Light-up Cowboy Boots

As promised...

Van Morrison performing Astral Weeks Live

At the Hollywood Bowl next month. Unfortunately, the tickets range from $75 (for seats about a mile away) to $350. Goddammit!

New 451-page "Rescue Plan" to Waste Your Money

Included in the new rescue plan are such doozies as "INCREASE IN LIMIT ON COVER OVER OF RUM EXCISE TAX TO PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS" and "SEVEN-YEAR COST RECOVERY PERIOD FOR MOTORSPORTS RACING TRACK FACILITY", as well as a "PERMANENT AUTHORITY FOR DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION RELATING TO TERRORIST ACTIVITIES"?!?

These clowns simply have no limits.

Sarah Palin has been defending the US against a Putin invasion by helicopter!

For those of you who still don't fully understand the bailout...

...perhaps Sarah Palin can help to clarify it for you.

Enough talk of depressing things. Time for some entertainment!

I know this is old, but it still never fails to deliver.

R.I.P. Nappy Brown (1929-2008)

Anybody who grew up in the 80s will always remember little Rudy Huxtable belting out the chorus to the great Nappy Brown song, Night Time Is The Right Time.

Trickle-Up Economics - The Ultimate Rich Man's Con

We've all heard of the economic theory of trickle-down economics. Basically, the more money the rich are allowed to make, the more of that money will find its way down the food chain to those with less. It's a crock. But now, the President and Congress have proposed a new policy - trickle-up economics.

Basically (and this is largely oversimplified, but is adequate for for the sake of this discussion), banks operate by selling stock in order to generate capital. They then reinvest that capital, typically in the form of loans, in order to generate profits and increase their stock value in order to raise more capital. The investors make money and those without money are allowed to purchase things that they couldn't afford otherwise (like houses, cars, and XBox 360s). As long as everything works, everyone remains relatively happy.

However, for the last several years, the executives of these banks have been using the capital to give out loans, known as subprime mortgages. These loans were considered high risk, because those who received them would not typically be qualified to receive loans of that amount, based on their income, outstanding debt, and past credit histories. These risks were counterbalanced by the fact that the interest rates (and therefore the amount of payoff for investors) were high, and they were being secured by the collateral of the ever increasing housing costs. Basically, if the loanee failed to pay, they could still recoup their cost by foreclosing on the home, and reselling it for even more than it was purchased for. Of course, this was unrealistic, as it was impossible for housing prices to continue to increase forever. In fact, due to artificially lowered federal interest rates, these houses were selling for far greater than they were ever worth.

Fast forward to today - many of the recipients of these loans have defaulted (which was not highly unexpected). However, because the houses cannot be resold for anything close to what was paid for them, the banks now have billions of dollars in liability - greater than most of their assets - which makes their net worth, and subsequently their stock prices, zero or less. Because of this, they cannot raise any more capital to use to give out as loans so that they can buy back all of these foreclosed homes. The rich can no longer get richer - you see the problem?

Of course, it's not just the rich who are out - many people have lost everything they had (for many, that wasn't much to start with), and those that are still doing alright are stifled by the fact that they can't get loans to grow. Hence, the crisis at hand.

However, what the federal government has proposed is that we take out a giant loan, subsidized by your tax dollars, and use that loan to buyout all of the bad loans from the banks, thus decreasing their liability and increasing their net worth. The belief is that this will allow them to again raise capital so they can again issues loans and start the entire cycle over again. Of course, the bad loans will continue to sit there, rack up significant interest, add to the already existent $10 TRILLION NATIONAL DEBT, and causing the value of the dollar to continue to decline. Meanwhile, the banks will continue to give out money at 30% interest rates, and charging you a $40 late fee on a $200 balance every time your payment is late by a day. And the executives who were responsible for this fiasco? They will continue to get board of director jobs or get paid as bank lobbyists, and use the millions of dollars they received as golden parachute packages to make more money for themselves, never having to pay for their failures.

This is a scam, and it needs to be stopped. Write or call your congressman and tell them that you do not approve of them mortgaging your children and grandchildren's future in order to pay for their mess. Do not allow them to resell your money to you at a profit!