blogging sporadically since…what? 1998?
Posted in economy, Government, On the Net on Oct 7th, 2008
I’ll try to post some interesting things around the web I’ve found that do a good job of explaining what’s been going on recently. This American Life, The Giant Pool of Money. Very interesting, a few months old. Describes why the banks started to make so many loans to people that probably wouldn’t pay them […]
Posted in economy, Government, politics on Oct 6th, 2008
Article from 1999 in the NY Times (emphasis mine). Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits. It sucks because Fannie Mae […]
Posted in economy, Government on Sep 28th, 2008
Poking around at Economist.com and I found some interesting charts, like this one that shows how many weeks of pay a company has to give an employee for letting them go. Talk about crazy…in Zimbabwe a company has to give out over EIGHT YEARS worth of compensation to an employee. Why would you even remotely care […]
Posted in Christian, economy, Government, On the Net, politics on Sep 23rd, 2008
Dave has a plan for the bailout. It’s almost an 8 minute audio clip, but very interesting. He’s saying we can change a law that lets these mortgages become marketable again…the “mark to market” law in Sorbanes Oxley, I believe. The government can insure these mortgages and that lets them become saleable again. It’d be […]
Posted in economy, Government on Sep 23rd, 2008
The best comment I’ve read today about the oil/bailout stuff today is from badbanana on twitter: The price of oil has jumped a one-day record amount due to anxieties caused by the financial bailout designed to alleviate anxieties.
Posted in economy, Government on Sep 19th, 2008
Hmm, I see according to Michael Hyatt on twitter, that Tennessee (well, Nashville, more specifically) is out of gas. I wonder if this is because of anti-price gouging laws? If you can’t raise the price high enough to deter demand, then you end up with shortages. I couldn’t believe this is happening when I saw […]
Posted in economy, Government on Jun 27th, 2008
I saw this story about a man torching his BMW to protest high gas prices. The Bavarian man, whose name was being withheld because he has not been charged with a crime, told police that gas prices were so high he could no longer afford to drive the vehicle. As in many countries, gasoline prices […]
Posted in Government on Jun 6th, 2008
From CNN on rising oil today: Recent data show high prices have led consumers to cut their gasoline consumption. Meanwhile, many Asian nations are cutting fuel subsidies, effectively raising prices, which is expected to further dampen demand. Artificially lower prices means people will use more of a commodity, driving up demand. And when there’s not […]
Posted in Personal on Mar 3rd, 2008
It’s good to see a company get it right…taking something that is usually unpleasant and making it a pleasant situation for their customers. Like changing your oil…it can be a miserable experience if you don’t have anything to do, but at Janzen’s Toyota, it’s not that bad. Prices are reasonable, and the customer waiting area […]
Posted in Food, Government on Feb 6th, 2008
I do most all of my shopping at Consumer’s IGA. They’re usually cheaper and, in my opinion, the quality of food (especially meats!) is better than the competition in town–the two Super-Walmarts. For example, milk has always been cheaper at Consumer’s. Most of the time you can catch milk on sale for $2.99 per gallon. […]