SLUTH award

I'm starting an award on this blog for general stupidity, called the SLap Upside The Head (Sluth) award.

My first ever award is to each of the borrowers that hold Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) which are due to be adjusted this year. Approximately $3 TRILLION dollars of these types of mortgages will adjust year, looking to make this year the record year for home foreclosures in this country.

What in the hell were people thinking when they set up adjustable rate mortgages 3-5 years ago... at a time when mortgage rates were at an all time low?

The fact of the matter is tooooo many families bought homes they couldn't afford and ARMs were the only way to squeeze these folks into those homes.

But Gordon, if I buy a $200,000 home, the appreciation in that home is going to much higher than if I buy a $150,000 home.

Let's do the numbers...... Let's assume you buy a $200,000 home (100% financing) and you're able to get an 8% annual return on investment (generous for a home), at the end of 5 years your home is now worth 293,000 (a gain of $93,000). Now compare that to the home I bought for $150,000, assuming the same 8%, after 5 years, my home is worth roughly $220,000, a gain of about $70,000.

Ah ha!! I got you Gordon, I earned $23,000 more than you.

Except that you forgot to factor the extra $386/month I got to put in a mutual fund because I had a lower monthly mortgage payment. After 5 years, 8%, I have an extra $27,000 in actual liquid assets in the fund bringing my total increase in net worth to $97,000.

But let's assume that the increase in net worth is a push. How much more do you have to pay in real estate taxes, insurance, PMI insurance, plumbing repairs, homeowner association dues, maintenance, furnishings, roofs, water heaters etc, etc.. No one ever factors these costs in the return on their real estate and the fact is, the more expensive your home, the more these things cost.

In addition, by saving the money instead of having it locked into a mortgage payment, I have the ability to weather financial storms and the freedom to vacation, etc.

Yeah, but Gordon, what about the write offs related to owning a home? As I tell clients all the time, I'd rather have tax on income rather than the deduction for losses. If you ever want a write off to lower your tax liability, I'll give you a tax preparation bill equal to your income, that will wipe out any tax liability you might have and I'll have to pay the taxes. Yet, I'm still waiting for the first person to take me up on my offer.

My advise on homes.... buy it like you would an apartment, find the location, budget, schools, etc. Don't over buy. You wouldn't rent a four bedroom apartment for two people would you? Don't do the same for your house. You'll find that being able to sleep at night is a lot easier when you don't have bill collectors calling your home.

global warming yet again

Someone the other day questioned my assertion that Mars was, in fact, warming here's the quote from the NASA jet propulsion lab.

Money quote

"And for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars' south pole have shrunk from the previous year's size, suggesting a climate change in progress."

This is the last I'm ever going to post on this issue. As far as I'm concerned, I'm glad I haven't had to dig my butt out a bunch of snow.

While Malibu gets snow...

"The Weather Channel’s most prominent climatologist (Dr. Heidi Cullen) is advocating that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming. This latest call to silence skeptics follows a year (2006) in which skeptics were compared to "Holocaust Deniers" and Nuremberg-style war crimes trials were advocated by several climate alarmists. "

US Senate: Weather Channel Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics

Rahm

Democratic Congressional leader Rahm Emanuel is bad for America. He honestly admits that he doesn't mind the situation in Iraq to worsen if it means gains for his party in 2008. This is disgraceful and Democrats should be embarrassed that this is the philosophy of their party's leadership. But I have a feeling they won't be.

"Rahm Emanuel's Democratic Party is so bereft of a sense of national responsibility that he apparently feels comfortable brazenly telling the Washington Post that his plans for his Democratic Party is to not even try to stop things from getting worse in Iraq -- so they can pick up the political pieces afterward. Mr. Emanuel is a "smart" politician. He thinks the more dire America's place in the world is in 2008, the more likely the voters are to vote Democratic. The more of our troops are left in more pieces the better for Rahm Emanuel's Democrats. "

Tony Blankley, Washinton Times: Vulture Politics

Is the Trade Deficit bad?

"Economists had taught me that the trade deficit is not a big deal. (The budget deficit may be a big one, but that's a different issue.) But with all the pundits and politicians alarmed, I began to wonder if I was out of touch.

Then I thought about my local supermarket. I buy stuff from the Food Emporium every week. I spend thousands of dollars a year there. But the supermarket never buys anything from me. Not one thing.

And yet that is no problem. It's better than no problem -- it's fantastic! Imagine if I could only buy from the store to the extent that it needed my services. I'd starve. That would be barter, and mankind dumped barter for the money economy eons ago precisely because it is so inconvenient."

John Stossel: Losing Sleep Over the Trade Deficit?

Pygmalion Effect

As a young, idealistic student looking to make a difference, I decided my life mission was to teach.

In the first quarter of the education curriculum, I took a course called "Educational Foundations". In the course, I learned about the Pygmalion Effect; the self fulfilling prophecy of believing that if students can't learn, they won't. It was taught in the context of white teachers believing that black students can't learn so the teachers will teach down to the them. It made perfect sense. I believe President Bush called it the "soft bigotry of low expectations."

Unfortunately, the very next quarter, a different professor started espousing a theory that black students could not learn in a rote environment. I challenged her position, noting the pygmalion effect we learned about in the previous quarter. After she spent the rest of the class dressing me down as a racist and an idiot, I decided the Education College was full of ding-dongs, derelicts, and douche bags.

Flash forward 25 years, we have a riot at a local basketball game, on Martin Luther King's Day no less, and one of the coaches, Walt McBride, claims that the reason for the riot was "lack of security".

Out of curiosity, when will African-Americans start raising the bar on their community? Shouldn't it be a given that you should be able to go to a high school basketball game without fear of being attacked? When can whites and blacks alike call out a community without being labeled a racist or an Uncle Tom? When will the Bill Cosby's and Thomas Sowell's finally get some traction and communities start listening to what they have to say?

Instead, we get the continued lowering of standards for African-Americans..... soft bigotry of low expectations. Who is really empowering the Pygmalion Effect?

Economic freedom

Attached is a ranking of various countries in terms of economic freedoms. Needless to say, standards of living ranking would just about mirror this ranking.

I used to believe US prosperity was due, in part, the numerous natural resources at our disposal but if that were the case how does one explain Hong Kong. Hong Kong is essentially a giant rock in the middle of the ocean, no natural resources and no easy transport to and from the island. I guess one could offer that because Hong Kong is an oasis in an otherwise communist China, it derives much of it's economic activity. Or maybe, it's economic freedom is what makes it the oasis it is.

Social Security Debacle

I would gladly give up every dime I've "donated" to Social Security if the government said I could invest it all myself from here on out. Obviously, I don't see that happening anytime soon. If a Republican president with a Republican Congress couldn't get a single change done, I doubt we'll see any major improvements anytime soon.

Mike Pence (a future presidential candidate, IMO) has a great commentary today about how the Bush Administration blew the entire social security debate last year.

"...Social Security reform must be properly understood. It is not about achieving solvency; it is about improving the system so that it offers a better deal for younger Americans through personal savings accounts. Focusing on solvency will lead inevitably to tax increases and benefit cuts. Focusing on personal retirement accounts improves the chance of enacting sound public policy that also makes the system solvent."

OpinionJournal.com: Bush is still getting Social Security wrong.

Africa - AIDS

Someone I know sent me this email

Hey,
I don't usually do things like this, but, this is mostly for South
Africa, and I sponser a child whose parents have died from this disease.
They are using the money they promised to fight A I D S to fatten the
wallets of thier war pimps, and kill our sons and daughters because of
thier dependance on foriegn oil. Maybe I'm conspiritorially minded, but
if they pursued energy alternatives as aggressivly as they are this war,
(Billions!) we wouldn't need to do this, we could take a CLUE from our
Amish brothers and sisters and forgive, be peacefull as a dove, and
shrewd as a snake, protect ouselves, but then, we'd really be a
Christian Nation.

Aside from the myriad of misspelled words, let's go through the issues on this ad infinitum;

First, I'm assuming the "they" he refers to is the Bush administration.

I'm not aware of any funding for the African AIDS crises that was spent by the military for use in the Iraq war or to fund the other "war pimps".

Second, the federal government already spends billions on alternative fuel sources, Ever heard of Ethanol, Shale, nuclear power, hydrogen power, solar power? Most of those came about as a outgrowth of federal government research.

Third, what exactly are the Amish doing about AIDS in Africa? To my knowledge, nothing. Yet the writer wants to use them as his Christian Nation example.

Fourth, no less than Bono complimented the Bushies for their work in Africa.

I get a little perturbed about justifying the theft of someone's money to give to someone else because it's the Christian thing to do. John Kerry pulled out Matthew 25:40 back in the campaign.

But I've read the Gospels 3-4 times and only one time does Jesus reference a government at all when he says "Render onto Caesar those things that are Caesar's, render to God those things that are God's" Matthew 22:21

The reason for this quote is to tell us that he was not here to save people from a persecuting government (which the Jews were hoping for at the time) but to save our individual relationship with God.

As Christians, we are commanded by God to be charitable and to do his work on earth regardless of what the government does but no where in the Bible does it instruct governments to take one's money to solve someone else's problem.

In fact, Jesus ran roughshod near a temple calling out the money changers who were selling sacrifices to pilgrims going to the temple. He never mentioned what the money changers were using the money for, good purposes or bad, but that it was a hindrance to worshipper's relationship to God; something that I would offer the government does today.

Look, the AIDS crises in Africa is horrible; no one should be dying there. But that's exactly the point, world health professionals believe that circumcisions alone would drop the AIDS cases exponentially. Couple that with eliminating unprotected sex and reusing of needles and dirty knives and we could eradicate AIDS worldwide. How many billions do we need to fund those programs?

But somehow I guess if a guy in the Congo has unprotected sex and contracts AIDS it's Bush's fault. Why not? everything else is.

Retirement planning

Although I've been ranting about politics lately, I wanted to get back to some of the tax planning issues I wanted to focus on originally.

I'm often asked about which retirement plans clients should fund; 401k's, IRA, Roth IRA's, etc....the choices can be overwhelming.

In general, my suggestion is to prioritize your retirement savings as such;

1) Fund at least the company match in any company sponsored 401k, SIMPLE, or other company plan.
2) If you still have the ability to fund more... max out your 401K or SIMPLE.
3) If you can put yet more money in a retirement plan, max out your deductible IRA.
4) Finally, max out your Roth IRA.

While the Roth IRA sounds great because of the tax free nature of the plan, they are not deductible. In Gordon's world, why pay tax today when you can pay tax tomorrow.

For the average worker, your marginal tax rate is higher than it is at retirement. For instance, most professionals are in the 25% tax bracket, when they retire, most retire in the 15% bracket. Why not take the deduction today in the higher tax bracket?

This strategy changes if you anticipate a fairly large inheritance, you already have large retirement account balances, or you presently happen to be in a low marginal tax rate.


If you need additional tax planning information, feel free to call my office.

Sandy Berger II

Gordon made note of this story a few days ago. But it's worth a second post. It's really a shame (and a sham) that this guy gets only a slap on the wrist for stealing (and destroying) classified US documents and then lying about it. Image the uproar if he were a Republican! The media and the Democrats would be calling for a Saddam-like, mother of all, political hanging.

"One incident is particularly suggestive. By his fourth and final visit to review documents and prepare for testimony before the 9/11 Commission, the Archives staff had grown suspicious of how Mr. Berger was handling the documents, so they numbered each one he was given in pencil on the back of the document. When one of them--No. 217--was apparently removed from the files by Mr. Berger, the staff reprinted a copy and replaced it for his review. According to the report, Mr. Berger then proceeded to slip the second copy "under his portfolio also." In other words, he stole the same document twice.

Thanks to Justice's and the Archives' leniency, or laxity, or both, Mr. Berger's plea deal expires in 2008--just in time, perhaps, for the next Clinton Administration. "

OpinionJournal.com: The Berger Files

Dung

District Attorney Mike Nifong is at it again. this time he's "quietly" asking to be removed from the Duke Lacrosse player case.

It would be the first thing he did quietly in this case.

Oh Nostradamus, tell me how this one is going to end.

The new prosecutors are going to review the case and drop the remaing charges on the players then Nifong is going to stand up on some courthouse steps and proclaim that the players are guilty and he never would have dropped the charges. It gives him cover for the groups he manipulated but helps his ethics charge since it was no harm, no foul on the part of the players.

What a scum bag!

Taxes and the Deficit

The Federal deficit is down, thanks to huge tax revenues. The deficit fluctuates up and down from year to year and one would have to be ignorant to how Washington works to think that it will continue to drop... but what's more telling about this story is the tax revenue part. Liberals want you to believe that tax cuts decrease the amount of money the government has to work with. But the facts say it's just the opposite - tax cuts increase revenue into the treasury. Just let people keep more of the money they make. This is a point that liberals will never understand (or admit) and that conservatives are always too timid to stand up for.

"The federal deficit has improved significantly in the first three months of the new budget year, helped by a continued surge in tax revenues.

Tax collections are running 8.2 percent higher than a year ago while government spending is up by just 0.7 percent from a year ago."

Breitbart.com: Deficit Falls to Lowest Level in Four Year.

Chabot & HR-4

Not sure if anyone noticed, but a so-called "conservative" Republican from Cincinnati's west side voted YES on HR-4. The Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act passed the House 255-170 and is basically a stepping stone towards federalized medicine. Maybe there's a story behind the vote that we don't know and he doesn't really support the bill. But it isn't real assuring.

"When the issue of having the federal government negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies for the Medicare Part D program comes up later this week in Congress, it will be another example of an idea that seems to poll well and appears to enjoy a great deal of public support.

However an in depth look at public opinion shows that once the American people understand the possible implications of negotiating the cost of prescription drug prices, public opinion changes significantly and voters become very skeptical of the idea and the implications for public health."

Douglas Schoen: Public Opinion on Negotiating the Price of Rx Drugs

Minimum wage hypocrisy

Well, here's our new Congress... ethical from the get go. I'm not exactly sure why anyone would be "shocked" over these kind of things, especially a fellow politician.

"House Republicans yesterday declared "something fishy" about the major tuna company in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district being exempted from the minimum-wage increase that Democrats approved this week.

"I am shocked," said Rep. Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican and his party's chief deputy whip, noting that Mrs. Pelosi campaigned heavily on promises of honest government. "Now we find out that she is exempting hometown companies from minimum wage. This is exactly the hypocrisy and double talk that we have come to expect from the Democrats."

Washington Times: Pelosi's 'hypocrisy' on wage bill

Global Warming Questions

Last night I had and interesting discussion with a young woman regarding global warming. I'll pose to you the questions I posed to her.

1) NASA has come out with a report showing that Mars has been warming. Is it possible that whatever is causing the Mars warming might be the causing the same thing here, likely in increase in Solar heat and radiation? After all, just a slight tilting of the planet's axis results in a 80 degree temperature swing on average. Isn't it possible that a few extra solar flares would cause a 5 degree temperature change?

2) Is it possible that the earth goes through natural period of warming and cooling, IE the Ice Age and subsequent retracting of glaciers and this is just one of those transitions?

3) Let's assume that man is the cause of global warming... What's so bad about it?

4) Remember Acid Rain? It was going to be the end all of the Great Lakes. To my knowledge, we are kicking out more sulfur emissions than we did 20 years ago and yet that problem just went away. Isn't it possible that Al Gore and various "scientists" realize that they only get notoriety and funding for studies when there are "problems"? How do you get government funding when everything is OK? Would you go to an Al Gore movie titled Earth - the Perfect Temperature.

5) I keep hearing about all this research for alternative fuels sources, yet the most efficient fuel source we have to date, nuclear power, is a no no. If you believe that global warming exists, would you be a proponent of nuclear power plant production so we can start eliminating coal burning, carbon dioxide spewing coal plants?

6) When I had 8th grade biology we learned that plant life breathed in CO2 and exhaled O2 and we humans inhaled O2 and exhaled CO2. If that is true, wouldn't carbon dioxide increases be great for plant life on the planet?

7) Don't you really believe that Al Gore is the ultimate hypocrite on this issue? Whenever he does a presentation, he could very easily do it from a remote location and teleconference it across the planet; like corporate America does each and every day. Yet he finds the need to get into a private jet and kick out huge amounts of CO2 and then have a five car entourage complete with SUVs take him to some fund raiser. If he really believed in global warming, would he do this and would he own four huge ass homes that he keeps heated and cooled year round? It reminds me of when Sting did a concert in the Amazon to save the rain forest and they had to cut down 20 acres of trees to get the facility set up.

8) What do you propose as a solution? What are you doing to make a difference? There's a place on your state of Ohio tax form that allows you to pay into various environmental and natural resource funds. Have you made any contributions to those funds?

A few years ago, I met a woman from Phoenix yapping about SUV's and yet her commute to work was over 40 miles one way. So she was more than happy to get rid of the SUVs but, by God, no one should tell her she should live closer to work and/or take public transportation.

I'll tell you what, when the first environmentalist offs themselves because of their use of the world's resources, I'll start worrying about global warming. Got to go.... I need to get my recycle bin to the curb.

"Bonafide Hustla"

Lonnie Webster, the "Bonafide Hustla" was sentenced yesterday for the murder of Rob Pursley.

I knew Rob Pursley, not well, but well enough to know he never deserved a shotgun blast to the groin that caused his death.

Mr. Webster should have received a death sentence. Not just for the killing of Rob but for the whole resume of crime that he's compiled since he was 13 years old.

But Gordon, He'll be in prison the rest of his life, he won't victimize anyone while he's there.

That's where I depart from the anti death penalty crowd. He most certainly will victimize someone else. It may be another inmate in the prison or it may be a guard but rest assured society will be much better off when Webster is dead.

People don't remember William Zuern who was put to death a couple of years ago but I remember his legacy. In the early 1980's, he was in a holding cell awaiting arraignment for the robbery and murder of a King Kwik employee when he made a shank out of a bucket handle and stabbed a deputy sheriff to death. While awaiting all his various appeals, he started a prison riot in Lucasville that killed two guards.

When Zuern was put to death, we guaranteed society that he was no longer going to victimize anyone. We need to do the same to Mr. Wheeler.

School Choice

A few years ago a friend of mine was lecturing me about how vouchers were a bad idea and if we wanted to improve education we needed to increase spending on public education.

We went round and round about allowing poor people put their kids in schools that can address their child's particular needs. He stuck to his beliefs to the end...... No school choice.

A few days later, I kicked up the discussion again. Since he had no kids I asked him if he would put his kids in CPS or the Catholic school in the neighborhood even though he wasn't Catholic. His response "When I have kids I'll be moving to the suburbs".

That's the hypocrisy for the anti choice folks, they're for school choice for themselves, it's called the suburbs, but screw choice for the poor family. If you are affluent, you already have the ability to choose your neighborhood, your schools, your work commute. If you're poor you don't have those options.

Here's a list of the real estate cost for each $100,000 of residential value for each school district in Hamilton County.

I'm not the smartest guy on the planet but when I see in the news a higher percentage of public school teachers send their kids to private schools than the general population, I have to wonder why.

It's another way liberalism holds people down... the very people they say they want to help.

Another friend who was more honest about the whole school choice issue. His kids were attending private schools and his opinion was, "I'm against vouchers because I don't want any of those kids in my kids' schools and I'm willing to pay to keep it from happening."

Need to make some extra cash?

Here's a way to help pay off those holiday credit card bills that are on there way...

"VeriSign’s security arm iDefense announced this week that the company would pay independent flaw finders $8,000 for each remotely exploitable flaw found in Microsoft’s Windows Vista or Internet Explorer 7.

In its first Quarterly Vulnerability Challenge for 2007, iDefense offered $8,000 for each flaw that can be remotely exploited in Vista or Internet Explorer 7. The company will award bounties for up to six different vulnerabilities. The company will pay an additional $2,000 to $4,000 for working exploit code…”

SecurityFocus: Bounty offered for Vista, IE flaws

Ted Kennedy

Ted Kennedy thinks the country needs universal health care.

The federal government should join the state of Massachusetts in enacting universal health coverage, said Sen. Edward Kennedy, the new chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over numerous health issues.
Kennedy's home state is the first to require everyone to have health insurance, just as drivers must have automobile coverage.

Ted Kennedy: Seeks Universal Health Plan

Welcome to California

Well, Gov. Arnold has officially lost his mind! He says he wants everyone in the state (including non-citizens) to have affordable health insurance. He said yesterday that if someone can't afford it themselves, then the state will help you pay for it. Shouldn't he really say, "If you can't afford it, we'll bill other Californians to pay for it."? Remember... what happens in Cali eventually happens in the other 49 states.

What are other people saying....

Before I get into what I hope to be a well-reasoned and economically sound discussion of Arnold Schwarzenegger's new "universal health care" plan, please bear with the following outburst: Arnold's plan is some of the most muddle-headed, idiotic, socialist crap I have ever seen from a serious politician, much less from a Republican.

When even Republicans are willing to legislate as Communists (and I do not use that term as hyperbole), there is little reason to have hope.

Ross Kaminsky: Schwarzenegger's Health Care Socialism

It's about time...

"Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity – and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.

We are also taking other steps to bolster the security of Iraq and protect American interests in the Middle East. I recently ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region."

Read more...

Syria and Iran are the two biggest reasons this war has lasted so long as it has. This should have been taken care of a couple years ago.

Illinois crime riddle

Here's a rich article about the "Illinois Crime Riddle"

The gist of the article is this. The author cannot understand how it is that so many people continue to be sent to prison despite the drop in crime statistics.

I guess it never occurred to the author the crime rates are dropping because criminals are in prison instead of being on the streets.

Big Ten

In case I didn't make my case about the Big Ten being overated. Below are the respective bowl records per conference.

Conference W-L

MAC 1- 3
Mountain West 3-1
Pac-10 3-3
C-USA 2-3
Independent 0-2
Big East 5-0
WAC 3-1
Sun Belt 0-2
ACC 4-4
Big -12 3-5
SEC 6-3
Big -11 2-5

If you think this year is an abberation, think again. this is pretty typical of Big Ten performance in bowls.

But what would you expect from a conference that can't even count the number of teams it has!

Sandy Burger NSA

Remember all the news coverage of Karl Rove and L. "Scooter" Libby outing Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson?

How much news coverage do you think that got as compared to the coverage of Sandy Burger's theft of classified documents from the National Archives? Didn't hear about that? Bet you would have if he was serving under Bush.

To summarize Burglar's actions it went something like this.

He was called to testify before the 9/11 commission regarding the WTC attacks. Since he was National Security Advisor under Clinton, it was hoped that he could shed some light on what was known about Al-Queda prior to 9/11.

He went to the National Archives to "review" classifed documents related to 9/11 in preparation of his testimony.

Then he decided to load his socks and pants full of documents, walked out of the National Archives to a construction trailer where he placed the documents under a floor and subsequently destroyed the documents.

How much time did old Burglar spend in jail. That would be a big old -0- days. His plea bargain allows him no access to classified documents for a period of two years.

Tell me again about the most ethical adminstration in history.

Boise State #1

Since Florida emasculated the Buckeyes last night, we can now crown Boise St. as the national champs. They are the only D-1 undefeated team.

But Gordon, Boise State didn't play anybody.

While it's true that the Broncos schedule left a little to be desired, mainly because their conference wasn't the best, the fact is, they beat every D-1 team on the schedule.

Yeah but Gordon, the OSU's schedule was so much more difficult, I mean they play in the Big Ten.

Well here's that dirty little secret about the Big Ten. It's the most overrated sports conference in the US. You're telling me that those big time games against Northwestern, Illinois, Purdue, and Indiana match up against Nevada, New Mexico St and Fresno St?

The fact of the matter, is that the Broncos never got a shot to play against either the Gators or the Buckeyes in the post season because the BCS is all about the haves getting more and the have nots always looking in the window.

Yeah, but Gordon, Boise St could have played someone in their non conference schedule.

Here's a question for you, don't you think BSU would have scheduled a game with OSU if they could? Big time college football is about keeping all your games at home with your officials. Below is the non conference for OSU for the next three years.

Sat 09/01/2007 Youngstown State Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/08/2007 Akron Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/15/2007 Washington Seattle, Wash. TBA
Sat 10/13/2007 Kent State Columbus, Ohio TBA

Sat 08/30/2008 Youngstown State Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/06/2008 Ohio Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/13/2008 USC Los Angeles, Calif. TBA
Sat 09/20/2008 Troy University Columbus, Ohio TBA

Sat 09/05/2009 Army Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/12/2009 USC Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/19/2009 Toledo Cleveland, Ohio TBA
Sat 10/31/2009 New Mexico State Columbus, Ohio TBA

How do you get a game with these guys when they would have to give up their Big Ten - MAC challenge games? It's all about piling up wins to get the big paycheck at the end.

Compare that to the Broncos non conference schedule, Sacramento State, Utah, Wyoming, & Oregon State.

I find it ironic that collegiate education, which is supposedly all about egalitarianism is really all about keeping what's mine and to hell with you.

By the way, don't think that I'm letting Florida and the SEC off the hook. You think
they might be able to find a better non conference game other than Western Carolina and Central Florida.

Also, if Tulane goes defeated in their SEC schedule, would they get a BCS shot?

Health Insurance

If the general public wants to reign in the cost of medical care they would do one simple thing... ban health insurance or at least limit coverage to catastrophic coverage.

One of the reasons health care costs continue to rise is that insured users of health care operate as if they have a blank check on their medical care. I'm as guilty as anyone, I had a surgery a few years ago and I asked no one how much any of the procedures was going to "cost" me because in my mind it wasn't going to cost me anything.

But Gordon, wouldn't your idea limit medical technological advances and, subsequently, substandard care?

Ask anyone who has had laser eye surgery and a boob job lately if the technology is better or worse than it used to be. Remember RK? the predecessor to laser eye surgery. Many of the procedures can be paid for on your credit card or the provider will set up a payment plan for you.

It used to be that breast implants were only for the rich and famous... now, apparently if you can afford a gym membership you can afford the procedure.

And guess what, rarely are either of those procedures covered by insurance.

Out of curiosity, how much would your car insurance cost if every time you had an oil change you only had to pay a $10.00 co pay? Or how about a $5.00 gasoline fill up co pay?

The fact of the matter is medical care will not become more affordable until the public takes an active role in deciding what procedures are affordable. Somehow, we find it distasteful that we would negotiate our health care like buying a flat screen TV. Yet, I bet that your doctor had no problem negotiating terms on that new Mercedes.

Liberal Giving

I missed the show when it was on in December but John Stossel did a piece on who gives. As I was doing my daily Hitler Youth news search, I ran across an article Stossel wrote in anticipation of the show.

Stossel does a test of giving between the liberal affluent hotbed of San Francisco and a middle class conservative enclave of Sioux Falls SD. You can read the article. Stossel backs up a lot of his article with data collected by Arthur Brooks in his book "Who Really Cares".

The common stereotype of conservatives is that they have theirs so why share. But I believe conservatives understand what it means to be about something bigger than your own consumption, that life is about what you give... not what you take.

As a recovering liberal, I can attest to being someone who was more about their own consumption than contributing. I even believed it was selfish for people to want to have children. I could never understand the whole concept of living into something bigger than yourself.

Looking back at my own liberal thought process and talking to other liberals, time after time, I notice classic projection. Why not? As a liberal, I obviously know more than you, so if I think something is selfish or self serving than it most be so.

A few years back, I had a liberal client who just started bashing Bush and how he was killing the environment. After he ended his diatribe, I asked him if he wanted to contribute money from his Ohio tax refund to the Ohio Wildlife Conservation fund or the Nature Preserves and scenic rivers (both elections on your state income tax form if you would like to do) since it was clear to me the enviroment was important to him. The answer was a definite no. He's also no longer a client, figure that.

So I guess for a liberal, generosity can only exist when the government takes one's wealth to do for another.

It reminds me of a great Reagan quote "Liberals know much more than the rest of us, but what they know just isn't so".

Lance Cpl. William Spencer RIP

The funeral procession for Marine Lance Cpl. William Spencer just drove by my office here in Loveland, OH.

It's been a while since I've been overcome with the sorrow I felt watching 100 plus people line up along Loveland Ave paying their respects for someone who has made the ultimate sacrifice.

In a Christmas post, I mentioned that God has plans for us bigger than we could ever personally accomplish. However, in order to accomplish these things, we have to be willing to sacrifice something of ourselves. Lance Cpl William Spencer did just that.

May God bless him, his family, friends and comrades.

Home Depot

I'm not a believer in regulating executive compensation packages. However, when legislation finally occurs, the executives have no one to blame but themselves.

Right now Bob Nardelli is in the news for his "excessive" severance package. While the terms of severance were negotiated up front in his initial contract, I would offer that the initial contract was not written in a fair market value sense.

Let me explain. Executive compensation is usually determined by a compensation committee of various board members and the compensation committee will usually hire a compensation "consultant" who submits a report on the appropriate compensation.

Let's assume old Gordon is the compensation consultant for ABC Corp. Gordon knows that the members of the compensation committees are also CEO's of their respective companies and he would like to continue in this consulting line of work. Do you think I a) submit a report showing an appropriate income of $250 thousand a year or b) $250 million a year for the CEO of ABC.

If you answer "a", you probably need to get your resume together because there won't be many compensation gigs coming your way in the near future.

If you would like to continue your career as a compensation consultant, the correct answer is "b".

What's even more rich about the whole scheme is now that I've determined that the CEO of ABC is $250 million I can now use that as a comparison when I establish the CEO's compensation for XYZ corp which I believe is a more "difficult" job for who knows what reason. So I'll now decide the appropriate compensation is $260 million and on and on......

Think of it this way. How much would you be making, if you got to hire an appraiser (paid by you) and simply submitted the report to your boss for your next raise? I'm guessing there's a celebration in the future.

Global warming II

Another question I have for the "earth is warming" crowd is how do we know what the temperatures were a few hundred years ago, let alone thousands or millions of years ago? I think I know what they'll say: "We can determine the temperatures by looking at fossils or by how thick the rings are on trees or reading books and manuscripts that are available." But let's be honest here.... we can speculate or have a general idea, but no one can really know for sure just how warm or cold it was thousands of years ago. Even official U.S. records go back less than 200 years and that's a blip in the life time of the earth. There's likely been many cooling periods (ice ages) and just as many warming periods (ice melting ages) over the life of the earth.

One more question... scientist are always talking about the "average surface temperature of earth". How is that determined? Even if it's possible to get an accurate average temperature with current technology, how can we know for sure what is was thousands of years ago before the thermometer was even invented.

Maybe I've missed the boat or haven't read the right books. But it seems to me that if politicians and leaders in government want to set up extensive new laws and bureaucracies and change the way humans go about living, these type of questions should be answered. Maybe I should just read Al Gore's book.

The Minimum Wage....again

"A federal minimum wage is an idea whose time came in 1938, when public confidence in markets was at a nadir and the federal government's confidence in itself was at an apogee. This, in spite of the fact that, with the 19 percent unemployment and the economy contracting by 6.2 percent in 1938, the New Deal's frenetic attempts had failed to end, and perhaps had prolonged, the Depression."

George Will: The Minimum Wage is a Bad Idea

Thought for the day

A fine is a tax for wrong doing....

A tax is a fine for doing right.

Famous Accountants

I've always told a self deprecating joke about how there are no famous CPA's in this country, for that matter, around the world. Where are the Milton Friedman's, F. Lee Bailey's or Jim Cramer's for our profession.

Well, I was wrong. An article in accounting today mentioned the Baruch College accounting program which has produced "some of the most illustrious figures in US accounting history: Abraham Briloff, Charles Dreyfus, Eli Mason, Stan Ross, Larry Zicklin and many more."

Where's the paparazzi? Where are the entourages? I wonder how many groupies lost their underwear around these guys?

Global warming?

Whenever we have a mild winter, talk inevitable turns to global warming. Of course most people forget the extremely cold October the mid-west had, but this winter is no exception. What I don’t understand is why we don’t see record high temperatures being consistently broken. Wouldn’t you think that if the average daily highs are increasing every year, due to the earth warming, you would begin to consistently see new record highs being set? But just a couple days ago I noticed in the paper that the record high for that day in Cincinnati dated back to 1885? If global warming is really taking place, shouldn’t we see more recent records highs being broken every year?

Maybe it's Bush's fault or my logic is way off base or some meteorologist geek (like this one) can meet me for a drink and clear things up for me. I have a feeling people living in Colorado and the Plains are hoping for a little global warming themselves.

Enron, I mean, Social Security pension theft

A while back I read that the Social Security System has an unfunded pension liability between 18 and 25 five trillion, I say, trillion, dollars.

What that means to us is this... Pretend the Congress decided today to stop all future payments into Social Security and for the system to just pay out in benefits what it has collected to date, it would take 18 to 25 trillion (let me repeat) TRILLION dollars just to pay back what they have collected. All that money we, the taxpayers, have been paying into has been loaned to the federal government to pay for important projects like the bridge to no where or mohair subsidies to Sam Donaldson.

What I find even more interesting is that the numbers are so large, actuaries can only narrow the figures to +/- 4 trillion dollars.

Unfortunately for Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, they don't work for the federal government, otherwise they never would have been charged for fraud and theft... instead they would have been promoted.

I just did a little math to check this out. Assume Jim Doe graduates from college and earns a starting salary of $20,000/ yr. and maintains that salary in real dollars for the next 40 years of his working life (age 62). If you took his 6.2% that he pays into the Social security fund as well as the 6.2% match his employer and put those funds into an IRA paying 5%, he would have an account balance of $314,000... Enough to pay him his current salary for the next 31 years (age 93).

What's even more interesting, let's assume Jim is gay and has no children and he dies at the age of 61. Under the social security system, how much would his partner be entitled to in benefits? If you answered a big fat zero, you get a gold star.

Under a privatized plan, he would be able to leave $300,000 to his partner.

Why doesn't the media tell this intriguing tale of fraud to the general public? My guess is that actuary science is not nearly as sexy as reporting another drug dealer getting capped. It might also be that Trixie, our friendly superhero/news reporter, is too dumb to understand all these "number kind of things". Besides, she doesn't have the time to learn it because she's got another botox and collagen appointment to get to.

City leadership

I moved to the city of Cincinnati in the fall of 1981. At that time, here were the names of some of the prominent city politicians.

Cissell, Chabot, Bortz, Straus, Sterne, Yates, Mirlisena, Luken, Vehr, Blackwell, Mann, Springer etc.

Compare that to the names of ten years ago.

Tillery, Luken, Qualls, Sterne, Yates, Heimlich, Portune etc.

And now the names today.

Mallory, Cole, Smitherman, Thomas, Crowley, Berding, Reece, etc.

First, you'll notice that the number of Republicans are declining as the list progresses. Second, you'll also notice the Democrats that appear on the earlier list tended to be true statesmen (women), competent leaders, and problem solvers.

Given the murder record and the population flight out of the city, it begs the question I continue to ask.

Are the totally incompetent leaders in the city a product of the morons who remain in the city or are the totally incompetent leaders driving out everyone but the morons in the city?

What's that sound again? another five people just moved to the suburbs.

Murder record

Well, the city of Cincinnati beat it's previous murder record with a couple of more killings this past weekend.

What's even more remarkable, is that the previous records were at a time when the city population was about three times the size it is today.

Mayor Mallory has taken step two in the "How to be Detroit" lesson plan. Step One, claim that he and the other city leaders are changing every thing they can to "turn things around".

Step 2. Accept the murder rate as it is by saying "it's basically the same issue as all other urban areas".

Coming shortly, Step 3, we can now accept success in the lower murder rate since there is no one left in town alive.

What was that sound? 10 more people just moved out to the suburbs.

Saddam RIP

Yesterday, I was listening to a talk show where the topic was why wasn't the media showing graphic details on the Hussein execution when they (especially CNN) where more than willing to show the graphic shooting and dragging American serviceman throughout the streets of Iraq.

Toria Tolley ( an ex CNN reporter ) got on the air and to listen to her non-sequitor logic was beyond belief.

After all the discussion, I was amazed that no one brought up the reason that came to me immediately; they are chicken.

It's the same reason no one would print the Danish comics mocking Allah, and yet had no problems showing a Piss Christ museum exhibit. Media executives know they are in no danger from a mob scene of Christians yet they fear for their lives for anything that may be insulting to Muslims, even the execution of a mad man.

Bush Lied

Over the past couple of years, I've gotten kind of tired of the "Bush Lied" about the Iraq war and our reasons for being there.

If you are one of those people who truly believe that "Bush Lied", please answer these questions for me.

1) Why would he go into Iraq knowing that there were no WMD's and risk re-election failure and the perception that he was a competent commander in chief? Why not wait until after he was at least re elected?

2) Why were Tony Blair, John Howard, et al willing to put their own political careers on the line for a "Bush Lie".

3) What is the motivation for the Lie? Afterall, if it was strictly about oil, he could have simply lifted the UN sanctions and let all the US oil companies make big time deals with Saddam.

4) If Iraq was never a terrorist haven/threat why is it that terrorists such as Abu Nidal were living there and Musab Al-Zarqawi went there after we invaded Afghanistan?

5) Do you really believe that Bush would have invaded Iraq if the Towers were never attacked? (note, I'm not saying that Iraq was responsible for the WTC attacks I'm just suggesting that the invasion was a direct response to terrorist activity in general and part of an overall terrorist strategy)

6) If Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove et al knew there were no WMD's, Don't you think they would have had people plant them to justify the war?

I've just listened to a news report regarding Bob Woodward's interviews with Gerald Ford prior to his death. According to Woodward, Ford suggested that the invasion was wrong since there were no WMD's but we should have increased sanctions on Iraq.

What for? If they had no WMD's, why would we increase sanctions? How would we get the UN to bite on that one?

By the way, in case everyone forgot, we already had sanctions Hussein refused to follow already, why would we just add some more?

I do believe there were other reasons we went into Iraq besides WMD's. I'm sure that there are many other geo political reasons for going in, the least of which is to be right next door to Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria with an established political presence.

However, it really bothers me there is so much criticism of Bush's hadndling of the war yet no one in our media ever holds any critic up to challenge with these types of questions and now we have the head of the House Intelligence Committee who cannot tell you if Al-Queda is a Sunni or a Shiite led organization. How can this party really be the judge of Bush's motives when they can even pass the basic test on knowledge in the region?

Who are you?

Information lose and identity theft are becoming bigger and bigger problems as more information about ourselves is floating around in cyberspace. Identity theft insurance is now available and will likely become as common as home owner's insurance in the coming years. It's estimated that nearly a third of all Americans has had their personal info or identity compromised in the last year.

Here's a list of some of the most recent large information lose disasters:

Boeing: Stolen laptop containing employee HR records - 382,000 records

Aetna: Customer data stolen - 130,000 records

UCLA: Database compromised containing student and faculty information - 800,000 records

Starbucks: Lost multiple laptops containing employee HR records - 60,000 records

GE: Stolen laptop containing employee and HR records - 51,000 records

Circuit City : Lost tapes containing customer credit card records - over 2.1 million records

US DOT: Laptop containing license records stolen - 132,000 records

Edwards

John Edwards, Democratic 2008 Presidential candidate, says he wants to "create tax fairness by rewarding work". Isn't it ironic when liberals praise hard work but then tax people's butts off when they start making the money that is often a result of that hard work?

He also want to provide "universal health care for all Americans". Think of the last time you had to visit your local Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Social Security Administration offices, the Department of Job And Family Services, the unemployment offices or any other kind of state or federal government run agency. Now imagine the same experience and service every time you visit your doctor or the emergency room. That's universal health care.

European Secular Socialist

A while back, I wrote about the ultimate struggle for world vision between three opposing visions of the world; those being European/secularist/socialism model, a US/Judeo-christian/capitalist model and a Arab/Islamic/totalitarian model.

The first world view is a belief in man over a deity. The belief that all opinions have value and that there are no moral absolutes. The best way to aid mankind is through government sanctioned redistribution of wealth.

Unfortunately, this world view cannot gets it's arms around a social contract that believes that evil truly exists in the world. It's why most of Europe has abolished capital punishment and why entry into the EU requires abolition of capital punishment. After all, how can you sentence someone to death when there are no moral contracts saying that something is absolutely wrong.

The other aspect of this core belief is that there really is nothing worth fighting for. It always reminds me of the cliche "when you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything."

On those rare occasions I listen to the talking heads of Air America, I'm always dying to ask one of them what they are willing to sacrifice to protect their freedom of speech. They don't recognize that freedoms are only as valuable as the sacrifice you're willing to make for them.

I bring all this up because of a report in Little Green Footballs regarding the Islamic take over of France. For years, the French have failed to assimilate immigrants into the French culture.

Of course how do you require a assimilation of culture when there is absolutely no agreement as to what the national culture should be. One only look at the relationship between Quebec and the rest of Canada to visualize a day when the southwest wants to secede from the rest of the states.

For years, the French and the rest of Europe, have been able to piggy back off of the US defense to prevent an outright attack from many of these hostile countries. What has ultimately happened is the gradual erosion of culture to the point that every thing it means to be French is imploding from within.

It's why I'm big on establishment of a national culture in this country; that being language, work ethic, education, etc. To not do so, means that everything it means to be American means nothing.

Why even have a border. The Islamic Fascists understand this. They understand that the infiltration of American culture into Iran, Saudi Arabia, ET AL means their culture will go away and they are willing to die to prevent that from happening.

I know it's easy to pick on the French, but really isn't our country just a few years behind when we cannot or will not secure our borders, require full immersion education, or put an end to the fallacy of multiculturalism?

So our country has a question as it relates to the fascists in the middle east. What are we willing to fight and die for?

Jon Cary

Here's a picture of John Kerry eating at a military mess in Iraq. Notice the abundance of military people eating at the table.

Read the entire article at Powerline

Illegals addendum

After reading Midas' Illegal post, it reminded me of something I heard on the radio regarding the Swift meat packing raids.

Apparently, the Swift company suspected many of their applicants of having forged documentation, yet because of privacy issues, Swift was not permitted access to the social security system to document the legal status of the applicant. In addition, when they challenged some documentation, they were threatened with discrimination lawsuits.

Near many of the meat packing plants, a cottage industry of identity theft has been going on in which brokers are selling illegals stolen identification.

Swift reported this to the Labor Department which did nothing on the case, they even testified in Congress regarding their suspicions. Lo and behold an ICE raid.

I guess that's where I differ from Midas on immigration, if businesses find individuals to work for "x" dollars an hour and they have the appropriate documentation, they should be able to hire them. It should not be incumbent on business to be document experts; that's the government's job.

It's also the government's job to provide a secure border so that any average person can reasonably assume that anyone in this country is actually here legally.

I've always been a proponent of guest worker cards/visas. It would provide people with safe entry and exit into and out of the country. In addition, anytime these people board planes, buses, trains, rental cars, etc., we can monitor their whereabouts at all times.

A couple of years ago I was at a hockey game and when I ordered a beer, the vendor swiped my license and here pops up my name and age right on a screen. Somehow if a beer vendor can have access to this documentation surely we should allow the same access to employer's and, for that matter, airports, rental cars, & boards of elections.

Vista

I just read an article regarding the Microsoft Vista operating system.

Billed by Microsoft as their "most secure O/S ever" many corporate accounts have already found security flaws in the system. Microsoft claims in the article that someone needs to have their hands on the actual computer (they couldn't use remote access) in order to seize any information.

I feel better already.

I wonder if Microsoft has ever considered hiring a bunch of fourteen year old geeks to beta test their O/S before they actually put it out on the market; or maybe they could hire some geeks from Apple.

I have already recommended to clients that they hold off in upgrading to Vista for this reason. In addition, I already received informtation from Intuit that their older applications will not work on Vista.

Be aware

Illegals

For some stupid reason, I found myself watching Tom Brokaw's news show last night. The topic of the show was the huge increase in the numbers of illegals (specifically near Carbondale, Colorado) and the impact which it is having on the schools, businesses, etc. in the community and state.

One of the arguments you always hear, especially from business owners, is that if all the illegals were sent packing they wouldn't be able to find enough workers to fill their jobs. This is a lie! What they should be saying (if they want to be truthful about it) is that they would not be able to find enough workers, at the rate they would currently like to pay, to fill their jobs. In most cases, if the employers increased the salaries of the positions they are looking to fill, they would have plenty of hard working, legal workers to choose from. Whether it's cleaning hotel rooms or working in construction, the legal workers will come if you pay them well enough and what the market stipulates. It's the same model used for jobs that are dangerous and risky. You can always find someone willing to do it if the money is good.

I realize that this could lead to higher costs for the business owner and eventually the consumer. I'm all for business owners finding ways to keep prices down by legal means. But hiring people who are in our country illegally only encourages the offense. Many of them do not pay taxes, send much of the money they make elsewhere and are burdens on the education, health care and criminal justice systems. I like it when employers try to save a buck... because it might help be save a buck too. But do it legally.

Someones going to say, what's the difference between hiring illegals at a lower rate of pay here versus shipping jobs off to India? There's a big difference... sending a job to India isn't illegal. At least not yet.

Merry Christmas

With Christmas so close to New Year's, it's always felt like a great time of year to review our lives for the past year and then to commit to something big for the coming year.

As a person of faith, I believe to the core of my being that God always calls us to be something bigger than anything we could have dreamed of for ourselves.

As illustrated in the stories of Abraham, Moses, Noah, Ester and Paul, he has always called for the extraordinary from largely ordinary people.

Whenever I'm confronted by the question of why does God allow bad things happen to good people my response is always "God put a solution to every problem on this earth and for every problem you see he also sees it (through your eyes) and, chances are, he's already nudging you to tell you that you are the perfect person solve it."

Moses had no idea how to emancipate millions of Jews from the throngs of slavery; Noah had no idea what an ark even looked like before he started building. However, they all trusted in God and trusted that he would provide them with the tools needed to make a difference.

So as we enter this Christmas season, consider that whether you are brick layer, a president, or an accountant, God has a mission for each and every one of us to make a difference. While those missions may seem overwhelming, consider that God uses these tests to see how much we trust in him.

Have the Merriest of Christmas'.

God Bless

blogs

I read a very unflaterring piece today by Joseph Rago about the role of blogs in today's news media.

Rago claims that there isn't much in the way of breaking news in the blogoshpere. I agree with that premise, but how much "true" news is there in normal 24 hour news cycle when an evening that Brittney Spears decides not to wear underwear dominates the headlines.

Quite frankly, I get more information from the various blogs I visit than from the Mainstream Media (MSM). What I find extremely arrogant is the position by news editors and publishers that bloggers can't be serious journalists because 1) most didn't go to journalism school and 2) there are no fact checkers on staff.

Hello!!!

For some reason, all those J-schoolers and fact checkers somehow couldn't seem to find the errors and outright frauds of Jason Blair, Rathergate, et al.

As a product of the first amendment, anyone in this country can call themselves a journalist simply by saying it. There are no licensing requirements, no ethics standards in which they need to abide and no governmental oversight. By all accounts, Thomas Paine might have called himself a journalist despite the lack of a J-school degree.

The bottom line is main stream media has lost it's way. In an era of streamlining editorial budgets, the NY Times is no more reliable or informative than Drudge or Lucianne. It makes me sick when I watch or listen to the news and a story starts "according to reports from WYZZ, Joe Coach has taken a new job with X school" What exactly is the news? The rumor that so and so coach is leaving or the fact that the station just got scooped?

I could put that crap on this blog and call it "News".

The way I view the news business, the longer it takes to deliver information the more accurate & thorough it needs to be. For instance, internet news is faster and less thorough & accurate than radio news, which is quicker and less accurate & thorough than TV, which is faster and less accurate & thorough than a newspaper.

Unfortunately, the crap I read in the daily newspaper has no more depth and accuracy than the stuff I read on Drudge 32 hours before.

Remind me again why I should pay $.75 for a Useless Today.

economics of political speech

This week the FEC fined Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and Moveon.org for campaign violations related to the 2004 election.

This is the product of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law which is, in my mind, a totally unconstituional infringement of free specch rights.

McCain-Feingold sought to take money out of the political process by limiting dollars to candidates themselves. The net effect of the law is that thrid party groups got hold of the money and has turned the whole political process into a giant pissing contest; none of which adds anything to the political debate.

Before any meaningful campaign finance law can be instituted one needs to truly ask themselves the question "why is there so much money in politics".

The answer is "because there is so much money in government to get".

Think about it. On a daily basis, I receive at least five sales calls for a little two person accounting shop. Do you think Procter & Gamble receive more sales calls than I do on a daily basis? In addition, once a week I get a representative from a bank, payroll service, brokerage houses, etc. that drop off little gifts (coffee mugs, candy, publications, etc.) in the hopes that we'll refer potential clients to them.

How much money do you think is spent on meals & entertainment, gifts, junkets, etc. on decision makers at P&G as compared to me? My guess is that it's exponentially more.

Why would that be Gordon? Well..... maybe it's because P&G has a gizillion more discretionary dollars than my little old accounting practice.

Now take a an entity more than 3,000 times the size of P&G and guess what. People are going to spend money to buy influence on that entity... lot's of money.

I spent a weekend in DC a few years back, and I couldn't believe the number of pimps and whores (I don't know if I mean that literally or figuratively) that populate the DC suburbs. It's disgusting.

If you really want to take the money out of campaigns you need to take the money out of Washington, plain and simple. Really, how much do you think a congressman would be able to raise each year if he had absolutely no money to appropriate?

Little people

Has anyone else noticed the latest trend in TV commercials? Seems like more and more commercials, especially the holiday type (for obvious reasons) have little people (i.e. midgets, dwarfs) in them. Not pretend people that look like elves or Santa's little helpers, but real humans... little people. They're showing up all over the place: Verizon, Home Depot, Burger King, et al... Maybe I've just not paid attention in previous years. But it seems to be all the rage to have little people in your commercials these days.

quote

I saw a great quote today in the newpaper

Ben Franklin "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch"

government seizures

Last week I had another good conversation with a liberal friend of mine.

We were talking about the Ohio Non Smoking law and his comment was "I'm a non smoker but I think it's wrong for the people to dictate what a private business should do inside their business... Why should a person in Cincinnati be dictating what happens in a bar in Toledo".

To which I answered, "it happens all the time... when a government steals money earned in the private sector from an Ohio resident and gives it to a bunch of Alaskan contractors to build a bridge to nowhere".

That was one of the biggest transformations I made from a social liberal/economic conservative to a true libertarian... as soon as you think it's OK for a government to dictate a social policy (such as smoking/trans fat bans) then why wouldn't it be OK to seize your hard earned money and give it to someone else. It all centers around a group of intelligencia who think they know how we should live our lives better than we do.

NIMBY

A friend of mine came down with the NIMBY virus last weekend when he found out that Kenton County was planning to build their new 600 bed jail about 2000 feet from his back yard. The NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) virus shows up anytime a landfill wants to expand, a new jail is planned or sewer plant needs to be built.

Kenton County must build a new jail (a federal judge actually mandated it) but you have to feel for the people who's property and schools are near by.

Just last month, Rumpke had to stop plans of expanding it's landfill (since it running out of room) because of all noise the neighbors and local government raised. But the trash has to go somewhere, so the same process will probably repeat itself in the coming months.

I feel bad for my buddy and would be just as angry myself. But someone's feet and property values are always going to get stepped on whenever something like this happens. Image trying to build a new nuclear power plant in this country? I'd say, "Go for it.... but just not in my back yard!"

Want to reduce poverty? Lower taxes.

Matthew Ladner has a great article today about taxes. It's a shame that this message has to be repeated over and over again, but there's a lot of people who don't understand how economics work. The U.S. Govt isn't good at doing anything, except maybe running the armed forces. Why would anyone think they could handle the poor and dealing with poverty? Their answer is always the same: redistribute the money. That's a bad idea... because it never has and never will work.

Illegal workers

I haven't posted for a while because I've been catching up on some continuing education this time of year.

One of the topics discussed in the seminar this week was the issue surrounding the hiring of illegal immigrants. It looks like no matter what happens in the immigration debate, it appears t one of the things that will inevitably be a part of significant immigration changes will be increased penalties for employers who hire illegals.

Let me make sure I have this right. I was under the assumption the government was the one responsible for regulating immigration and securing the border. Yet, if someone comes into my office looking for a job, I am supposed to be a document expert and should be able to discern what are fraudulent documents and what are not.

People want to know why I'm a libertarian. Well maybe it's because I get fed up with a government that cannot do it's job so they pass it off to private companies to do their job for them. If that's the case, why do we need government at all.

Let the state collect it's own sales tax.

And the pork goes on...

What is it about Washington that causes politicians to spend taxpayer's money like drunken sailors? Is it the power of playing with someone else's money? Well, it sounds like it ain't gonna change much just because the Dems are running the show now.

Robert D. Novak: The sterile, confused lame-duck session of the Republican-controlled 109th Congress ended with a quiet victory by reformers that staved off an estimated 10,000 earmarks. But it could not be called a farewell to pork. Last Thursday, as the House neared adjournment, Democrats signaled they may countenance a return to free and easy spending ways when they assume the majority Jan. 4. More...

Iraq Study

The retired "statesmen" Baker, Hamilton, O'Connor, have come out with their "recommendations for the Iraq war.

I've heard some of the recommendations and have not read any of the report myself but I don't need to to form the following opinions.

Why was there no military representation on the committee?

Second, apparently, a key piece of report is to encourage more diplomacy with Iran, Syria, et al. When will these duffuses ever come to the realization that diplomacy only works when the opposition knows there is a price to be paid if a resolution cannot be reached.

Iran and North Korea both know that the US will never invade their respective countries so what is their motivation to alter the status quo?

When we pull out of Iraq with our tail between our legs, the middle east leadership will all be fully aware that we will never go back in there to protect our national interest.

Football

As a UC football, fan I get somewhat perturbed by the media complaining about UC's lack of attendance.

Unfortunately, with OSU just north, there is a perception that all college football games must draw 90,000 plus per game, when in reality the OSU's are more the exception than the rule.

So I took it upon myself to look at the statistics for all division one footballs schools that share an audience with an NFL team and here are the results.

U. of Washington 57,483
Arizona State 54,562
Minnesota 52,206
Georgia Tech 50,617
Pittsburgh 43,305
Miami U. 41,908
Boston College 38,843
Vanderbilt 34,861
South Florida 30,222
San Diego State 29,227
Northwestern 27,996
Houston 21,910
Cincinnati 20,373
Tulane 18,942
Univ. Of Buffalo 16,417
Temple 15,810
SMU 15,428

Of particular interest to me is Miami University. A perennial power they drew a whopping 41,000 fans this year. That number includes the FSU game that drew 71,000 people. If you kick that out they drew a paltry 37,000/game.

Many of the schools on the top of the list draw as a result of large fan bases from the opposition attending games (ie OSU & Michigan fans going to Minnesota)

It's apparent that teams that share football space with the NFL face a difficult time in attracting fans to the games. Maybe the Bearcats need to follow the lead of the Reds and host a Dave Curry bobblehead night; they would probably draw 35,000 to the games

Who really gives?

I mentioned, back on Thanksgiving Day, a conversation my brother-in-law and I had about who is more giving.... liberals or conservatives.

John Stossel has a great article today about just that. Check it out...

"Americans are pretty generous. Three-quarters of American families give to charity -- and those who do, give an average of $1,800. Of course that means one-quarter of us don't give at all. What distinguishes those who give from those who don't? It turns out there are many myths about that.

To test them, ABC's "20/20" went to Sioux Falls, S.D., and San Francisco. We asked the Salvation Army to set up buckets at their busiest locations in both cities. Which bucket would get more money? I'll get to that in a minute."

Taxes, taxes, taxes

Just as a fun little exercise. Occaisionally I will review the statistics for my tax practice, here are some of these factoids

Our office prepared 551 individual income tax returns. These clients paid 5.4 million in federal income tax alone. In addition, these clients paid 1.1 million in state income tax.

40 clients had to pay Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). 333 itemized their deductions, 201 had capital gain income and 13 qualified for earned income credit.

When you break things down within a small little practice, it makes you think how large some of these numbers really are.

Trans Fat

For those who found it acceptable to escentially ban all smoking in the state of Ohio, Guess what? The health nazis will be coming after your vice soon.

Today, the NY health department banned cooking in all trans fat cooking oil effective July 1, 2007.

Doesn't it bother anybody that a government bureacracy with no voter accountability can establish such regulations.? Doesn't it bother anyone that the whole concept of personal freedom/personal accountability gets flushed down the drain with each and every one of these bizarre gov't actions?

By the way, has anyone watched a Hogan's Hero's re run recently? I was just wondering if they've edited out the prisoner's Red Cross packages because they included chocolate and cigarettes.

Christians v. Muslims v. Secularists

Having read pieces by a number of prominent futurists, I've come to the following conclusion regarding the current state of the world.

Right now I truly believe the world is in a struggle between three factions of world view. There is currently a European secularist/socialism world view, a Judeo-Christian, free market world view and an Islamist/totalitarian world view. In subsequesnt posts, I will posit the distinctions between all of these.

The fact of the matter is, within the next century, one of these world views will dominate the geo politcal landscape. With the attacks on 9/11, the United States was forced into deciding which of these world views they will espouse and fight for; George Bush decided it was a Judeo- Christian free market world.

If you are the type of person that questions the value of the war and thinks our differences with Islamic fundementalists can be resolved through talking and "diplomacy"; you fall into the European secularist camp.

My prediction is that within the next 20-30 years most of Europe will be run by Totalitarian Islamic regimes.

Where charity begins

This tends to be a common theme this time of the year, but it's worth repeating. Charity and giving begin with individuals, and it's good to hear that we, as a nation, continue to give year after year. Regardless of what the media and the rest of the world says, Americans are a caring and benevolent people! This article, in the Christian Science Monitor Online, is a great reminder.

We need to get the government out of the charity business. First, because they always do a horrible job at it. And secondly, because all they know is "Robin Hood" charity: taking from one group of people and giving it to another. Nothing shows love for neighbor more than sincere, un-forced giving by one human to another. The government is a poor substitute.

Walmart, bah humbug!

Why is Walmart always under attack? No one has a gun to anyone's head. No one is forced to shop or work there. There's plenty of other options when it comes to where we buy things. Walmart has low prices, they stock everything under the sun and millions of Americans have chosen to work and/or shop there. They must be doing something right? Oh wait, they make money, a lot of money. And that's bad! Only in America...

generosity

The original conception of this blog was to help educate people as to economic issues as they arise in day to day life. I really wanted to stay away from too much political conversation since the market is already saturated with political screaming.

However, I read a piece today by Thomas Sowell

www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/11/who_really_cares.html

that I think really encompasses political as well as economic issues. The basic treatise regards who gives more time, money, resources.... liberals or conservatives. It's an excellent analysis of the world view that separates liberals and conservatives.

It's a great read for everyone.

Cost of employment

A few years ago, I was invited to speak at a class at the Ford Sharonville plant.

The class was titled "How to Start Your Own Business". I was told by the person teaching the class the course was designed for workers in the plant and the company provided an entire diverse curriculum for the plant workers. The courses could be taken on company time with no fees.

I inquired as to why Ford would offer such a course on starting a business. The instructor told me the company has told the employees at the plant that the plant would not be open forever; that eventually they needed to prepare themselves for a life after Ford and that the company would help train the employees for their future.

While it seemed odd to me, I did offer to do a class on the costs of having employees.

During the class, I went through the mandatory taxes and benefits that company's are required to pay on behalf of their employees.

FICA match
Medicare Match
Federal unemployment
State unemployment
Workers comp.

I also discussed issues like benefits such as vacation, sick days, medical insurance, OSHA standards, ADA requirements, even the costs of non productivity like the class they were currently taking, etc., etc.

In the middle of my presentation, one of the guys asked an observant question; Why in the hell would anyone ever want employees?

I counsel clients that, depending on the business, employees need to generate 3-4 times their salaries in net income. For instance, if you pay a worker $10.00 an hour you need to get $30-$40/hour in revenue generation or other expense reductions.

So when wages go up, it's not as simple as just a wage increase, it runs all the way through the cost of production.

I just affirms my theory that when we artificially increase cost of production, company's will always outsource the production to the true "market" value.

UC Football

I have never understood the total lack of interest in UC football. Even my freshman year at UC, I was amazed that my roomates went over to Nippert to see Elder/Moeller on a Friday but I couldn't pay them to go over the next night to watch UC.

Even when the Bengals wore absolutely abysmal, you couldn't find a fan with a search warrant.

With that said, if Dantonio leaves, it will be yet another set back for a program just seems to always be "just around the corner" to big time.

It was all set up, a coach building a program long term, a respectable finish in the Big East, a nice turn out and win for the Rutgers game, probably the best bowl bid in a long time.

I have a tendency to blame the administration for this. I'm always advising clients that my services will only be as important to me as it is to them. And in that sense, the fans will only follow the university lead on big time college football.

Generosity Index

PITTSBURGH, PA -- I had an interesting discussion with a brother-in-law this morning. He claimed that Democrats (or, to be more accurate, liberals), were more generous than Republicans (i.e. conservatives). I contended, based on some stats that I recalled reading one time, that people from conservatives parts of the country gave much more to charities than the liberal parts of our nation.

The proof is in the pudding... check out the stats, notice how few blue states are listed in the top. Red states (states that Bush won in 2004) blow away their counterparts when it comes to generosity. 17 of the 20 "least generous" states are blue states that voted for Senator Kerry (including all 7 of the "least generous" states). What's really funny is that my brother-in-law's home state, Massachusetts, is at the bottom of the list, next to last.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone... blue and red!

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving.

For me, I am thankful that I am surrounded by awesome family, friends and clients.

I'm also thankful that every morning I get to wake up in a country where the fruits of my efforts knows no bounds and that I can speak my peace without fear of tyranny. For these things I am blessed.

God bless you all.

Prescriptions drugs Part Dos

One of the things I've never understood are the patent laws as they pertain to the pharmaceutical industry.

The copyright for "Hey Jude", I believe is 99 years and yet patent protection for a pharmeceutical drug is 15 years, which means that the pharmeceutical companies are under extreme pressure to get out their drugs and, if necessary, promote additional uses of the drug.

I'm no apologist for the pharmceutical companies. If I have to see another commercial telling me there is a drug to cure my toe nail fungus, acid reflux, or for my right butt cheek that sags a little more than the left, I'm going to puke.

Nonetheless, I don't think there is an orchestrated conspiracy to poison the American public.

I remember a guy telling me head and shoulders shampoo made your hair fall out. My only response was if that was true, P&G couldn't sell me any more shampoo. What would be the motivation in that?

Ending Poverty?

It makes me wonder what people are thinking when they say they want to "end" world-wide poverty.

Unless everyone in the world is earning the same amount of money and has the same quality of life, there will always be someone making less money and living is worse conditions than someone else. And even if we were able to set a world-wide, monetary benchmark to define what poverty is, and brought everyone's earnings up over that value, all that would do is requalify what equates to poverty. The word itself is too relative to even use on a world-wide scale: everyone would agree that living in poverty in the U.S. is a lot better than living in poverty in India. It's a waste of energy to even suggest that it's possible.

Now don't get me wrong... there's nothing wrong with trying to help and teach people to make a better living for themselves. But try to stop using meaningless, feel-good, cliches to describe it.

Anti-medicine

Why do the liberal Democrats continually attack the pharmaceutical companies (i.e. big drug companies)? Like I mentioned in a previous post about oil companies -- there’s always going to be bad seeds in any industry. But, look at all the good that comes out of their line of work. They have saved or extended countless lives. They’ve improved the quality of life for countless more. They continue to look for ways to better people’s lives. But because they also make money doing it, they are frowned upon by the liberal Democrats.

One of the Democrats goals for next year’s session of Congress is to allow the federal government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients. This is clearly a way to begin the road back towards federalized medicine, something Bill and Hillary Clinton already tried back in the early 1990’s.

The way I see it, if you remove the incentive of making money from the pharmaceutical industry, you will see less research, which will lead to fewer discoveries and fewer new medicines.