Creed Bratton

Today I found out that one of my favorite characters on TV also played guitar on one of my all time favorite songs.

Check out Creed Bratton rocking the guitar on “Let’s Live For Today”:

And here are some highlights of Creed on The Office:

Obama, Chrysler, & Market Instability

This week, president Obama scolded hedge fund managers in the Chrysler deal that lead to the company’s bankruptcy.

Here is a video and an audio clip presenting the hedge fund managers’ side:

 

Audio:

Audio interview with the Lawyer representing the hedge fund managers

Its absolutely astounding to me that our president would attack investors in this manner.   This abuse of executive power should be cause for concern for everyone.

Aside from the constitiounal issues,  actions precisely like this promote market instability and “credit freeze”.

Who is going to be willing to lend in an environment like this?  These hedge fund managers have a contractual agreement to get their money back before all other creditors.  And now the President of the United States is stepping in and scolding them for not taking 29¢ on the dollar!  

If investors cannot even rely on safe investments such as this, how can we possibly “stabilize” markets? Who would ever want to invest in a system where they were assured they’re investment was secure, only to have the executive branch of the government dictate otherwise?

As long as the government keeps fiddling with the rules of the game, the participants are going to sit on the sidelines until they know its safe to play again.

Why We Believe in Gods

Here is a fascinating presentation on the cognitive tools that lay the foundation for religious belief.

Throwback Pepsi & Dew

Earlier this week, Pepsi released a promotional line of throwback sodas.  These throwback sodas are sweetend with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.  I believe they will only be available until June.  I was able to pick some up at Cub foods and I would highly recommed trying some!

http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/02/pepsi-to-use-real-sugar-in-pepsi-throwback-mountain-dew-april.html

Free Markets

A free market is a market that is free of government intervention and regulation, besides the minimal function of maintaining the legal system and protecting property rights^[1], and is also free of private force and fraud. In a free market property rights are voluntarily exchanged at a price arranged solely by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers. By definition, buyers and sellers do not coerce each other, in the sense that they obtain each other’s property without the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or fraud, nor is the coerced by a third party (such as by government via transfer payments).^[2] In addition, in a free market, force is not used to prevent competition among buyers or among sellers (called free competition). Therefore, force is not a determinant of price, but rather price is the effect of buying and selling decisions en masse as described by the law of supply and demand.

Wikipedia - Free market (emphasis added by me)

I have heard a lot of criticism of “Capitalism” and “Free Markets”, during this economic downturn.  Every time I encounter the criticism, an intense anger builds inside me.  We DO NOT have Free Markets in America!  We have some markets that are free-er than others, but no free markets.  From the definition above, a free market must be free from government intervention and regulation.  I would love to hear about a market in America (or the world) that is free of government regulation and intervention.

By definition, the following factors are NOT free market compatible:

• Taxes
• Government Licensing
• Government Regulations
• Subsidies
• Bankruptcies
• Prohibitions/Quotas
• Fiat Money

These factors are so ubiquitous in the American economy that it is impossible to find an example of a pure free market.

Critics of free markets will point to certain aspects of market liberalization such as lower taxes or fewer regulations and blame those factors for economic turmoil, but neglect to look at other market interventions.

For instance, it is certainly true that some bank regulations were lifted and some taxes were lowered in the past 10 years.  These moves toward market liberalization, however, are offset by other market interventions.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ultra-low interest rates, and Sarbanse Oxley are a few examples of massive market interventions.  

In addition, it must be noted that in some instances market distortions can be exacerbated by ostensible market “deregulation”. 

As an example, look at the licensing and regulations surrounding cable and telecommunications companies.  A select few companies are “granted” the privileges to use communication lines and airwaves.  This is a huge market barrier and prevents free competition.  It is essentially impossible for a fledgling entrepreneur to gain access to the communication lines to allow competition.

Since these companies have been given near monopoly privileges, hypothetically, the government can pass regulations to enforce “equality”.  For instance, there could be a regulation requiring the company to charge the same amount to all users regardless of usage.  Or a regulation could require the company to offer content that appeals to a broad spectrum of viewers (like if they have a Jewish channel, they must have a Christian channel, and a Muslim channel….).

There are two market interventions in this scenario:  First the licensing that prevents free competition, and second the regulations that prevent free expression or free commerce.

Now, if the government removes the regulations on the pricing allowing the companies to charge more based on usage, many consumers will have to pay more.

Or if the government no longer requires content to span differing viewpoints, a company owner can then effectively force its users to pay for programs they oppose (pretend the owner is a Christian, and he removes the Muslim programming).

In these cases, removing the regulations may have made the situation worse.  Critics of free markets might point to this as an example of free market failure.  The “deregulation” caused higher prices or restricted content.

However, it is the other market intervention, licensing, that is the real culprit.  Without the licensing consumers can freely choose which company they like best.  With more competition, prices will go lower, and more choices in content will be available.

Now an anti-free market apologist, could easily reverse the argument made above.  Since I have demonstrated that a move toward free market principles resulted in a worse situation, the argument can be made that regulations are beneficial.

This speaks to the core argument of Laissez-faire capitalism versus central economic planning.  

Nobel Prize winning economist Friedrich Hayek demonstrates the failure of central economic planning using the Economic calculation problem.  Simply put, it is physically impossible for a group of central economic planners to properly allocate resources.  Only a market-based price mechanism can effectively allocate resources in an economy.

Aside from the pragmatic argument , I endorse the ethos of free markets over collectivism.  I believe in voluntary, non-violent interactions between consenting people.

I think history has proven the triumph of free markets (despite interventions).  Unfortunately it seems to be a small minority of people that feel this way.

Veisalgia (Hangover) Cures

I ran across a great article about hangovers today from howstuffworks.com:  Page 8 has an excellent recap of ways to diminish the effects of hangovers.

Here are a couple fascinating tidbits from the article:  

• Eating Fried or Fatty Foods helps prevent a hangover
• Taking a couple aspirin before bed can reduce a hangover in the morning
• Eggs, Bananas, and Fruit juice for breakfast help to ease a hangover
• Mixing different alcohols and drinks does lead to a worse hangover

Buy Mexican Pepsi!

One of the blogs I read just directed to this article about PepsiCo suing a Mexican company for distributing Pepsi made in Mexico to American consumers.  It almost reminds me of the coke zero commericial where they are trying to sue coke for “taste infringement” even though they belong to the same company.  I’m not really sure what the deal is with this lawsuit, but I would bet the Mexican Pepsi is much better than the American Pepsi.  Unfortunately, I have not had Mexican Pepsi, but I have had Mexican Coke, and it  is WAY better than American Coke.  

Mexican soda is better than American soda because they use cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup.  The only reason American soda producers use high fructose corn syrup is because of the huge tariffs on sugar and subsidies our government provides to corn growers. 

I’m not a health expert, but I have heard from articles like this that high fructose corn syrup is worse than sugar for our health.  

You have to love a government that cares so much about its citizens that it will tax and subsidize a healthier, cheaper, tastier  alternative out of the market.  And when it still comes to the market at a higher price, good-old fashion litigation comes to the rescue to prevent us from having any choice whatsoever.

Anyways, if you can, please check the ethnic foods aisle at your grocery store and pick up some Mexican Pepsi (or Coke if there is no Pepsi), and tell the government just how grateful you are that they can effectively dictate which soda you are allowed to drink

John Frusciante

John Frusciante has a new album coming out on January 20th called The Empyrean!  He also has a new blog at frusciante.com.  Frusciante might be my favorite musician.  The albums he released from “Shadows collide with People” to “Curtains” were absolutely amazing and highly anticipated by me and my roomates at the time.  Needless to say, I’m incredibly excited for this new album!  Here’s a song from “Curtains” which is probably my favorite album at this point in my life.

$15,000 for each American taxpayer

I ran across a staggering post at reason.com today:  It references another article that tallies up our government’s attempts to “save” the economy:

 

$29 billion for Bear Stearns

$143.8 billion for AIG (thus far, it keeps growing)

$100 billion for Fannie Mae

$100 billion for Freddie Mac

$700 billion for Wall Street, including Bank of America (Merrill Lynch), Citigroup, JP Morgan (WaMu), Wells Fargo (Wachovia), Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and a lot more

$25 billion for The Big Three in Detroit

$8 billion for IndyMac

$150 billion stimulus package (from January)

$50 billion for money market funds

$138 billion for Lehman Bros. (post bankruptcy) through JP Morgan

$620 billion for general currency swaps from the Fed

Rough total: $2,063,800,000,000

 

The top 25% of income earners will foot 86.27% of this bill.  Leaving $283,359,974,000 for the rest of us, which is on average $2,698.66 per taxpayer earning less  $64,702 a year.

Keep in mind AIG spent $440,000 on spa treatments for executives with their bailout money.

For $2,698.66, I could have had one hell of a spa treatment for myself.

Japan

A week ago today, I returned from my trip to Japan.  It was an amazing trip!  The weather was great, the scenery was beautiful, and the people we stayed with were incredible!  

I’ve posted a video of pictures taken by my parents and me to my website.

You can check it out at:

http://www.tompiere.com/#travel