Beware the Wrath of TJ

You know it. I know it. They know it. But who are "they"? And why do they know it? That's not important. We must face the facts. Two dollar bills aren't really that cool.

Yeah sure, they serve as currency when you're stupid/smart enough to forget that they're collectibles and can possibly get you two things out of the vending machine at the same time, but they have the least flattering portrait ever made of Thomas Jefferson on the front. Couple that with the wrenching guilt you feel whenever you run out of cash and are left with only a two dollar bill, and want to spend it, but at the same time know you will be the laughing stock of the town for years to come if you do. It's a lose lose. If you don't spend the bill, TJ wins. He's laughing at you with that smug little "I hate sitting for portraits" grin. If you do spend it, you also fail - at life.

The only way to avoid being in the clutches of an annoying paper icon that really isn't worth much, but that for some reason you think is worth something, is to run whenever you see a two dollar bill. Run faster than Usain Bolt and that guy from the movie who could run faster than a cheetah. Two dollar bills are a plague. You don't want the plague. I don't want the plague...and they certainly don't want the plague. So do us a favor. Don't touch two dollar bills. It's healthier to sniff glue or rub yourself down with pigeons. Just saying.

Facebook Friends: 1000 dollars to a lucky friend

As of this moment I have 996 facebook "friends". So, I have decided to create a new game to encourage more meaningless online social networking interaction with people I hardly know. If I get 1000 friends today (that means four more for you math majors), one lucky friend will get one thousand dollars and my personal recognition of their existence and my congratulations for being my online friend on their wall. Should be exciting. If you're not my friend yet, it seems it might finally become profitable. Good luck facebookers!

Stop the Bailouts!

Yes, it is true, the economy is not in good shape. However, I am appalled and disgusted by the public's apathy toward the piss poor government solution of bailing out and buying up the private sector. The American public seems to have given the democrat-controlled congress and President Obama a blank check. Well, not entirely blank. The check looks to be to the tune of one trillion dollars. A trillion dollars! That's not petty cash. That is $300 billion more than the $700 billion that was already pumped into the market under TARP, and puts us down a path of spiraling monetary value, and endless debt.

(Government solution)

We are entering an age pervaded by a horribly defeatist philosophy of bailouts. And, what bothers me more than anything else is that the market now looks to Washington for help, instead of innovating and reinventing. But this was Washington's plan all along. It has fostered a cycle of dependency for years. On one hand it promises government backing for the likes of Freddie and Fannie, encouraging predatory lending, and then turns around and reprimands those same companies for practices it encouraged. How can we expect a problem that was in large part instigated and then exacerbated by the government to be solved by the government? If we continue to allow congress, the treasury, and Obama to buy up toxic assets and attempt to recapitalize the market, all we are doing is pumping the market with more instability. We are allowing the government to reward failures and cover its own backside when it has already failed royally.

There should be more outrage. I understand many are hurting, many are out of a job, but that is no reason to allow the government to spend, spend, spend. The effects are disastrous. The best one can hope for with such a strategy is a temporary rebound or a slight boost in morale, but the long term effects are irremediable. In no uncertain terms, what I am saying is the long term costs far outweigh the supposed short term benefits. Here is what all of this spending means:

1. The federal government, already submerged in massive debt, will go deeper into the abyss than ever. They are printing money with nothing but good will to back it. The dollar's value will plummet in the next months and years because of all the bailouts.

2. The federal government, despite its almost limitless debt, will position itself to control a huge part of the private market. It will be the biggest government expansion since the New Deal. It will create a new toxic asset bank, and numerous other bureaucratic arms that will supposedly maintain transparency and accountability but in reality will only further their own interests and limit investment opportunities, and market flexibility.

3. With government's part ownership of certain companies (namely the now state-controlled banks), and its demand for high prices for its involvement and money (taking preferred shares, and forcing companies to spend money the way that it deems most appropriate), investors will not help re-capitalize the banking industry and the financial sector. The government will have taken all the attractive parts of investment. Without private interest and investment, these state-controlled entities will stagnate or decline, and will end up needing even more bailouts to stay functioning.

4. The burden of all these bailouts does not fall on some mystical government entity that has endless supplies of cash. It falls on the taxpayer. The cost of this crisis from TARP to the trillions in infusions by the FED, to the latest Obama-Pelosi stimulus has reached stratospheric proportions. When all is said and done the government may well have spend upwards of 6 trillion dollars. That is nearly half the US GDP. And it also means that taxpayer will be saddled with these massive financial commitments for years to come.

5. If it were not bad enough that our dollar will be worth next to nothing, we will be digging ourselves deeper into debt, and the government will in large part be taking over the private sector and no new investment will be coming our way, the stimulus package proposed will throw money at terribly wasteful items. Some notorious examples are the mob museum in Las Vegas and Pelosi's birth control stimulus. Those are only the more notable worthless projects. Others involve vineyards and train rides and amusement parks in Alabama. 

I implore you. I exhort you. Stand up against this wasteful stimulus. It will not bring us back. The New Deal didn't work, and neither will this. The only thing all this spending accomplishes is building an ever-growing, less competent Leviathan. The government will tighten its stranglehold on the private sector, and its centralizing power will eventually consume every aspect of our lives (You might think that I'm exaggerating, but I'm not). This is the soft despotism that Tocqueville warned about. Call your congressmen and senators. Tell them to stop the bailouts. Tell them to come up with real solutions. Perhaps instead of bailing out and buying up, we could compromise. Half of that trillion in tax cuts, and half in bailouts. Let's see which strategy works better and gets the economy moving. 

Here the numbers for all of the US Senators:

ALABAMA

Jeff Sessions (R) - 202-224-4124

Richard Shelby (R) - 202-224-5744

ALASKA (202-224-6665)

Lisa Murkowski (R)

Ted Stevens (R) - 202-224-3004

ARIZONA

John McCain (R) - 202-224-2235

Jon Kyl (R) - 202-224-4521

ARKANSAS

Blanche Lincoln (D) - 202-224-4843

Mark Pryor (D) - 202-224-2353

CALIFORNIA

Barbara Boxer (D) - 202-224-3553

Dianne Feinstein (D) - 202-224-2841

COLORADO

Wayne Allard (R) - 202-224-5941

Ken Salazar (D) - 202-224-5852

CONNECTICUT

Joseph Lieberman (I) - 202-224-4041

Christopher Dodd (D) - 202-224-2823

DELAWARE

Joseph Biden (D) - 202-224-4041*

Thomas Carper (D) - 202-224-2441

FLORIDA

Mel Martinez (R) - 202-224-3041

Bill Nelson (D) - 202-224-5274

GEORGIA

Saxby Chambliss (R) - 202-224-3521

Johnny Isakson (R) - 202-224-3643

HAWAII

Daniel Akaka (D) - 202-224-6361

Daniel Inouye (D) - 202-224-3934

IDAHO

Larry Craig (R) - 202-224-2752

Michael Crapo (R) - 202-224-6142

ILLINOIS

Richard Durbin (D) - 202-224-2152

Roland Burris

INDIANA

Evan Bayh (D) - 202-224-5623

Richard Lugar (R) - 202-224-4814

IOWA

Charles Grassley (R) - 202-224-3744

Tom Harkin (D) - 202-224-3254

KANSAS

Sam Brownback (R) - 202-224-6521

Pat Roberts (R) - 202-224-4774

KENTUCKY

Jim Bunning (R) - 202-224-4343

Mitch McConnell (R) - 202-224-2541

LOUISIANA

Mary Landrieu (D) - 202-224-5824

David Vitter (R) - 202-224-4623

MAINE

Susan Collins (R) - 202-224-2523

Olympia Snowe (R) - 202-224-5344

MARYLAND

Benjamin Cardin (D) - 202-224-4524

Barbara Mikulski (D) - 202-224-4654

MASSACHUSETTS 

Edward Kennedy (D) - 202-224-4543

John Kerry (D) - 202-224-2742

MICHIGAN

Carl Levin (D) - 202-224-6221

Debbie Stabenow (D) - 202-224-4822

MINNESOTA

Norm Coleman (R) - 202-224-5641*

Amy Klobuchar (D) - 202-224-3244

MISSISSIPPI

Thad Cochran (R) - 202-224-5054

Roger Wicker (R) - 202-224-6253

MISSOURI 

Kit Bond (R) - 202-224-5721

Claire McCaskill (D) - 202-224-6154

MONTANA

Max Baucus (D) - 202-224-2651

Jon Tester (D) - 202-224-2644

NEBRASKA

Chuck Hagel (R) - 202-224-4224

Ben Nelson (D) - 202-224-6551

NEVADA

Harry Reid (D) - 202-224-3542

John Ensign (R) - 202-224-6244

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Judd Gregg (R) - 202-224-3324

John Sununu (R) -202-224-2841*

NEW JERSEY

Robert Menendez (D) - 202-224-4744

Frank Lautenberg (D) - 202-224-3224

NEW MEXICO

Jeff Bingaman (D) - 202-224-5521

Pete Domenici (R) - 202-224-6621

NEW YORK

Kirsten Gillibrand (D)

Charles Schumer (D) - 202-224-6542

NORTH CAROLINA

Richard Burr (R) - 202-224-3154

Elizabeth Dole (R) - 202-224-6342*

NORTH DAKOTA

Kent Conrad (D) - 202-224-2043

Byron Dorgan (D) - 202-224-2551

OHIO

Sherrod Brown (D) - 202-224-2315

George Voinovich (R) - 202-224-3353

OKLAHOMA

Tom Coburn (R) - 202-224-5754

James Inhofe (R) - 202-224-4721

OREGON

Ron Wyden (D) - 202-224-5244

Gordon Smith (R) - 202-224-3753

PENNSYLVANIA

Robert Casey (D) - 202-224-6324

Arlen Specter (R) - 202-224-4254

RHODE ISLAND

Jack Reed (D) - 202-224-4642

Sheldon Whitehouse (D) - 202-224-2921

SOUTH CAROLINA

James DeMint (R) - 202-224-6121

Lindsey Graham (R) - 202-224-5972

SOUTH DAKOTA

Tim Johnson (D) - 202-224-5842

John Thune (R) - 202-224-2321

TENNESSEE

Lamar Alexander (R) - 202-224-4944

Bob Corker (R) - 202-224-3344

TEXAS

John Cornyn (R) - 202-224-2934

Kay Hutchison (R) - 202-224-5922

UTAH

Robert Bennett (R) - 202-224-5444

Orrin Hatch (R) - 202-224-5251

VERMONT

Frank Lautenberg (D) - 856-338-8922

Bernie Sanders (I) - 802-862-0697

VIRGINIA

John Warner (R) - 202-224-2023

James Webb (D) - 202-224-4024

WASHINGTON

Maria Cantwell (D) - 202-224-3441

Patty Murray (D) - 202-224-2621

WEST VIRGINIA 

Robert Byrd (D) - 202-224-3954

John Rockefeller (D) - 202-224-6472

WISCONSIN

Rusell Feingold (D) - 202-224-5323

Herb Kohl (D) - 202-224-5653

WYOMING

John Barrasso (R) - 202-224-6441

Michael Enzi (R) - 202-224-3424

*Some of these Senators are no longer in office. 

Obama's Plan to spend us out of debt

As many of you may be aware President-elect Obama plans to initiate largest expansion into public works projects since the 1950s. He plans to rebuild infrastructure (from roads, bridges, and tunnels, to re-equipping schools nationwide), and he has cited it as a right for all children to have access to the internet. Here's his plan:

—ENERGY: “[W]e will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.”

—ROADS AND BRIDGES: “[W]e will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money.”

—SCHOOLS: “[M]y economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.”

—BROADBAND: “As we renew our schools and highways, we’ll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they’ll get that chance when I’m president – because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world.”

(Incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had talked about expanding broadband access, but this is the first time the transition has formally proposed it.)

—ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS: “In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the Internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the Internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.”Now some of this plans actually make sense, but he has still been mum on what kind of cuts he is going to make if any. And other question, and it feeds off the issue I just cited is, WHERE IS ALL THIS MONEY COMING FROM? Our government has been dolling out trillions of dollars to bankers, lenders, and even some companies it has deemed as 'too big to fail.' So, in light of the fact that the dollar will be worth next to nothing in the next 6-18 months after the market reacts to this largess of meaningless paper printed out by the government, how does this same government expect to afford all these new initiatives? Since when did it make sense to spend money to get out of debt? Oh, that's right, governments can do that because they can print money by fiat to pay their debts...except they don't. They print money to support more systemically unsound debt which is bought and sold to bankers and lenders worldwide.
So I guess that was why I was a little taken aback when I heard that one of the public works projects to be undertaken was the world's largest ball of yarn (below is only a 1/20 scale replica).
Set to be 50 stories tall, the ball will be situated in the middle of Kansas to give people a reason to visit the state even if they don't have family there.

"It will provide a way for Kansas to regenerate a tourist industry that was once vibrant. It will also allow Americans to use the new cloverleaf that the public works project initiative will be building right next to the yarn ball," said President-elect Obama.

Marjorie Glotus of Topeka said, "It gives me renewed faith in the government. Since the Wizard of Oz came out I have been scorned by relatives who live in Wyoming, even though we do have a pretty good basketball team, but now that we have a federally funded Guinness-worthy ball of yarn, I hold my head up high."

It makes me giddy.