Taxpayer Fraud

Are you surprised to find out that people are cheating on the taxes? How about the first time buyer tax credit? What I thought would be a snoozer hearing in a House Ways and Means subcommittee this morning has incensed and amazed me. Testimony from the Hon. J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, reports hundreds of millions of dollars, yep, your and my tax dollars, have been paid out to scam artists and just plain cheater buyers through the housing tax credit.

click here

Is Gold Money?

On the subject of metals, the CME announced that it would allow gold to be used as collateral for trades on the exchange. While this is not going to impact the price of gold in any direct way in the short run, it's another sign of gold being re-recognized as money, as having been traded as "just another commodity" for 25 years or so.

Fishing the Lower Sacramento River

Off for two days of fly fishing on the lower Sacramento River, that's between Redding and Anderson. The upper Sacramento is above Shasta Lake.

Juan Rodrguez Cabrillo was the first reporter - in 1540

In 1540, an earthquake destroyed the city of Santiago, Guatemala where Cabrillo was living. Cabrillo's report to the Spanish crown on the earthquake's destruction is the first known piece of secular journalism written in the New World.

Dominic DiMaggio

Say what you will about the DiMaggios but they were a tour de force in major league baseball but my favorite was Dominic, who played with Ted Williams with the Boston Red Sox. During the season of '41 he said he had the bird's eye view of 4 amazing events : Joe's 56 game hitting streak, Ted William's dramatic homerun to drive in Joe Dimaggio and win the '41 All Star game (Dom was on deck) and be apart of Lefty Gomez's 300th pitching win (Dom caught the final out). Everyone remembers Joe (and a little about Vince) but Dom had an incredible career and wrote a great book about the season of '41 called "Real Grass, Real Heroes". Learn more about Dominic here

8" of rain during the storm

I couldn't believe my eyes as I looked at the bucket full of water outside yesterday morning after the skies cleared. I took my measuring tape and pulled out 12" or so and stuck it into the bucket and yep, 8" of rain had accumulated in the bucket. Now, the skeptic in me says that this isn't the way to measure rainfall but how else could this be explained? The bucket was not under a tree or an eve, the only way the bucket could have filled was by random raindrops. Then, this morning the paper revealed the confirmation . . . . San Luis Obispo did indeed receive 7.9" of rain during the storm. The real confirmation is that our lake rose about 4' . . . yes FOUR FEET. Last week the gangway to the dock was at a 45 degree angle and today it's around 20 degrees!

2010 Census Cautions

With the U.S. Census process beginning, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft. The first phase of the 2010 U.S. Census is under way as workers have begun verifying the addresses of households across the country. Eventually, more than 140,000 U.S. Census workers will count every person in the United States and will gather information about every person living at each address including name, age, gender, race, and other data. The big question is - how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist? BBB offers the following advice:

** If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag, and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don't know into your home.

** Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information. Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census. While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range, it will not ask for Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers, nor will employees solicit donations.

Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail, or in person at home. However, they will not contact you by Email, so be on the lookout for Email scams impersonating the Census.

Never click on a link or open any attachments in an Email that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.

For more advice on avoiding identity theft and fraud, visit www.bbb.org

High Frequency Trading - is it bad for you?

Once again, our favorite John Stewart has settled the issue with this in depth report. The link to the video is through the Ritholz.com blog which is one of my favorites for understanding what's going on in the economy, markets and good investigative journalism . . . click here

Poco - Pickin' Up the Pieces

Such a great band then and their music is still great now . . . makes you appreciate how truly magical the Buffalo Springfield were . . . read this recent review of Poco's first LP click here

Yellowstone Caution

Several years while visiting Yellowstone, I found a tee shirt with language that poked fun at how foolish visitors to the park have been.

Divisive Media Blowhards

Steve Lopez at the LA Times has really summed it up in his recent op-ed piece on the craziness from Rush to Beck, et al. Stuart Spencer, who ran four successful campaigns for the late governor and president, laments the state of politics and punditry. The Republican California political guru who crafted four successful Ronald Reagan campaigns, two for governor and two for president, does not watch Fox News or its conservative bobblehead pundits. read it here

Healthcare around the world

Sick Around the World was presented on Frontline some time ago and is the result of research conducted by T. R. Reid. If you would like to see the comparisons, click here

Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch's last lecture is wonderful, you can find it on YouTube. Here's one of the pearls, "don't bail; the best gold is at the bottoms of crap."

annoying telephone calls?

go to this website and post the number and what type of call it was. this is also a good place to start if you want to know more about a caller that you suspect is not known to you

click here for CallFerret

Is the recession over? Bernanke thinks so . . . . who cares?

from Barry Ritholz - - -

Ben Bernanke has declared the recession over.

This leads to one simple question: Why should you care what his recession forecasts are?

Based on his track record as a forecaster and his acumen in identifying economic problems before they exploded, his views on starts and finishes of recessions are, to be blunt, irrelevant.

Recall it was Mr. Bernanke who described the sub-prime situation as “Contained;” it was he who believed Housing would not spill over to the broader economy; and it was he who somehow thought the Bear Stearns situation was a one-off.

I don’t wish to single out Mr. Bernanke; After all, he is an economist, and if you were paying attention, you will note that the entire profession missed the oncoming recession, credit crisis and market collapse. You may also find it helpful to ignore what the profession that cannot forecast yesterday thinks about tomorrow.

Even now, the Federal Reserve Chairman said the recession was “very likely over” as consumers showed some of the first tangible signs of spending again. Never mind that all this retail activity has been driven by government subsidies.

Now, as an investor, you do want to be mindful of the Fed Chief’s economic views, particularly how they pertain to his interest rate policies. The ed has made it clear rates are staying low for the foreseeable future, so this becomes a non-issue in this context.

But his economic forecasts? Don’t bother.

Note that I have not been a particularly harsh critic of the Fed Chair. While he may not be Paul Volcker, he is also (thankfully) not Alan Greenspan. And we could have done much worse than having a student of the Great Depression, who is also an out-of-the-box thinker as Fed Chief.

But as a prognosticator? He is no better than his predeccessor . . .

Libertarian or Conservative

I know what a Libertarian is . . . that's someone who believes that less government is better except for running services that benefit the greater good . . . . . like regulating water, air, highway systems, defense.

It’s a bit harder to define a conservative. Is it someone who atavistically just wants to conserve the existing order of things (either now, or perhaps as they perceived them 50, or 100, or 200, or however many years ago)? Or is a conservative someone who believes in limiting social freedoms (generally that means suppressing things like sex, drugs, outré clothing and customs, and bad- mouthing the government) while claiming to support economic freedoms (although with considerable caveats and exceptions)? It’s unclear to me what, if any, philosophical foundation conservatism, by whatever definition, rests on.

Insomnia explained

Psychiatrist Milton Erickson recognized that insomnia is basically a sleep slump. Once insomniacs start thinking and worrying about their lack of sleep, they can no longer relax and enter the frame of mind needed to naturally drift off. In one famous case, Erickson advised an insomniac to get out of bed when he couldn’t sleep and meticulously scrub his kitchen floor with a toothbrush. Willing to try almost anything, the patient followed the therapist’s advice and promptly became so dulled by the tedious task that he dragged himself to bed for a good night’s sleep. The task broke the cycle in which thinking about sleeping interfered with the process of falling asleep.

Some funnies

1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

6. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

7. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

8. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

9. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to The other, 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'

10. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

11. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When His grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, 'No change yet.'

12. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large

13. A backward poet writes inverse.

14. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

15. Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!

Courage as described by Lance Armstrong

Things take place, there is a confluence of events and circumstances, and we can’t always know their purpose or even if there is one. But we can take responsibility for ourselves and be brave. We each cope differently with the specter of our deaths. Some people deny it. Some numb themselves with drugs or alcohol. We are tempted to do a little of each of those things. But I think we’re supposed to try to face it straightforwardly, armed with nothing but courage.

The definition of courage is: the quality of spirit that enables one to encounter danger with firmness and without fear.

Lance Armstrong . . . It’s Not About the Bike

Video - Bell, Book and Candle -

Another clip from the same film but this time with Jimmy Stewart and Ernie Kovacs . . .