Jan

30

I am glad the democratic and republican fields are whittling down. Frankly, many of the candidates like Romney and Huckabee that claim to be outsiders whose platform is really about riding into Washington so they can fix it reminds me of the Carter administration.

While we all seem to agree that Jimmy was a really “good guy” that was about a waste of 4 years in the White House. People seem to forget that this was his mantra and he actually tried to carry it out. Reality check…anytime you ride into town as an outsider and tell the power base that hey are screwed up but you are here to fix them is a sure formula for failure!

Don’t believe me? Try doing it at work tomorrow, give it a whirl at the next PTA meeting, maybe let your church elders know how messed up they are leading the congregation, but you are on the case to help them turn things around.

Reality is Big Jimmy C. was a democratic president with a democratic congress and he could not get “Bubkus” passed. Why, because folks just do not want an outsider telling them how screwed up they are whether it is true or not.

 

 

Jan

26

How soon we forget.

The government plans to send many of us checks so we can go out and spend this money and put it back into the economy. What is this money they will be sending us? It is an advance on your “anticipated” income tax return for fiscal year 2008 earnings.

This would not be the same concept as getting a payday loan how???

Why major media does not tell you this is beyond me. Why our government does not tell you this is beyond me.

So…I am telling you. Here is how this Government Stimulus Package is going to work (and this is the same as the last time they did this). We will assume for the sake of our example that the government will send you a check for $500.

If you will be getting a $1000 tax refund when filing your 2008 income tax return you will only be getting back $500, as Uncle Sam already fronted you the first $500.

If you will be getting back a $200 tax refund when filing your 2008 income tax return then you actually owe the government $300.

The key to dealing with this rebate is knowing in advance if you will owe the government or if they owe you when you file your tax return next year on this years earnings. If you know you are getting a refund from your tax return you can consider this payment up front. If you typically owe the government money at tax filing time then you might be best to take this money and put it in the bank as all they are doing is floating you a loan that you will need to pay back in one lump sum!

Jan

19

Live Within Your Means

We have created quite the mess with this subprime debacle. We want to blame business,  business wants to blame the government, wall street is reeling.

Happy times

Unfortunately I think the slide has just started. Lets take inventory…

… Absolute Insanity …

I guess since it has been a while since the .COM insantity we needed a new means of losing our minds.

If you really think about it this has been nothing more than the old cliche “if it too good to be true it probably is”. The sad thing though is people actually made a great deal of wealth while many are now losing what little shirt they had to begin with. “I want it now, I’ll deal with the consequences later”.

Fact, is subprime lending has been going on for years. I remember when I was young, poor, and just starting out having a loan with HFC for a stereo and paying 25% interest.

Subprime lending for those of you that only know the buzzword is the market for those with “less than stellar” or “lack of” credit history. In exchange for outrageous interest rates and fees lenders will give money to people that have a poor record of paying it back.

Don’t get me wrong. Anyone, even the most disciplined person, can fall on financial hard times. The subprime market can be a means of re-establishing ones credit. But subprime lending became sheer insanity that now has us heading into the crapper.

The exposure by major financial institutions into the housing subprime market is just staggering. It is hard to identify these institutions until they report staggering losses.

According to CNN state by state going back to 2005 the entire Puget Sound (Greater Seattle/Tacoma/Everett and surrounding suburbs) had a 22% exposure. Much of California (25% statewide) and Florida (30% statewide) deeply buried in a sea of subprime lending.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/storysupplement/subprime_statebystate/

And here we stand today in all this chaos. All because people are not willing to live within their means. All because of the greed of business. All because our government turned its head because at the time the alternative was a slowing economy.

I think we should ammend the “if its too good to be true it probably is” to “If you have the means to get in during the bubble and out before the burst you can exploit and profit at the expense of your fellow man”

I think maybe Countrywide and a few others waited too long. Eh?

Jan

11

Do the Math

January 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment

At least 35% of us (low ball estimate) are independents. We are going to vote for the best candidate regardless of their party. One has to go back to 1972 when Nixon beat McGovern by 38% to find an election that the margin of victory percentage was greater than the percentage of independent voters.

Jan

9

Too much is made by the media of Mitt being a Mormon, Mike not just being a Christian, but a “fundamentalist” Christian, Hillary being a woman, Barack being black, blah, blah blah…

While I will contend that a small % of the populace will vote across these lines, most of us are going to vote for who we think is the best person for the job, irrespective of their race, sex, color or religion, or lack of religion.

For the record Jesus himself gave the fundamentalist Christians proper guidance for voting for the best candidate.

“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”

 

Jan

8

A typical desktop computer can consume 150-250 watts per hour (this includes the montor). A typical laptop consumes 20-50 watts. Anywhere from 1/3 to 1/20th less power than a desktop.

So what do you have to give up?

Price?

No way. You can get a nice laptop for $650 or less.

Okay but what do I sacrafice?

Nothing really. You get a decent sized screen (15.4″), big hard drive (120gb), 1gb of memory (more than enough). I am writing this blog on a $650 laptop. It is both the cheapest and the nicest computer (by far) that I have ever owned.

Are there any advantages over a desktop?

Yep…can you say wi-fi… I can take my computer to the backyard, sit in an easy chair and watch a rerun of Heroes. I can compute in my office, I can take it back to my bedroom to work or surf the net. Heck, I take it on the road and compute in my hotel room.

For the same price as a desktop, all this flexibility and major savings in energy and less stress to our environment this is an easy decision!

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