After a nearly 3 month drought, I found some Spree at a Speedway Gas.
I had to buy 3 rolls since who knows when I'd see it again.
Somehow one of my rolls disappeared at home, so I know everyone loves Spree!
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Mortgage gone up? Call the Govt.
I have always had a thing for numbers, so I love the stock market. The last couple weeks have been brutal. Sometimes the best thing to do is walk away so you don't panic and do anything stupid. So I have stopped paying attention to the market which helps keep me focused on the long term and not get caught up in the short term.
But the only thing that can make a bad market worse is really bad politics. The market is tanking partly because of all these people that got stuck w/ super expensive houses with crazy ARM mortgages that have been going up for a while now. Not to mention the flippers who got stuck w/ 5 new condos in Miami that no one has ever lived in.
Several potliticians (Presidential Candidates) have suggested that the government step in and pay for a lot of these bad mortgages. I'm sure it is an easy position to take to gain public support and votes, but this is a terrible policy. There has to be risk w/ reward to prevent these things from happening. You can't allow companies to make a ton of money off of interest only loans, and then bail them out when, surprise, people can't afford to make payments when the loan adjusts. That will only create a bigger problem next time because people (both homebuyers and loan companies) will take more risk knowing that if it goes bad the government will come help.
This is like a kid going to a casino and having their parents say "call if you lose more than $1,000 and I'll come pay." How could you ever expect that kid to manage their money properly and know when to leave? If they are down $100, of course they will keep playing becasue they know their parents will fix it if they get into bigger trouble.
From an economic principle it is terrible, but also from an individual standpoint it is a bad deal for those of us who didn't get into this mess. Politicians have thrown out numbers a large as $200 billion to fix this. That is roughly $2,000 per household in taxes to pay for that. Why should we chip in $2,000 to pay for others mistakes? That means I would have been better off speculating in flipping. There is some chance I would have made a million and if I didn't someone else's taxes will help me out.
I would agree with spending tax money on this IFF (remember math proofs?) the government passes a law saying these ridiculous mortgages are illegal and make sure none of these companies can offer them again. If they say these people were victims of fraud and it was illegal then OK, but don't say it is OK to sell these silly loans and then pay them off when people get in trouble.
I really do feel bad for people who are trouble from an interest only loan or worse a negative amoritization loan, but they should be able to cut their losses and refinance into a 30 year fixed mortgage. And the fact is, if you cannot afford your house w/ a 30 year fixed mortgage, then you cannot afford to live there.
We need to be teaching personal finance in schools. Start w/ bank accounts and balancing a checkbook, work you way into credit cards, school loans, and mortgages.
Students need to learn that the job of any company is to maximize the profits it gets from you. And it doesn't matter if that includes you getting a school loan, buying a house or a car. Same w/ a casino, the job of each game is to make as much money as they can from you. And only through education can you tell what is a good bet vs a bad bet.
It will help students ask the right questions like:
"Why is the Gap telling me all the new clothes I bought last year are now out of style?"
"Why would a financial advisor tell me I need to sell all of my funds and let him pick the new ones?"
"Why do the realtors on House Hunters always ignore the comment and point out something great whenever someone says they don't like something."
But the only thing that can make a bad market worse is really bad politics. The market is tanking partly because of all these people that got stuck w/ super expensive houses with crazy ARM mortgages that have been going up for a while now. Not to mention the flippers who got stuck w/ 5 new condos in Miami that no one has ever lived in.
Several potliticians (Presidential Candidates) have suggested that the government step in and pay for a lot of these bad mortgages. I'm sure it is an easy position to take to gain public support and votes, but this is a terrible policy. There has to be risk w/ reward to prevent these things from happening. You can't allow companies to make a ton of money off of interest only loans, and then bail them out when, surprise, people can't afford to make payments when the loan adjusts. That will only create a bigger problem next time because people (both homebuyers and loan companies) will take more risk knowing that if it goes bad the government will come help.
This is like a kid going to a casino and having their parents say "call if you lose more than $1,000 and I'll come pay." How could you ever expect that kid to manage their money properly and know when to leave? If they are down $100, of course they will keep playing becasue they know their parents will fix it if they get into bigger trouble.
From an economic principle it is terrible, but also from an individual standpoint it is a bad deal for those of us who didn't get into this mess. Politicians have thrown out numbers a large as $200 billion to fix this. That is roughly $2,000 per household in taxes to pay for that. Why should we chip in $2,000 to pay for others mistakes? That means I would have been better off speculating in flipping. There is some chance I would have made a million and if I didn't someone else's taxes will help me out.
I would agree with spending tax money on this IFF (remember math proofs?) the government passes a law saying these ridiculous mortgages are illegal and make sure none of these companies can offer them again. If they say these people were victims of fraud and it was illegal then OK, but don't say it is OK to sell these silly loans and then pay them off when people get in trouble.
I really do feel bad for people who are trouble from an interest only loan or worse a negative amoritization loan, but they should be able to cut their losses and refinance into a 30 year fixed mortgage. And the fact is, if you cannot afford your house w/ a 30 year fixed mortgage, then you cannot afford to live there.
We need to be teaching personal finance in schools. Start w/ bank accounts and balancing a checkbook, work you way into credit cards, school loans, and mortgages.
Students need to learn that the job of any company is to maximize the profits it gets from you. And it doesn't matter if that includes you getting a school loan, buying a house or a car. Same w/ a casino, the job of each game is to make as much money as they can from you. And only through education can you tell what is a good bet vs a bad bet.
It will help students ask the right questions like:
"Why is the Gap telling me all the new clothes I bought last year are now out of style?"
"Why would a financial advisor tell me I need to sell all of my funds and let him pick the new ones?"
"Why do the realtors on House Hunters always ignore the comment and point out something great whenever someone says they don't like something."
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
No gnews is good gnews....
Reason #101 why I get all of my news online (special thanks to Amanda for finding this cinematic genius):
This would be great advice...except for the fact that it is terrible advice.
There is no one I know who appreciates the nuance of language more than my friend Kenny, so this blog is for him:
It has been almost 6 months since the last Vegas trip, long enough that I have recovered from the lack of sleep and am starting to look forward to the next trip.
So much so that I had to buy Hoyle Casino 2007 for my computer. Brief comment on the game, I had the 2000 version and loved it but the game play of this one is really slow. Waiting to get paid after a roll of craps takes longer than in an actual casino (true fact).
Anyways, the game came with a guide book that includes helpful hints on how to learn each casino game.
But, it also has a "Strategies" section which is a riot. I will write them below trying to recreate my best Kenny impression in text.
Roulette:
"It is however, a FACT that winning and losing often takes place in streaks. If you have a system and it's actually working for a period of time, stay in while it lasts, then get out AS SOON as it LOOKS like it's taking a turn for the worse."
Let it Ride (aka Ride or Die):
"Blind luck ASIDE, knowing whether to keep or recall bets is the key to sucess in Let it Ride. In this uncomplicated game, IN FACT, it's the only area in which strategy can make a difference."
It has been almost 6 months since the last Vegas trip, long enough that I have recovered from the lack of sleep and am starting to look forward to the next trip.
So much so that I had to buy Hoyle Casino 2007 for my computer. Brief comment on the game, I had the 2000 version and loved it but the game play of this one is really slow. Waiting to get paid after a roll of craps takes longer than in an actual casino (true fact).
Anyways, the game came with a guide book that includes helpful hints on how to learn each casino game.
But, it also has a "Strategies" section which is a riot. I will write them below trying to recreate my best Kenny impression in text.
Roulette:
"It is however, a FACT that winning and losing often takes place in streaks. If you have a system and it's actually working for a period of time, stay in while it lasts, then get out AS SOON as it LOOKS like it's taking a turn for the worse."
Let it Ride (aka Ride or Die):
"Blind luck ASIDE, knowing whether to keep or recall bets is the key to sucess in Let it Ride. In this uncomplicated game, IN FACT, it's the only area in which strategy can make a difference."
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Back to Basics
There was a great Modern Marvels on tonight about water. It had a good segment on the Bellagio water show:
Aside: Modern Marvels is now available for download on itunes. A coworker got an iphone and it is significantly more impressive than I thougtht (now if only that AAPL stock I just bought would go back up).
It reminded me of some things I have been thinking about since St Lucia. I really think most of the 21st century will be spent on getting the basics back in order (hopefully before any crisis). Access to water (I say just water because 1/2 the world doesn't have access to clean drinking water), power and food supplies etc.
Most of the 1900's and the industrial revolution solved most of these basic needs for us here in the US. The fact that Las Vegas exists and has drinking water is really amazing. Farmers became more productive, we had power plants built all over and managed to get water to the Bellagio water show. This allowed a great percentage of our population to diverge into other areas of work rather than the basics. Today, I personally produce zero food, zero water or power but trade my deodorant sticks for all my needs (effectively).
Growing up in New England, this would not have been allowed to occur during the age of the pilgrims, most had to bring in their share of the harvest and probably only a few doctors etc were exempt from this. But since 1900 we have "lost" or no longer needed 75% of the farming jobs due to advances in crop yields (the exact % is in Naked Economics).
As the population of the US in general and specifically the rest of the world has grown, we are eating up whatever buffer our technology has created. Today we have summer brown outs in California, and watering restrictions in dry parts of the country (only even numbered houses can water their lawns on certain days, Dale maybe you could start a carbon emission-like market for your 42 days w/o watering your lawn). I know the snow runoff west of the Rockies no longer produces enough drinking water to meet demand. And Modern Marvels showed the underground water table east of the Rockies (in the plains) is expected to be down to 20% the original capacity by 2020.
As of right now, I am not crazy worried about this (provided we start to get smart about these things) since our ability to diverge will allow us to use new technologies we may not have had. We may not have been able to look at solar power as much without the advances in silicon wafers and computer chips.
For the stock people, there is a good water index fund (PHO) that has everyhting from purification companies to sewer line manufacturing (just see the ripped up Glendale streets, a lot of us town need updates) etc it is up 33% since being introduced a couple years ago.
Aside: Modern Marvels is now available for download on itunes. A coworker got an iphone and it is significantly more impressive than I thougtht (now if only that AAPL stock I just bought would go back up).
It reminded me of some things I have been thinking about since St Lucia. I really think most of the 21st century will be spent on getting the basics back in order (hopefully before any crisis). Access to water (I say just water because 1/2 the world doesn't have access to clean drinking water), power and food supplies etc.
Most of the 1900's and the industrial revolution solved most of these basic needs for us here in the US. The fact that Las Vegas exists and has drinking water is really amazing. Farmers became more productive, we had power plants built all over and managed to get water to the Bellagio water show. This allowed a great percentage of our population to diverge into other areas of work rather than the basics. Today, I personally produce zero food, zero water or power but trade my deodorant sticks for all my needs (effectively).
Growing up in New England, this would not have been allowed to occur during the age of the pilgrims, most had to bring in their share of the harvest and probably only a few doctors etc were exempt from this. But since 1900 we have "lost" or no longer needed 75% of the farming jobs due to advances in crop yields (the exact % is in Naked Economics).
As the population of the US in general and specifically the rest of the world has grown, we are eating up whatever buffer our technology has created. Today we have summer brown outs in California, and watering restrictions in dry parts of the country (only even numbered houses can water their lawns on certain days, Dale maybe you could start a carbon emission-like market for your 42 days w/o watering your lawn). I know the snow runoff west of the Rockies no longer produces enough drinking water to meet demand. And Modern Marvels showed the underground water table east of the Rockies (in the plains) is expected to be down to 20% the original capacity by 2020.
As of right now, I am not crazy worried about this (provided we start to get smart about these things) since our ability to diverge will allow us to use new technologies we may not have had. We may not have been able to look at solar power as much without the advances in silicon wafers and computer chips.
For the stock people, there is a good water index fund (PHO) that has everyhting from purification companies to sewer line manufacturing (just see the ripped up Glendale streets, a lot of us town need updates) etc it is up 33% since being introduced a couple years ago.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)