flabbergasted

The Congressional Effect Fund

/ hsoi

Via Roberta X I read an interesting article about the effects of Congress upon the financial markets.

You could have invested only when Congress is on vacation. It may sound a little crazy, but I am totally serious. When Congress works – and by “works” I mean “meddles” – it destroys wealth. When Congress doesn’t work, wealth grows by itself.

From 1965 through 2008, looking at a total of 11,000 trading days, the annualized daily price gain of the S&P 500 Index is just 0.31 percent when Congress is in session. Out of session, that figure jumps to 16.15 percent, a daily difference of 50 times.

As government power and influence grow, the trend has intensified in recent years. From 2000 through 2008, in-session performance of the S&P is –12.4 percent. The out-of-session performance: +8.8 percent.

In other words, had you invested $10,000 only when Congress was in session from the beginning of 2000 through 2008, putting aside dividends, you’d have $4,615 today. Had you invested that same $10,000 only on days when Congress was on vacation, you’d have $13,416 today.

The article continues with an excellent baseball analogy, then goes to list many recent things Congress has done that meddle in the markets. Truly an eye-opening read, that is, if your eyes weren’t already open.

One thing to note is it matters not who is in power: Republicans or Democrats. They’re both meddlers, they both seek to grow Government, they both spend as much of your and my money as they possibly can. Constitutional limits matter not when there’s contracts and favors and pet projects to manage! The money just flows… they spend it faster than they can take it from us or print it up.

I’m not saying one way or the other that you should invest or not in The Congressional Effect Fund… what you do with your money is your business and not mine. But it’s a damn sight interesting, that’s for sure.

Can I do what they’re doing?

/ hsoi

Wow… just…. wow.

I’ve been against every bailout. This is yet another reason why. The loans won’t be paid back, and those in Washington are OK with that. Great… just flush the my money down the toilet. Awesome. And while some loans are expected to be paid back, given how well they’ve run their business up to this point, I am not holding my breath waiting for anything to be paid back. 

Why can’t I behave like this? Oh that’s right… I’m responsible.

The gears of Socialism grind on….

Car burglaries and how to deal with it

/ hsoi

Apparently car burglaries are on the rise in Austin.

I’ve had my car broken into twice in my lifetime. It’s not a fun experience… the feeling of violation, the anger that some punk asshole decided instead of working hard they’d hardly work and just take something of mine.

I used to work with a guy that spent time working in the Maine legal system. We were going to lunch together and I was surprised when we got to the parking lot and his car doors were unlocked. I asked him about it. He told me that in the end, it doesn’t matter. The key thing to do if you want to avoid getting your car broken into is to not leave anything in the car. The thief is looking for easy targets and desirable things: money, cigarettes, CD’s, things they can quickly rip off and sell or directly consume themselves. So if you basically leave nothing in your car but your car, there’s not much to worry about. If they want the car itself (or just want to vandalize), then there’s just not much you can do period. He said in his time he’d seen all sorts of cars come in… steering wheel locks are easily defeated. If the criminal wants it bad enough, they’ll get it and that’s why you keep your insurance paid up. In the end it still sucks to have such assholes existing in the world and that we even have to modify our lives and behavior to avoid and minimize the impacts from these assholes, but such is life.

Twitter is informational malnutrition

/ hsoi

Twitter is informational malnutrition.

Witness.

George Carlin had a small rant about “sound bytes”, basically equating them to malnutrition. Twitter, the sound byte of 140 characters or less.

Inanimate object springs to life

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

… and manages to cause death and destruction. At least, according to this guy.

I am not unsympathetic to the death of 5 children. I am sure they were fully innocent, and this is the act of a lone, upset, confused, sad, twisted man. The whole story is sad and terrible.

However, a gun did not kill these children, a man did. Yes he used a gun, but that really doesn’t matter unless you’re pushing an agenda. This man did what he did because he had deep problems, and had he lacked a gun he likely would have found some other way. When someone driving a car hits and kills someone, we say the driver killed the person, not the car. If that person was drunk, we say a drunk driver killed the person, not Anheuser-Busch. When a person slips in the bathtub, we don’t blame soap. Why are guns singled out as the one inanimate object that is somehow able to do things on its own?

But what I really wish to comment on is Mr. Rivers’ comments in his posting. I had started to write this long piece, dissecting his assertions and arguments…. but I got tired and opted to edit my posting here to a simple thing.

Mr. Rivers, can you demonstrate and explain how your proposed solutions will actually solve the problem that you see existing? Don’t just keep reciting the same old mantras of gun control, no emotional appeals, but actually articulate how your proposed means will achieve your desired ends. I’ll wait right here for your answer. Joe Huffman has been waiting for nearly 5 years.

Mr. Rivers, I used to come from a similar place as you. Then I became educated on the topic, arguably from “the other side”. Knowing “both sides of the issue” instead of clinging to my old one side, logic won out and I now find myself where I am today. As a result, it’s difficult for me to look at viewpoints such as yours as anything but ignorant; I was ignorant on this matter, so it helps me recognize ignorance when I see it. Mr. Rivers, if you’re willing to engage in open, calm, and rational discourse on this matter, I’m happy to speak with you.

Astounding bullshit

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

From the NYT, an editorial on …. well… I guess how to spout (the same old) lies?

Gosh, I don’t even know where to begin. The whole thing is just full of misinformation.

This was a choice piece tho:

States routinely grant concealed carry licenses without proper background checks or training. Indeed, among the evidence Bush officials ignored in their haste to relax national park gun limits was the long list of violent crimes committed by dangerous people with state concealed carry licenses. Contrary to gun lobby claims, the evidence suggests that permitting concealed weapons drives up crime rather than decreasing it.

And your evidence is where? 

Actual empirical evidence (to the contrary) can be found here and here and here and here and here and here and if you really need more I can find it.

Furthermore, who wrote this editorial? If you’re going to open your yap at least have the guts to identify yourself and stand behind what you say.

If at first you can’t succeed…

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

… lower the standards.

If I remember correctly, the grade scale in my public government school was:

A	100 - 94
B+	93 - 90
B	89 - 84
C+	83 - 80
C	79 - 74
D+	73 - 70
D	69 - 64
F	63 - 0

So the students referred to in the article have to maintain at least a 70 to participate in other activities, but parents are complaining it’s too high and want to go to a 60.

To me, that’s a big fat fail no matter how you cut it.

Aim low, baby

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

It’s saddening to read that 1 in 3 people want a salary cap for movie stars and athletes. And not just any cap, one imposed by the government.

*sigh*

If I can’t have it, you can’t have it either. It’s not fair, they lament whine.

Whatever happened to dreaming big? To chasing your dreams? To having the gumption to get off your ass and make something of yourself? Why would you want to impose any sort of upper limit on what people could earn? I guess only because you feel you’ll never earn that so it’s OK… that you never think such a limit will come back to bite you because you never envision yourself earning that much money. Just because you can’t envision yourself rolling in dough, why should you demand that others can’t either? I may not be rolling in that level of money yet, but I’ve been working my way up and along all my life, and I’m not stopping now. I’m willing to dream big and aim high and work and sacrifice to get there. I’m sorry you’re not similarly motivated.

If you don’t want these people to make that sort of money, it’s simple. Don’t feed into their revenue stream. Stop going to see movies. Stop watching sports. Stop being a consumer of the things that enable them to have that high salary. If you stop feeding the beast, it’ll either have to go on a diet or go hungry. But I know… this route requires you to make some effort, which we’ve already established you refuse to do. So instead, “thereoughtabealaw” so it saves you from having to make any effort and take any responsibility for yourself’.

Alas.