Bye-bye dollar assets good-bye

Eli S. posts on David Friedman's blog

There's a great spoof of Miss American Pie here.

When I teach my high school economics class about money and monetary policy (and trade, and debt, etc.) I'm going to use it.

A long, long time ago
I can still remember
How the dollar used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
I'd sell the currency of France
And, maybe, I'd be happy for awhile.
But all our spending made me shiver
With every T-bill we deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn't take one more step.
I can't remember if I cried
When I heard our politicians lied
But something touched me deep inside
The day the dollar died.
So bye-bye, dollar assets good-bye
Sold my Chevy at the levee
cause my pension ran dry.
Them good old boys were drinking sake to try
Singing this will be the day that it died
This i'll be the day that it died.
Did you write Whitehouse.gov
Or have you a Yen to fall in love
If Japan will tell you so?
Now, do you believe in oil and coal
Can China fill our import hole
And can we teach them how to grow real slow?
Well I know the country's fit and trim
Cause the jobs are in the Pacific Rim.
We all knew savers lose
Man, I dug not having to choose.
We were living off the almighty buck
We got their goods and they were stuck
But I knew we were out of luck
The day the dollar died.


Now for ten years we were sure we owned
All the stocks and bonds and mortgage loans
But that's not how it's gonna be.
When we've spent it all like kings and queens
In clothes we bought from The Philippines
The Asians pick the reserve currency.
Oh, and while the king was looking down,
Their central bankers came to town.
Our stocks and bonds were spurned
Those dollars were returned.
And while unions filled their books with Marx
The President said drill in parks
Our thermostats froze in the dark
The day the dollar died.
We were singing
Bye-bye, dollar assets good-bye

Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The equity is gone from your leveraged shelter
Fannie and Freddie are falling fast.
Crash, they landed, but in a new class
Full faith and credit have long since passed
With Congress, in denial, out of gas.
Now the Wal-Mart there has cheap perfume
With imports filling every room.
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance.
The consumers tried to take the field
The central banks refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the dollar died?
We started singing


Oh, and there we were all in one place
Our credit rating in disgrace
With no time left to start again.
So come on: Al be nimble, Al be quick!
Al, cut rates by 50 ticks
cause credit is the debtor's only friend.
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No congressman in hell
Could buy what he would sell.
And as the rates climbed high into the night
To stem the U.S. asset flight
The IMF said, Yes, that's right
The day the dollar died
They were singing



I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her if we still could choose
But she just smiled and turned away.
I went down to the Medicare store
Where we had spent our dollars years before
But the man there said those dollars wouldn't pay.
And in the streets the children screamed
The seniors cried and the workers steamed
But not a word was spoken
The commitments all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
Faber, Rogers, and Bill Gross
Were at the forex trading post
The day the dollar died.
And they were singing

.. I'd have to bill you

Dean is right. This 'Day by Day' is damn funny.

Control

We can't afford space. It's too expensive. We broke the bank just getting a handful of men to the Moon in 1969 - and now we want to send a baker's dozen at a time? Bah - spend that fortune on something worthwhile like social woes ..

As if

The question remains, however, "What should we afford?" In this regard, a historical perspective is helpful. At its peak, during the Apollo years, America spent 0.8 percent of its gross national product on its civil space program (Figure 2). This level amounted to about 4.5 percent of federal spending at the time (Figure 3) and, perhaps more importantly, about 6 percent of the discretionary portion of the federal budget (Figure 4). Today, we as a nation are spending about one-third of the Apollo peak spending as a portion of the GNP -- and the faction of the increasingly pressured total discretionary budget has declined to 2.5 percent.

0.8 of the GDP is nothing. We can afford that level of spending while holding our breath. It is not, then, about the money spent on space but politics and who controls the spending.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act considerd harmful

From IBD via

'Tis the season for predictions for the year ahead, something we've always been loath to do because, well, we don't like being wrong any more than the next guy. In the spirit of this special issue of IBD, however, we've come up with seven forecasts — let's call them "possibilities" — for 2007 based on what we see as key developments as '06 wound down. Herewith is our list, offered on the condition we're not held to it.

Major U.S. stock indexes were up solidly in 2006. The Dow's near its all-time high. Yet there's something rotten at the heart of America's markets, and that something is the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

SarBox has put a hammerlock on America's small-time capitalism like no other law before. It's keeping small, innovative companies from getting the capital they need to grow and thrive. Along with the growing number of high-profile lawsuits against companies for what turn out to be differences of accounting opinion, U.S. capital markets are hurting.

Loss of share to places such as London, Tokyo and Hong Kong extends even to IPOs. In the late '90s, U.S. capital markets attracted 48% of all global IPOs. This year, it's a pathetic 8%. In 2005, a shocking 24 of the 25 largest new issues were outside the U.S. We once owned that business.

The reason for the U.S. decline? As University of Chicago economist Luigi Zingales noted in a recent study, it's due to "excessive regulation and overly burdensome litigation risk" after Sarbanes-Oxley.

By the way, this can also be seen in the surge of once-public companies now going private. As the chart shows, net equity issuance in the U.S. — a measure of how much equity is actually available on U.S. markets — has gone into an alarming decline since SarBox. The trend has accelerated as more companies go private.

It's pretty simple: Company CEOs, faced with lawsuits, a growing list of SEC requirements and the costs that go with both would rather be private and not have the headaches than list on a major exchange and be harassed daily. The SEC has eased some SarBox rules, but needs to do more to restore America's competitive edge.

Thank you Sir, may I have another?

Hey, Department of Revenue

Wisconsin's revenue agency said Friday that it sent as many as 170,000 forms to taxpayers with mailing labels mistakenly printed with their social security numbers.

Thank-you-very-much-may-I-have-another? How about sending back the refund in cash, stapled to the outside.*

*tip to Dave

New Year's Eve

What I'm doing to celebrate the New Year





If you're in the area, come on down and say 'hi'.  We've got WIFI as well.

Rainy Day

Rainy day in Rockwall, Texas, October 2002

Space Pen

NASA spent millions of dollars to develop a pen that could write in space.  The clever Russians equpped their cosmonauts with pencils.  Foolish government 'crats in action.  Clever Russians.  Proves a point about how inept the space agency is or something like that.

Except it did not happen that way.

The Fischer Pen Company invested $1 million of their own money to create the space pen.  They sold 400 of them to NASA for Apollo.  The Soviets ordered 100 the next year.

They paid $2.39 each.

Not as exciting as 'crats wasting our money but somehow a more satisfying tale.

Tin ear in the PR department

NASA wants to connect with young adults.

Tactics encouraged by the workshop included new forms of communication, such podcasts and YouTube; enlisting support from celebrities, such as actors David Duchovny ("X-Files") and Patrick Stewart ("Star Trek: The Next Generation"); forming partnerships with youth-oriented media such as MTV or sports events such as the Olympics and NASCAR; and developing brand placement in the movie industry.

I wonder if anyone actually asked Patrick Stewart if he wanted to participate ...

As I get older my unease at the time and the money that has to be spent on projects putting human beings back to the moon, and on to another planet, is so enormous,

And it would take up so many resources, which I personally feel should be directed at our own planet.

Humankind has just not simply become sufficiently evolved to now leave this planet, take itself out to space and began establishing more of us out there.

I would like to see us get this place right first before we have the arrogance to put significantly flawed civilisations out on to other planets - even though they may be utterly uninhabited.

'Cause a guy who babbles on in such a vein might not be the best spokesman for a space agency.

Via the excellent Eric Berger.

Fairness

From Castle Argghhh!

George Budabin - a memorial

George Budabin - a memorial.

My Dad has left an impression on me that will stay with me until the day that I die. He taught me what being a man was really about. He was the ultimate stand-up guy who you could trust to do anything he said he would do. He was loving, caring, and affectionate towards his children. He was a provider in every sense of the word. There were days when he would leave for work at 6:30 AM and not get home until 9:00 PM, exhausted. Still, he would eat his dinner, and spend whatever time he had left with his children and wife until he went to bed, rarely just getting time to himself.

George Budabin sounds as if he were what we should all aspire to be. Be a stand-up guy, take care of your family, do what needs to be done.

Would that we could live up to his example. Requiescat in pace.

OH THE BEEMANITY

You really need to click this for the entire story.

Bee incinerator contraption:
- 30 feet of rope
- 1 large fire pit
- 1 science project board
- miscellaneous rags and a bedsheet
- gas

via

SAGE - Your Own Math Engine

SAGE: Software for Algegbra and Geometry Experimentation

SAGE is free and open software that supports research and teaching in algebra, geometry, number theory, cryptography, and related areas. Both the SAGE development model and the technology in SAGE itself is distinguished by an extremely strong emphasis on openness, community, cooperation, and collaboration: we are building the car, not reinventing the wheel. Our overall goal is to create a viable free open source alternative to Maple, Mathematica, Magma, and MATLAB.

Nifty. A practical application? Math server, says Steve Hastings via Pournell's Chaos Manor

I suggested that they should make a bootable CD image that runs SAGE in web-server mode. You could take any spare PC, boot from the CD, and your network now would have a SAGE server. I can imagine that being very popular in schools.

I can imagine it being popular elsewhere - any company that uses Mathematica can likely use a tool like this. You can't beat the price.



Respectfully Submitted,

Brian Dunbar

The Day After Christmas

Pasty wrote me a poem.

The Day After Christmas
In honor of Brian Dunbar

Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house the floor had been cluttered, with papers, twas doused.

The stockings were scattered with disarray in our lair, the candy wrappers thrown on the floor without care.

The children were playing all the games they received, while screaming at monsters and thieves that deceive.

While I in my apron and a trashcan on lap start sweeping and cleaning all the leftover wrap.

When out in their room there arose such a scream, I thought that they must have just had a bad dream!

Away to the bedroom I flew really quick, only to find they'd lost a sword to a stick.

So back to my room to clean the dishevel and make my home safe and bring it back, to some level.

The light on the floor made the packages glitter. It's amazing how lovely sunlight makes litter.

More quickly I went to finish my task, my husband was helping, and I didn't even ask.

More rapid than tigers he swept and he cleaned. I was so happy he had intervened.

In boxes, in paper, and in went the tissue. Quick as lightening he tossed them, how quickly they flew!

He saved all the manuals and tucked them away. He knew what to save, what needed to stay.

From the corner of the living room to the edge of the hall, he worked like a hero to save me from it all.

When he met with an obstacle, he took it with glee. Nothing deterred him, not even me!

With his hands full of boxes of goodies and toys, he dispersed them to rooms and then to our boys.

He took charge like a warrior ready to fight! And throw all the gloom I began to see light.

He drew in my hand to his lips he did kiss. Not once did I feel that my life was amiss.

With courage and fortitude he never once wavered, but kept on working and showing me favor.

He then did the dishes, yes, washed them all clean. Dried them with a towel until they showed sheen.

He worked like a madman, no task was too small. He worked and he worked not complaining at all.

He drew up his brow in deep concentration, making me watch in anticipation.

The steam from the water looked like it could boil, but nothing deterred him from cleaning the soil.

He put everything in it's place, no mistake did he make. And then to the garage the trash he did take.

And when it was done, he held me so close I could feel how the wind had been cold on his nose.

I hugged him so tight, for he saved me the trouble of making the day length seem more than just double.

And into the night he knew what was to be, for there is no better man then he is to me.

But I heard him exclaim as we passionately kissed, "My love for you, dear, will never desist."

Dodging a bullet

If this described a publicly-traded company, the CEO would be facing jail time

The largest employer in the world announced on Dec. 15 that it lost about $450 billion in fiscal 2006. Its auditor found that its financial statements were unreliable and that its controls were inadequate for the 10th straight year. On top of that, the entity's total liabilities and unfunded commitments rose to about $50 trillion, up from $20 trillion in just six years.

But it's our government so they've dodged a bullet. Thank heavens they're exempt from following the same rules the rest of us do.



Via.

Carl Sagan

"In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends on how well we know this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky."

Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Mighty neighborly

Hey, that is mighty neighborly of you Microsoft

Exchange 2007 includes a number of features that Microsoft says makes
the 2GB corporate mailbox not only completely viable, but desirable.

Mighty neighborly.

5,000 users x 2GB mailbox = 10,000 GB of data. Thanks Microsoft! You're making EMC (or NetApp) very happy. You're not making the IT department happy (wheee more storage arrays to mange) or the business guys who have to write a check to NetApp (or EMC) but there it is.

Pretty in Pink

From Oleg Volk


As a commenter dantheserene noted - "It's the accessories that make an outfit".

Via.

Marine Combat Artist Sgt Kristopher Battles

Sgt. Kristopher Battles is a Marine Combat Artist on active duty in Iraq. This is his blog - Sketchpad Warrior.

Bank Naiveté

Rand's post

Drop a billion dollars worth of bullion on the lunar surface. Whoever can get up there, and bring it back, gets it. There'd be no way to pull the prize money off the table with such a scheme.

Got me to thinking. Why worry about hauling it back? You've got a stack of bullion, it's assayed - set yourself up as an offshore bank.

Okay, it's way way offshore but the idea has it's merits; you're security staff can be minimal for a few years and just getting there to steal it presents major logistical problems.

The requirements for an offshore bank ... well there don't appear to be any. Your bank needs to be trustworthy, and able to prove your assets exist which we've done.

More seriously - since the government is not about to stash bullion on the moon - why not find an asteroid, assay it's metal content and use that for your assets?

What is the flaw that keeps this from being a workable idea?