This Is For Paul

Ted Leo on the Political nature of his blog.

Daaa-aamn!

I find few things in life worthy of a two-syllable damn, but this may be one of them. Thanks to those at Reason Magazine's Hit and Run, for providing this grim tally.

For those too sozzled or bozwozzled to track what we're spending on on bailouts these days, here's a quick tally:

$29 billion for Bear Stearns

$143.8 billion for AIG (thus far, it keeps growing)

$100 billion for Fannie Mae

$100 billion for Freddie Mac

$700 billion for Wall Street, including Bank of America (Merrill Lynch), Citigroup, JP Morgan (WaMu), Wells Fargo (Wachovia), Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and a lot more

$25 billion for The Big Three in Detroit

$8 billion for IndyMac

$150 billion stimulus package (from January)

$50 billion for money market funds

$138 billion for Lehman Bros. (post bankruptcy) through JP Morgan

$620 billion for general currency swaps from the Fed

Rough total: $2,063,800,000,000

That's a little over $6,800 for every man, woman, and child, or just under $15,000 for each of America's 140 million taxpayers.

Sure, somewhere buried in the darkest corners of my brain with all the other unpleasant thoughts I've pushed below the surface of consciousness, I knew how bad it really was... but daa-aaammn!

WOOT OFF!!!!

A truly magical one day event.

Buzz Words

If I had the chance I would punch Wendy in her cheeseburger-loving cartoon face. Not just because of her asinine categorization of meat-lovers as "meatetarians", which is reason enough, but more so for reckless attempt to hop on the bandwagon and throw around some buzz words.

Today's Buzz Word.... Economics. Go!

You sure aren't an economist Wendy, and neither are the writers for Wendy's commercials. Your 99cent double bacon grease burger is not appreciating in value. A rational individual would trade the burger for a dollar and simply buy another burger and be 1cent richer. However, it's obvious that the characters are on a lunch break, which makes it likely that the time spent and transportation cost to acquire the second sandwich would be greater than the marginal revenue of 1cent from selling your 99cent sandwich for 1 dollar. Making the sale unprofitable. Not to mention, a persons individual utility for an item, say a cheeseburger from a fast food chain, is subjective.

How can your dollar be worth less today? Well maybe it's because of the current account balance. I'm talking capital account surplus + current account deficit, and the US is so entrenched in foreign finances that to begin to balance the US current account US citizens would have to tilt their consumption toward domestic products and this dynamic would have to simultaneously play out in reverse the rest of the world over. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Macroeconomic theory clearly states that running a twin deficit for any extended period will cause a dollar decline. Ignorance isn't cute, Wendy. Maybe instead of spewing your ill-informed opinions about economic stimulus packages you should pick up an econ 101 textbook.

MIA

I've been missing in action for the last few months. What can I say... it's summer. I will have more posts coming soon.

Apologies to the two readers I have.

While I'm At It...

Natasja - Op med ho'det


She has an album in english too, kind of... if you understand a little lyaric.

I'm Breakin' My Back, But It's All Good

Lykke Li, Swedish indie singer:

I'm Good, I'm Gone



She dances too.

Little Bit

I Feel Summer Creeping In...

And by that I mean it snowed this morning... just like it did last year. Snow until the first day of May, Bless Ohio.

There is a lot of interesting news out there. Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to touch on it. The Fed cut rates today and rates will probably stay put for awhile. Consumer confidence is still pretty lousy but there is some reason to believe the worst is over.

In the mean time, play the hand you're dealt. My suggestion, play in commodity futures, as long as you do it well.

Peace! I will hopefully return to more regular blogging after I graduate.

The World Beyond My Text Books is Bright and Scary

I have 3 weeks until I walk across the stage and finish my undergrad work. It's a little overwhelming to think about, especially because once I graduate I can no longer keep my cushy office job with KSU with an OPERS retirement plan. What is worse is my dream job is nowhere to be found thus far.

I guess this is growing up. I think I'm going to miss school in the year I take off before I start my grad work. I'll have plenty of time to read something other than text books at least.

This is Who I Am. This is What I Do.

I was just looking through some old notes and I stumbled upon a quote that I have always liked. I don't necessarily agree with all of Keynesian theory, but this summarizes economics pretty nicely.

"The theory of economics does not furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to policy. It is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique of thinking which helps its possessors to draw correct conclusions." - John Maynard Keynes

BOOM BOOM BOOM DaDaDa DaDa Da

Okay, I will admit... this made me want to vote for Ron Paul.




Maybe not really, but it's still pretty awesome.

Hmmm....

Check out the way independent males surveyed... especially when Hillary makes a Saturday Night Live reference about Obama.