Category: Uncategorized

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http://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/20/l-it-the-401k-is-a-failure.html

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/13/heres-how-many-americans-have-nothing-at-all-saved-for-retirement.html

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-all-over-for-the-faang-stocks-2017-06-12?link=MW_popular

 

The one woman said “financial literacy” and I would like to try.

I retired when I was quite young and this return, over a 20-year period, has provided enough to continue retirement.  Basically, over a twenty year period my home has gone up 5% a year and my IRA (it began as 401(k)s) has risen 10% a year.

At 10% a year $25,000 at age forty would probably be enough for a single person or couple to retire on.  Or, to put the amount you need to save a little differently, if you had a few good years of high earnings, company matching, or really great investment choices, it still would probably be enough.

(more…)

Better than ploughing the driveway.

“In fact a pretty boring predictable performance.”  That doesn’t have a verb.  Or a subject.

“I don’t think she’s pretty or attractive as much as she does.”  You can kind of tell what he or she (guil) means but…

Yes, if he had just continued to wear the handcuffs everything would have been fine.  Watch out for spoilers!

I watched it.  I wasn’t exactly paying attention, but I don’t remember this part:

As were soon to find out Suzanne has it in for Michael in what he did to her baby sister Ariel, Allison Busner, some five years ago in San Francisco by in walking out on her that drove Ariel to kill herself.

Friends at work wonder how Rozon can “keep it at half mast.”  What?

Spoiler:  now I know that she shoots herself in the end.  I missed that part too.

 

I am a prophet sent by Jesus and yes I can see angels and devils.  Just kidding.

The other day I was at the DMV–there’s still a nice, really small office here in Evergreen.  When they wanted to charge me $109 for a 10-day temporary tag, just so I could then proceed to a diesel emissions test and VIN verification, I balked.  It was sustained enough to take about fifteen minutes, involve the manager, and stop most of the office’s functioning.

“I am a consumer and I have choices!” I declared.  Besides, South Carolina only requires one license plate, and it is better looking.  There’s no diesel test either.

Evergreen really is a cool place!  I can still live in Evergreen but at the same time rid myself of Jefferson County.  The slam of the door on the way out will be loud.

Images, recordings, video, email, texts.  Chat rooms, Facebook, online courts, and the list goes on and on.  It is the best time ever to be a consumer or just an individual.

 

Still, many of Trump’s key economic policy pledges remain works in progress.

The House voted Thursday to repeal many of the stricter Dodd-Frank regulations enacted after the 2008 financial crisis, but the legislation faces major hurdles in the Senate because of united Democratic opposition.

The Trump administration this past week unveiled a broad blueprint for a national rebuilding effort and promised that its fuller, still-to-come infrastructure plan will create $1 trillion in investment.

But White House aides said that it will be year’s end before Trump sends Congress even the general principles for achieving that investment, and they offered no timeline for submitting an actual bill.

And in April, Trump unveiled the centerpiece of his economic strategy: a sweeping tax overhaul plan that he promised would include the “one of the biggest tax cuts in American history.”

But it came in the form of a one-page outline that included only a broad-brush overview of bold goals, and nearly two months later, there’s still no word on when a more fully baked policy proposal might be released.

 

(more…)

I wasn’t a bigshot at the FBI but I did work at headquarters for three years; technically it was the director’s office and I did have a top secret clearance. The background check was extensive. My title was survey statistician.

Mostly what I did was sit around reading news clippings. My boss, a section head, didn’t want to do it so they came to me. It was a couple times a week and I think they covered every time the FBI was mentioned in the national press. It was photocopied and stapled and “back then” it really was a cut and paste of the press.

The other thing I remember doing a lot of was playing around on the computer, I mean THE computer. That’s where I learned SAS and spent time entering numbers for an entirely self-directed research project. It was slow and sleepy and you could do things like that. Finally, I remember the dorms at Quantico, and the behavioral sciences unit.

The real power and budgets I was close to were in big companies. I don’t know how it happened but it did happen–primary (I know less about secondary) research was always shielded. In fine print, organizationally, we were always connected to someone really high up or even, in a dotted-line way, even the president. I did some important work and people knew me and respected my opinion and the research. SAME GOES with big research companies. Never in my entire career did I receive a call from anyone asking me to change anything or edit anything.

Never.

So on to Mr. Comey. It may be something worth fighting for.

 

“Our response must be to… sing louder and …”

Video deleted by Youtube. It was Coldplay at the concert. It is interesting, people gathering and celebrating terrorism. Trump has a point–you really don’t want to do that.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/30/stocks-vs-bonds-vs-cash-asset-allocation-and-why-its-important.html

Always the contrarian…  What about asset allocation as trading?

https://dailyreckoning.com/stockman-bond-market-one-giant-bubble/

 

It doesn’t help that the Trump administration is rapidly stripping away as many regulations as it can, promising to repeal two for every new one implemented — an ultra-wealthy administration’s attempt to formalize the plutocratic free-for-all that has followed decades of growing corporate power, defined by massive income inequality, regulatory capture, a revolving door between agencies and the industries they oversee, and steadily eroding consumer rights.

That has to be a run-on sentence.

I don’t know, I’m surprised.  But that is the whole point of the experiment.

For anyone who hasn’t seen it, here’s a glimpse into Google Analytics.  This is just after a very few mailings and a brand new website, a pretest if you will.

Pretty soon we’ll be doing this there, but:

What does the FBI have to do with it?, you asked? If you read the one email to the commissioners it is a fair question. I called the commissioners (two of the three I know) and they referred me to this Bryan Johnson guy, head of the Jeffco airport and noise; he called and we talked. I said, this whole thing of relying on complaints and expecting residents to research and complain is not representative; there are no data. I explained that my title at the fbi was survey statistician (in the director’s office)–fbi crime statistics are a survey of police departments. That is my field and I am knowledgeable in it. I further said the only way to know the severity is to follow the path and, literally, knock on doors. The traffic and planes has to be explained.

He took that to the people at DIA who he is friends with. When I talked to them they said “we know you used to work for the FBI and…” and I never mentioned it. The implication is he is in cahoots with the airport–not the taxpayers–to support noise.

I don’t get it, do you think I am the only one?  That is the point of that.

Nuisance?  Small claims and sell house?  I don’t want to live under this noise or government that allows it.  That is another matter and it only takes one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More on trees in a bit.  Lucky for these before the storm.

Who was it, somewhere, who was writing about how lower branches save the tree from snow and it is unnatural to prune them; or was it the other way around.  I think they just grow as straight and tall as they can.  Anyway, aspen usually break all the conventions.

It is pretty amazing to grow an aspen tree anywhere.