I got this letter today from the U.S. Census Bureau. Does every residential mailing address in the country get one of these?

My first thought was about the first bolded sentence that informed me that “About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail.”

Holy crap, are they really spending the money to print and mail these letters to everyone in the country? [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government
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One of the most important political developments of the last century happened when the US Government decided to take your income taxes directly out of your paycheck, before you get it.  This has had the effect of hiding from the citizens just how much they’re really paying, and has helped keep the sheeple quiet about the massive levels of government spending.  Instead of April 15th being a dreadful day when you have to cut Uncle Sam a huge check, now many Americans look at the tax deadline as a payday!

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Tags: money, politics & government
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Two recent events were undeniable… arithmetically indisputable, good news on the economic front. These of course were the rapid growth in Q4 of last year and the recent crash through the dirty-glass floor of double-digit unemployment. Gold prices are well down, oil is up but it seems that is mostly currency fluctuation. That’s good stuff. However public opinion is unimpressed. The recent spike which seems was captured only in Rasmussen’s robo-called three-day rolling average has endured scarcely a week. Even the Obies are going easy on the trumpets. So what is up? It’s quite simple. Everyone paying attention now knows that whatever blurps and blips take place in the short term, economically at least, we are fully and truly screwed. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, money, politics & government
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The zipper on my man-purse broke. So I have to find a new one. I devoted not a little of this past weekend, to say nothing of the last couple of weeks, to that aim, and have yet to come up with anything. I know what I’m looking for, and I have seen a few bags that fit the bill, but nothing that’s just right. You see, I live in Los Angeles now, and as a result, no matter what bag I finally decide on, it is certain that there is a better one within an hour’s drive.

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Tags: money, religion & philosophy
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Ben Bernanke is the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank and as such has great influence over what you pay in interest in any financed transaction since he is basically the steward of the currency. He was a Bush appointment, a leading figure in the bank bailout scheme known as TARP and has been enthusiastically embraced by the Obama Administration and they want him re-appointed to another term. Why? Well haven’t you heard? Ben Bernanke saved the universe last fall. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government
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So Megan McArdle has a post up talking about the failure of a commercial real estate project in Stuy-Town.  I read McArdle a lot, and whenever she talks about New York and D.C. I’m much like an ignorant savage with a bone through my nose being told about far-off Albion.  I’m so Southern that I think anything north of the Red River is like one of those old Christopher Columbus maps (”Here there be dragons!”) and I’ve always read the comment threads of her posts about big city vs. suburban living with a bit of wonderment (walking home to your apartment with bags of groceries?  WTF?).

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Tags: money, politics & government
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Every now and then we’re reminded that, despite the state of the economy and lots of people struggling to make ends meet here in the United States, we’re still fortunate. Beyond fortunate, compared to many parts of the world. On the local news last night was a story of homeless people at Ridge Avenue shelter in Center City Philadelphia organizing a donation effort to help people in Haiti. As one of the homeless men noted, unlike many in Haiti, he had clean drinking water. [Read more →]

Tags: money, recipes & food
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I was sitting around (in Africa still) having yet another great conversation with a friend of mine, Rob. It went something like this (any facts I get wrong are a result of my faulty memory and not a lie on Rob’s part):

Rob: “So I noticed you’re wearing a Matix T-shirt”

Me: “Yeah. Funny thing is, I don’t know where I got it. I didn’t buy it. And someone, I don’t know whom, sent it to me. But I liked it and so I’m wearing it. Why? Who are they?”

Rob: “Every pair of pants I own are made by Matix. They are a great grassroots company that I used to work for. I trust them.” [Read more →]

Tags: fashion & clothing, money
26 Comments »

I read Bob Herbert’s Op-Ed “Invitation to Disaster” on the New York Times website yesterday.  I had problems when reading it; I found that I couldn’t get as excited about the topic as Mr. Herbert.  I mainly feel a sense, not of desperation and an urge to fight back as he does, but one of resignation to the futility of fighting the problem.  The People can vote themselves money, and are engaged in said activity with a vengeance.

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Tags: money, politics & government
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In the chart below, I’ve plotted IHE (Ishares Dow Jones Pharmaceuticals ETF), IHF (Ishares Health Care Providers), and IHI (Ishares Medical Devices), with SPY (S&P depository trust) included for comparison purposes. I’ve also included vertical lines marking various landmarks in the road to healthcare reform (left to right): May 11, healthcare industry players meet with Obama; June 8, Senate HELP committee releases initial draft bill; June 23, Obama presser on healthcare; July 22, Obama prime time presser on healthcare; July 31, Congress recesses to go home and get yelled at by constituents; November 19, Reid unveils bill in Senate; December 24, Senate passes healthcare bill. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, money, politics & government
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As Heather MacDonald notes in her piece in the Wall Street Journal, the recession of 2008-09 has undercut one of the most destructive social theories that came out of the 1960s: that the root cause of crime is poverty and social injustice

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Tags: money, on the law
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I’ve been waiting months for Public Enemies to come out on DVD.

Reason number one: I love Johnny Depp.

Reason number 2: I love guns.

The movie was just OK, as I expected from the mixed reviews I’d read. The plot was a little anticlimactic, and the love story lacked the romance novel passion I had hoped for. But the guns, both Johnny Depp’s flesh ones, and the black, shiny, metallic ones, were all I could have hoped for and more.

And it got me thinking about parallel circumstances. [Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, money
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I was having a conversation in the truck with my girlfriend yesterday about laundry detergent.  Not, of course, because this is a subject that interests me, particularly, but because we were going to the store to pick some up.  She told me about discussions she had with her stepmother and various friends about switching to certain “formulas,” i.e., a certain detergent and a certain fabric softener or whatever.  I was flabbergasted.  My girlfriend is something of a feminist and imagining her debating the merits of detergent and fabric softener was… incongruous, I guess. [Read more →]

Tags: his & hers, money
4 Comments »

In this era of massive federal spending and even larger deficits no revenue-generating option can be taken off the table. And none can have any greater potential than taxing that nefarious scoundrel named Kris Kringle, alias Santa Claus. Quite fortunately, a myriad of upcoming legislation will enable us to do just that and much more. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government
1 Comment »

Capitalism.  Saying the word is like laying down in a bed with freshly washed sheets and snuggling your nose into the sweetly scented pillows.  <sniff>  Ahhh…  Capitalism.  If political institutions are merely a reflection of the economic system which forms their foundation, then any free man must be a capitalist.  Capitalism is the only economic mode which expects liberty and ownership of property to be the order of the day.  It is the cornerstone of a republican governing structure, and the first thing brought to heel by totalitarian despots.

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Tags: environment & nature, money, politics & government
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The article screams “Obama wants stimulus projects to hire more minorities, women”.  One quick glance at that headline tells you pretty much all you need to know about the information presented in the article.  For the people who only read headlines, it’s a pretty good one at communicating the message.  [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government, race & culture
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“If you think that you are, ‘too big to fail’… “ You have got another think coming!!! is what I optimistically edited in for our President, even before he could stutter out the balance of his thought. Oh, what a transport can occur in a moment! Loyal, or even repeat readers know that the President’s oratory drives a swelling in my chest and a welling in my eyes, as it does for all true Americans. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government
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It’s all coming apart at the seams in the UK, according to a new study released by the Fabian Society and Webb Memorial Trust.  The study shows that the UK is about to fall off into depths of poverty unseen in over a century.

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Tags: money, politics & government
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The Chairman of the Federal Reserve is taking another turn in the Congressional ‘Hot Seat of Phony Moral Outrage’ today.  This is the same Hot Seat which has occupied others, such as the CEOs of the Big Three, and Roger Clemens.  Like those others, he shouldn’t have been there.

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Tags: money, politics & government
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Last week I promised you five non-sucky, non-budget-breaking holiday gift ideas, but I can tell you’ve had a long week, so you’re getting six. Two ideas for your girly-type recipients, two for the less overtly effeminate, one for a household or couple of any orientation, and one for kids.

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Tags: advice, money
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You know you’re already thinking about it, especially if you’re one of the 7,000 Americans whose unemployment benefits are running out, or if you live in, say, Michigan. In these darkest of before-the-dawn days, maybe it’s a good time to reexamine the holiday gift-giving ritual and all its evil, consumer-driven overtones.

Or maybe, you know, not. Not this year. This year some of you would like a little normalcy, a little dignity, a little tradition, just with fewer finance charges and bank overdraft fees sprinkled on top.

I hear you. You want your brother-in-law to look over at you and say, “Nice,” and mean it. Impact, not indigence. Let’s get started — yes, pre-Halloween, so sue me – with 5 gifts to avoid giving. [Read more →]

Tags: advice, money
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Always alert to cutting-edge financial news, I stumble upon this gem on the front page of cnn.com: President Obama wants you to save!

Since so far he has done well to emulate our aging decade’s other President—who had such a knack for creating employment with a certain non-paying quality—I know that soon many people will voluntarily find jobs and turn Obama’s words into action. Yes, under his leadership, our homes have been declared safe and good savers we will all become. With our future in place, I felt a need to chime in on the proper mix of mutual funds, the asset allocation so dear to the finance industry, particularly if the half of American workers who have any retirement plan at all choose to invest in stocks and bonds. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government
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I have a pretty good pulse on the financial sector. Professionally and personally the economy to me is life imitating art imitating life with a sharper punchline. And we’re screwed. We don’t know it yet because the powers that be are trying really hard to un-fuck things, but in the long run we’re screwed. Not because the stimulus can’t work (though I have my serious doubts) and not because the government is trying to socialize corporate America (though it is), but because the private sector has the same leaders it did before the crash. [Read more →]

Tags: money
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Uncle Sam is cheating!

Considering all the money that flows out of New York City’s Financial District, it should not come as a surprise that the news was first brought to light by the Wall Street Journal, but here’s the bottom line: if you just got a fat under-the-table payment at work, or if you’re crying poverty during the day while night swimming in a pool filled with dollar bills, don’t go bragging about it over the internet on your social network of choice. [Read more →]

Tags: money, technology
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Video provides an excellent vantage point for studying the Internet phenomenon, though it is also, oddly enough, where the Internet disappears. Hackers believe “information wants to be free,” but the suits have by and large been happy to charge for it, control it, own it. Case in point is the experience of what has been called the Kafka Lego video incident. [Read more →]

Tags: money, stone age memes, technology
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To recover from the blows dealt us all by the economic collapse, some communities came up with a new, creative idea. It’s new because that’s how USA Today touts it, although they do give a tip o’ the hat to the Great Depression,* when it apparently was also in vogue. They do not mention whether it actually cheered anyone up.

The brave new idea is introduction of local currency known under the hip new word “scrip.” [Read more →]

Tags: money
4 Comments »

Good news! There are reports of a light at the end of the recession tunnel. It’s great that there might be a light. Of course, it would be greater if we weren’t in a tunnel.

Unemployment is still high. Combined with under-employment figures, the estimates come in around 16%. Until there’s some massive hiring, it’s the austerity plan — or no plan – for an awful lot of people.

For those of us who are not yet seeing the light, much less feeling the glow, here’s a special list of 23 things you can still enjoy for $5 or less: [Read more →]

Tags: advice, money
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I’ve been broke most of my life, and occasionally poor. Being poor means you’re in danger of being evicted, you ‘fast’ because you’ve run out of food money, you walk 5 miles through a crack ghetto to save bus fare, you sell cherished books for pennies, you help yourself to left-over food in cafes; you end up sleeping on someone’s sofa and eating out of bins. Being broke just means you can’t afford anything nice; or you can have one thing but not another — so you can go to the cinema but then you can’t buy a new CD. Pleasures tend to be strictly metered. [Read more →]

Tags: ends & odd, money
6 Comments »

If you said, “Five-hundred dollars!” and can stand chilling with a Cocker Spaniel for twenty minutes, good lawd does Craig’s List have a deal for you!

Tags: animals, money
2 Comments »

As a Yankee fan, I find it comforting to know there’s at least one sport franchise making them look like a softball team sponsored by a local tanning parlor. When Florentino Perez became the president of Spain’s Real Madrid football club, he vowed to restore their glory days. Real Madrid has been the most successful team in the world and boasted many of its greatest players, such as Zinedine Zidane (you know, the head-butter). Recent years have been less glamorous though and with archrival Barcelona owning the world’s top player (Lionel Messi) and having completed the most successful season in Spanish history, Perez faced a disillusioned fan base and a towering challenge. [Read more →]

Tags: money, sports
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