Bailout=FAIL.

I got word just now that the bailout proposal has been rejected by congress. I am elated. Federal funds should stop going to bailout private firms. They failed. I did not cause their failure. Neither did millions of other Americans.

Congress is just trying to cover their own stupidity. Since 1992 democrats have been pushing mortgage lenders to make high risk loans to the poor. Well guess what?! In a pinch, they can't afford them, and many of them were paying next to nothing anyway. We, as Americans need to think more about living within our means. If I cannot afford something I should not be able to buy it. But the government barged in and said credit scores don't matter, incomes don't matter, everyone DESERVES a loan. Well, we can see what happened following that mentality.

I am not holding the financial industry and mortgage lenders blameless, but it was DC that caused this problem, not NYC. NYC just exacerbated it on the false pretense that the housing bubble would never burst. Many saw this coming for years. Prices don't always go up, and debts have to be paid.

It's true, regulation is needed. We can't allow anymore high-risk loans. But, we must allow private firms to bailout the market, not the government. And short selling is not the problem. The idea that stopping short selling will help the market is asinine. Just enforce the laws on the books that call for transparency.

Oh look, shiny!

Fickle. People are fickle the world over. And God bless them. There's nothing more lovable to a marketing department than people who one minute are talking about their friend's shoes and the next minute saying something like, "ooooh, shiny." They are the kind of people that keep a consumer economy from tanking. It's that "Oh, gotta have it" mentality that allows shoddy, second-rate fashion designers to stay in business. It is the gift of the fickle to keep strange organic goat cheeses and hybrid curd bread on the shelves. But, it is a double-edged sword the fickle wield.  

Fickle people at times can make or break a journalist's career. They can cause market instability and all of a sudden everyone and their grandma is selling. And, it's just something we have to deal with. Over the past 50 years (or perhaps more), people have been rapidly losing their minds. I used to think that perhaps they were just adapting to the information age, and their attention spans were just shorter, but it's more than that. 

We live in an age where everyone wants immediate results. Our food must be done in 5 minutes or less, people must text us no less than thirty seconds later, and slow movies are the bane of people's existences. Many have become, for better or worse, adrenaline junkies. But it's not just the time. They want everything to be perfect. If things don't happen like they planned, they go haywire. "What, you put two teaspoons of chocolate fudge on my icecream?! Screw you!" It's whack. People are wound so tight it's easy to see why we are over-prescribing ourselves. We take medicines to sleep, to stay calm, to digest better, etc, etc. People cannot exist without modern conveniences. People cannot live with themselves as just themselves.  

The perfectionist mentality will only grow, as will the pharmacy's stock of legal heroine substitutes. You can't treat life with a white glove people. Sh*t happens. Deal with it. Try to maintain composure even when everything seems to suck. You have it good. Just look around, breathe, and put down the shiny thing.

Slurpee Day - 7/11

Remember this day....For it will live in infamy....7/11. For it was and will remain one of the greatest strokes of marketing genius that Seven Eleven Owners will ever come up with. Soon, very soon, the big Indian business execs will take over the world. Every year, on July 11th, Seven Elevens across the US give out free slurpees. Fortunately in the US, 7/11 is generally an extremely warm time of year. So, everyone and their dog goes to Seven Eleven to join in the free, frozen, deliciousness.

But the ploy is not subtle. It is defensibly smart. You come in to get a free slurpee, realize the size is small and then proceed to either buy a larger slurpee with the free one, get a new slurpee, or buy something else with your free slurpee. In the case that they run out of free size cups (which is what happened when I dropped by around 10:00pm) you end up just buying some little drink and food anyway, because you don't want the trip to go to waste. Therefore, I declare Seven Elevens nationwide very good marketers. And, because I did not get my free slurpee, I will most certainly arrive a lot earlier next year, even knowing that the prize isn't particularly large. It still is a free slurpee. And I know Seven Eleven is making bank.

The New Housing Market

In recent months the housing slump has brought bankers, investors, speculators, and homeowners to their knees. This aura of invincibility that used to reign has faded into confusion and insecurity. Houses, just like any other commodity can lose value. Shocking. However, there is a glimmer of hope. The housing market is showing its resilience.

The latest option for people to pursue these days is one that we all should have been made familiar with as young children: The cardboard box house. Don't throw away that old refrigerator box! That's prime real estate. At a low initial cost to the owner, all it takes is a little permanent marker and a flower pot or two to make it's value soar. Cardboard box houses are also good for the environment, being reusable and mobile. They do suffer from being less than effective in rainstorms, but there will always be new cardboard boxes to buy, gut out, renovate, and resell. The possibilities are endless!