JamesSlusher.com

I was pondering the bailout bill today and realized that I have an inherent conflict of interest in the matter and therefore won’t be commenting much.

I think handing Wall Street (or anybody for that matter) $700 billion is just plain stupid.  Taking the risk out of financial markets removes the only downside to making stupid loans at historically low rates.  And it doesn’t do a single thing to stop the foreclosures that are wreaking havoc on our country.

That having been said, I am now in the market for a house.  The more foreclosures, the better for me and my family, as it increases the supply and lowers the price of the available houses.  A giddy and cash-flush financial market will mean low rates on new mortgages.  Win-win for me and mine.

For perhaps the first time in my life, what is good for America and middle-class Americans, at least in the short term, isn’t in my best interest.

So, to all the Congress critters out there, if you are gonna do something stupid, do something stupid for me.

Paul Newman passed away Friday.  I make no bones in my proclamation that Cool Hand Luke is the finest bit of cinema ever produced.  That’s not my opinion, that’s pure fact.  It’s a fact like the sun comes up in the East, like the Earth is round, and like Jesus loved everything, especially the dinosaurs.

Paul Newman was a class act and anybody that makes a list of best films has to include several of his.  If you listed the best actors of all time and he wasn’t in the top 3, you should be pinched.  Hard.  The work that he did made people’s lives better.  Lord knows, I’ve spent many an hour watching his movies and forgetting my problems.

Goodbye, Paul.  You are loved and you will be missed.

Little Drummer Boy

Originally uploaded by jaslusher

Yesterday was Johnny Appleseed’s birthday, today is Jonny OneSock’s 3rd birthday.

Happy birthday, little man. I love you.

I’m a little disappointed that John McCain decided to show up for the Presidential debate.  I was looking forward to watching Obama debate an empty chair.  I’m sure the chair would have just sat there, but it is better than watching McCain lie there.

If you are wondering about the tax plans put forth by the presidential candidates, look no further, The Washington Post has an easy to read chart that lays it all out.

Two things tell me all I need to know.  First, Obama’s plan raises some taxes and lowers others, effectively balancing it out, while McCain’s just lowers taxes and does nothing to replace the revenue (thereby exacerbating the deficit problem).  Second, Obama’s plan raises taxes on his bracket while McCain’s plan saves the biggest cut for his income range.

Who is willing to sacrifice and who isn’t?  That’s all I need to know.

If you think that officials should get a vote because of how much beer you could guzzle with them or because they have good “values”, you have got to read this.  It is quite the eye-opener.

I show this because I think that many people fall in love (or hate) with a word while forgetting what it actually means.  Republicans have fallen in love with the word “deregulate” without understanding what happens when you actually deregulate something.  By regulating commerce, you take out some of the volatility of a market.  Sure, you limit the number of outrageous gains that can be made in an unregulated environment, but you also get rid of the downswings that end in market crashes (and massive taxpayer bailouts).  Regulation is not a bad thing, per se.  Inept or incompetent regulation is bad, of course, but that’s why you should elect smart people to positions of oversight.  Regulation of industries and markets are not the problem. It’s the people who are too lazy, too stupid or too greedy to engage in the oversight properly that are the problem.

It would take a fool or a madman to argue that the regulations that require infant formula to be of a certain quality are bad.  Or that the regulations that removed lead from paint and gas are not needed.  Those are situations that volatility is unacceptable, it can’t be good one day and bad the next, because the bad makes people die. 

Taking the volatility out of the financial markets is comparable in my opinion.  Lives and livelihoods depend on stability in these markets.  If that means Joe Billionaire can’t get a 400 million dollar bonus, I can live with that.

Regulation is not a bad thing.  Stupid regulators are a bad thing.  Elect smart people and your problem is solved.

Has anyone else noticed that McCain sells himself as a maverick because he breaks with his party (presumably because they are wrong), but then encourages us to vote for his party?  Wouldn’t that just mean you are putting more people that need to be opposed into office?

After almost eight years, G. W. Bush has finally succeeded at doing something.  Check out this headline:

Bush says he’s working hard on economic turmoil

Well after 8 years of deregulation of the markets, he and his buddies have gotten the economic turmoil they’ve been working so hard for.

These are strange days indeed.  I have written dozens of blog posts in the last couple of weeks only to realize that none of them have actually gotten, you know, typed.  For a guy who once, almost literally, lived his life on the ‘net, I’ve gone weeks with little more than cursory glances at a couple of sites.

It’s not that I’m not interested anymore, it’s that I am so absorbed in the minutae of my life.  We have (finally) sold our house in North Augusta and I’ve been trying to move the left over things out of the main house and the shed.  It’s amazing how much stuff we have and how that stuff seems to expand as soon as air hits it.

With the selling of that house, we can now begin to search for a new house in earnest.  The list of our wants is big and the price we want to pay is small, so the dance of compromise must take place.  The good news is that now we are on the right side of this buyers market and I’m cautiously optimistic that we will find a house that fits all of our wants and needs.

I have also been trying to finish up the building of the workshop in my in-laws backyard.  It has been quite the ordeal in terms of time and money, but the project is nearing an end.  Thank God.  If I ever build another, it won’t be cinderblock, that’s for sure.  It has a wonderful solid feel to it, but trimming everything out and installing anything that is affixed to the walls is a pain in the backside.

I’m going to wrap this up now, but I will be detailing more of these points later and giving my opinion of the Presidential race soon.