Decom is my fav

We will hanging with eggchairsteve and his crew in Espirit Park close to the fence at the entrance of Mariposa and 19th

I will be working the Black Rock Arts Foundation booth from 2-4

See you there

John Lennon's Birthday

MonkeyBoy is doing great

As most of you know MonkeyBoy had prostate cancer in 2006 and had surgery to remove the prostate. This spring we went through 2 different rounds of unclear information from his Doctors office about his most recent follow up test, the PSA. MonkeyBoy went to the Doc last week for his 3 year check up and the result was perfect. Almost a flat reading, perfectly normal.

We had always assumed that the surgery had taken care of the cancer so when this unclear test result showed up in the spring, it was unsettling. We are thrilled to be back on the track of our belief that the cancer is gone and all is well.

Peace by the Dali Lama

West Wing

I have been watching the West Wing reruns from 6-7 every morning and I had forgotten how beautifully written it is, and how fast it is, and how relevant it is, and how Martin Sheen can be my President any day, geeky peacemaker that he is, that our bosses should be so competent as well as the President of the United States, and that Stockard Channing was her own woman, and that the President and his wife lied to the world about his illness in order to win an election.

Beautifully crafted tv show.

China, the next economic empire?

This chart of the Dow Jones is from 2007 and it has rebounded from that low, but will it ever rebound from the losses of the recent past. I am a financial pessimist. I think America has peaked and we are not ever going to fully recover from this economic diaster. I believe the Empire status we have maintained for the last 60 years is moving toward China.

So what does that mean. It means that people like me who were poor with lousy parents won't be able to go to law school, it will be difficult to rise above your station, as it already is in most countries. Try coming from the wrong side of the tracks in Mexico or India or even Great Britan and raising your economic status, very difficult.

I worked for a varies of financial firms for over 10 years and have a lot of comfort about my understanding of how the financial markets work. SO...in the industry the first thing you learn about marketing stocks, etc. is "Past performance is not an indicator of future performance." Look around, it is like the nutritional information that is now required, the "Past Performance" language is EVERYWHERE...statements, prospectuses, ads in magazines and newspapers.

So when someone tells you, "oh it will get better, or the market has ALWAYS".... they don't know the answer, the experts do not know, the stock brokers do not know, just because someone tells you that you have enough $ to survive until retirement...THEY DO NOT KNOW IF THAT IS TRUE...just because it would have been true in the past, does not make it true for the future.

So what do we do about it. So every day for the last 2 weeks MonkeyBoy and I have talked about how we have our retirement $ invested (I am turning 60 this month). Should we sell anything, should we invest differently, should we sell everything at take the cash and put it under the mattress.

The problem with that solution is that if the $ continues to decline then your stash of money declines. What will it cost to buy a loaf of bread in 10 years (I am not so worried about 20 years from now, I don't expect to be alive at 80).

So I had some money in an IRA that was in cash, that is of course crazy, because if you decide you need cash your IRA is the last thing you want to sell from becasue you have to pay taxes on it, but oh well.

So today we invested some of my money in a Chinese Mutual fund. Probably not a good time right after the Olympics and China having been in the spotlight all summer, but since I believe that China is an up and coming country it seemed like the correct decision.

I have had these beliefs for over 5 years and they have not changed. I of course hope I am wrong.

That is all

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

Thomas Hawk took the full 110 page Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 bill that failed in the House of Representatives Wednesday and pasted it into Wordle. Above is what came back.