Monday, July 31, 2006

Flipping Real Estate and how it's not working anymore

Do you know what the Ghost Housing Market is?

Here is the link to a sobering look at what's going on between developers and flippers . . . it used to be a good gamble to buy a house pre-construction and sell it before you had to take occupancy of it . . . that doesn't work anymore and flippers are taking baths on their "investments". Hopefully your not one them.

click here

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Do you really need instant pleasure?

As much as you may think you need immediate pleasure, you don't. You can wait for a trade to come to fruition. If you wait calmly and follow your trading plan, you will increase your odds of success, and end up with a lot more profits later.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Has Patenting Gone Crazy??

Have you ever used a laser pointer to drive your pet crazy? You may soon have your day in court because you infringed on Patent No. 5443036, "Method of Exercising a Cat," including "any other animals with the chase instinct."

And if you, after reading this, think you better go back to having your dog fetch a plain old stick, beware. There's a patent for that, too. (No. 6360693, "Animal Toy.")

Have you ever sat on a swing suspended from a tree branch, making yourself swing from side to side by alternately pulling on the chains? You're toast, according to the laws protecting Patent No. 6368227, "Method of Swinging on a Swing."

And speaking of toast: You may want to eat your bread unheated from now on, lest you may be found guilty of violating Patent No. 6080436, "Bread Refreshing Method."

In Australia, John Keogh, a freelance patent lawyer striving to expose the faulty system, managed in 2001 to patent a "Circular Transportation Facilitation Device," a.k.a. the wheel.

Patent laws were originally designed to protect truly innovative ideas from being stolen by others, granting the owner 20 years of exclusive rights to his invention. So far, so good.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Golf

Paul Azinger pointed something very interesting . . . a round of golf consists of 90 seconds of motion and 4 1/2 hours of emotion.

Is the grice of gasoline too high?

a recent survey for the National Retil Federation found that 42% of households with incomes of less than $50K were dining out less frequetnly because of high gas prices and that 33% with higher incomes had cut back on eating at restaurants. less than 25% of the 7,388 people polled in May said that gas prices were having "no major impact," down from last year's 33.8% the pressure on houshold finances is showing up in higher credit card deliquencies, the ABA said. late payments to credit card companies rose to 4.4 % in the first 3 months of the year - a reversal fromthe six months of declines.

then there's my own "tell" . . . I don't see any evidence of people slowing down on freeways. trying to drive the speed limit in California will get you run off the road and until I see people slowing down (which is the most effective way of conserving gasoline) I won't believe that the price of gasoline is too high.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

What does war mean to your wealth?

Many times in the past, shortly after war breaks out, markets rally . . . read more
click here

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

State of Califonia Tort Liability Index

State Tort Liability Index Rankings

Regular readers of this newsletter know that we like to look at how the State of California ranks against other states on matters of public policy. A recent study by the Pacific Research Institute assesses the condition of each state’s tort liability system relative to other states. The study uses a dynamic model of elements of each state’s tort system to come up with a ranking in relation to other states. In other words, it assesses the positive and negative aspects of each state’s laws and outcomes of court cases instead of relying on individual opinions.

The report, U.S. Tort Liability Index: 2006 measures which states have relatively high tort costs and which states have enacted more reforms to better position themselves for future economic prosperity.

According to this study, California ranks 35th out of 50 states We score the highest (meaning the worst) in the study’s monetary caps category. This means that we have very few caps on monetary awards. We score the best on the study’s monetary tort losses category, which measure the amount of loss that defendants experience in tort cases. States that do best on the overall scale are Texas and Colorado (where recent tort reforms have been adopted) and the worst are Rhode Island and Vermont (states that have few legal limits on tort cases).

The reason we need to examine where California lies in relation to other states is because it makes a difference on whether businesses open a new location, hire more people, or invest in new plants.

As stated by former Michigan Governor John Engler, who is now President of the National Association of Manufacturers, “the health of a state’s civil justice system is a key indicator of its economic vitality and potential for future growth. A fair, stable, and predictable legal environment is critical to a state’s ability to attract investment, draw new businesses, and generate new jobs.” I couldn’t agree more.

To view the Institute’s study you can go to:
http://www.pacificresearch.org