Tag: money

Posted on

Sub

This current economic crisis is another example of people not paying enough attention to language.

Sub-prime. They were called sub-prime mortgages. Sub-prime. SUB as in less than as in lower, as in not as good.

As in subpar.
As in substandard.

Yes, the prefix “sub” can be used with other words and not necessarily mean less than as in submarine, subway, substitute (though, there ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby! And what is a stitute?).

But pair the word sub with prime…

Below prime, less then prime, under prime…

Would you be surprised if the grade “F” eggs you bought were spoiled and gave you food poisoning?
Would you be surprised if you went to a no star motel and it was a dump?
Would you be surprised if you paid $15.99 for a flat screen TV and it didn’t work?

If so, you have a future in finance and or politics in the US.

Posted on

Deficits

Can someone please explain to me why when Dubya was running up the deficit (after he spent all the surplus Clinton left him) spending money on destroying another country no one was bitchin’.

And now when Obama adds to the deficit trying to build up OUR OWN COUNTRY, everyone goes crazy and gets mad at him.

Posted on

Borrowing Money

I do not understand why conservatives object to borrowing money to pay for the healthcare of their fellow citizens, i.e. increase the general welfare of our country, but have no objection to destroying the huge post-Clinton surplus we had to and borrowing massive amounts to attack Iraq on false grounds. And the war in Iraq does not have a positive effect on life in the U.S.A.

Posted on

Beauty Contests

In the 1930s, financial markets, for obvious reasons, didn’t get much respect. Keynes compared them to “those newspaper competitions in which the competitors have to pick out the six prettiest faces from a hundred photographs, the prize being awarded to the competitor whose choice most nearly corresponds to the average preferences of the competitors as a whole; so that each competitor has to pick, not those faces which he himself finds prettiest, but those that he thinks likeliest to catch the fancy of the other competitors.” – from the NY Times.

sounds like an apt description to me

Posted on

Don’t Put Bernie in Jail

I think it is a terrible idea to put Bernie Madoff in jail. I am not saying that I think he is innocent and I am not saying that I think he should not be punished. I think he should be punished and severely.

But if he is put in jail, he will once again be living off other people. He will continue his parasitic lifestyle. He will be sucking his livelihood from the taxpayer. We will be paying for his food and shelter and his health insurance.

Instead of putting him in jail we should make him live in a suburb of Pheonix or Cleveland or Fresno. Make him live in a nondescript badly struccoed apartment complex with meth addicts and hookers. In a small one bedroom with broken air-conditioning and dark wood paneling. With the only view being the back of an equalling depressing building and the dumpsters between them.

Make Madoff work at a minimum wage job that does not provide health insurance. Make it so that he can never be promoted and always has to clean the bathrooms. Make him stay there till he croaks with no retirement and terrible health insurance.

Yes, this might fall under “cruel and unusual”, but shouldn’t the punishment fit the crime?

Posted on

An interesting scene

“Three blind men, each one as old and bent as a caricature of Father Time, move slowly up the street where foreigners’ hotels are concentrated. Each one holds a corner of an undyed cotton sheet. A small, sighted boy, about 6, holds the front corner in one hand, pulling them along; in the other hand, the boy holds up a kerosene lantern. The old men are singing an unearthly melody, words I don’t understand. Passers-by toss coins into the cloth.”

Posted on

jewel heist

I’d wear a dress for that kind of money.

Four armed robbers — two of them men disguised as women — walked into a luxury jewelry store in Paris and swiped an estimated €80 million (U.S. $101 million) in jewels, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

Makes you wonder though if this was some kind of an inside job – >

“The same shop was robbed of millions of euros worth of jewelry just 14 months ago, in October 2007.”

Also makes you wonder why the robbers felt the need to wear dresses. How did that figure into the plan? Maybe shock and awe? Maybe we should have gone into Iraq with an army in drag and the whole mess would already be cleaned up. Never underestimate the power of a good outfit.

Posted on

Borrowing Money

France is borrowing money to shore up its banks.
Italy too. England, the USA, and Germany also.
Iceland has gone under. Guess they didn’t borrow soon enough.
Japan and South Korea are also borrowing money.

From whom are all these countries borrowing to stay afloat?

The Saudis? Russia? The Chinese? Kim Jong Il, illin’ and chillin’ like a villian above the DMZ?