ever:

This cruiser is the first one to boast an authentic grass lawn on its top deck.

I’m assuming the purpose of the grass is to keep you from getting a huge lump on your forehead when you smack it onto the top deck when tackling another unsuspecting passenger?

Remind me to tell you that story some time.

I’ve only been on one cruise, and I didn’t like it.  I have a hunch that a certain unsuspecting fellow passenger didn’t like it either.

Two Guys Who Get It

Brazilian President calls the bailout unfair to poor people…

“Why give $700 billion to the banks and no money to the poor guys who lost their houses,” Lula asked, according to local media. He referred to the troubled U.S. housing market.

I think he’s right, but for the wrong reasons. Poor people shouldn’t be given money either. But it’s the poor people who are going to have their precious few dollars devalued. It’s the poor people who are going to be taxed by allocating a larger portion of their income to pay for the mountain of regulation that will result in an increase in costs of goods and services.

Newt Gingrich is right too, well sorta…

“You have the former Chairman of Goldman Sachs asking for 700 billion dollars, and in his initial request, asking for it in such an un-American way that I think he should have resigned,” said Gingrich.

Paulson has to go. But he shouldn’t be given the opportunity to resign. I believe the correct term is “shitcanned”. Maybe Congress could investigate him on the possibility that he was in collusion with Wall Street too. That is, if they can squeeze it in between all the other important investigations.

Don’t expect either of the major party Presidential candidates to work towards anything but the status quo though.  They’re going to be busy convincing you that they are miles apart on this issue.

The Phillip Fulmer Show

I didn’t see much of the game yesterday, but I’m sitting here now enjoying Phil Fulmer’s stoicism on his show. It’s amusing. You know, when you use the phrase “Chad had a fantastic second half”, and Chad is your punter, things can’t be too good on offense. Punters on good teams don’t have the opportunity to measure their success by halves.

No matter, this was a defensive battle. It was epic–one for the ages.

Right.

And Fulmer remains 7 games away from his guaranteed contract extension. That reminds me, there are some guys locally who’ve designed a t-shirt in honor of this beautifully negotiated deal. It’s the Coacho Ocho limited edition T.

Eight is enough to line your pockets with dough!

Country Folks Can Survive

Who has the most to worry about if large financial institutions crash? Is it the people Washington is trying to protect–Wall Street?

Who will be hurt the least? Is it the people Washington is trying to stick with the bill–the taxpayer?

Somebody told us Wall Street fell, but we was so poor we couldn’t tell.

–Alabama

Something to consider. If you have a little piece of land, can shoot straight, and don’t mind wetting a line, there’s not much chance of you or your family starving. Bonus if are on well water, have a wood burning stove, and “spent the summertime cuttin’ up logs for the winter.”

‘Coma is talking about farming and the economy, and she mentioned on Twitter that a lot of people in Hoots are worried about what may happen with this bailout. I grew up out in the country, but I’m a little ashamed to say that my genes have softened considerably in two generations. My grandparents would have no problem fending for themselves with a garden, a fishing pole, and a shotgun (bow, if needed). In fact, they pretty much did that anyway–that’s just how they lived.  It’s very admirable.

You cain’t starve us out and you cain’t make us run, ’cause we’re them ol’ boys raised on shotguns.

–Hank Williams Jr.

I feel lucky that I was given at least a taste of that way of life growing up and could probably scrape by.  I’ve seen enough to not worry much about people in rural areas.  Make fun of them if you want, but country people are sturdy.

We are probably headed for some pain as a nation…probably have been for a long time.  The question we have to ask ourselves I think is if we’re willing to take a little bit of pain in the short term, or a lot of pain in the long term.  I say let’s take our medicine now–no bailout!

Ron Paul on the Bailout “Debate”

“That’s why so many people in this country have come to the conclusion that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties.”

Remember back in the debates when Ron Paul was harping on monetary policy any time he was given a chance to speak?