Thursday, December 31, 2009

Gold Bugs



Been busy have not had much time to write sorry. I hope all my readers had a wonderful holiday and hopefully a wonderful new year. My mother bought me a book for christmas, it was "Rich Dad's Advisors: Guide to Investing In Gold and Silver." I haven't finished this book yet but so far has been one of the most interesting books I have read all year. Not only does this book teach you how to invest in silver and gold, it also teaches you the histroy of silver and gold and why silver and gold should be in everyone portfolio. I have a ton of physical silver at home and after reading the frist 3 chapters of this book, I sent way for some gold. Not alot. When I bought this gold, an oz was just under $1100. With in a year or two the value will certainy increase with inflation and when this war is over forget about it ill make a killing.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Nationalities - What are we?

I have been doing some reading about how in the Byzantine empire every walk of life existed in peace until one day a man stood up and realized his family several hundred years came from Greece and started loose pride for Byzantine and gainned pride for greece though his family had been out of Greece for several hundred years(I know Greece was part of the Byzantine Empire). Others started doing the same and of course one nationality thought they were better then others and problems between people started to emerge later on contributing to the collapse. After the collapse greece and other nations were restored. The United States has people from all over just like the Byzantine Empire did with more pride for their ancestors former country then their own. Currently it seems there is a sterotype for each Nationality.

Just thinking! Me, both my parents and all my grandparents were born in the United States and have american citizenships. All of my great grandparents on my fathers side came from Greece and my great grandparents on my mother side came from Germany, Ireland and Scotland(came meaning they got on that boat, traveled across the atlantic checked in at ellis island and started a new life in new york). Regarless of my nationality I am 100% human like you and that should be all that matters.

I have a sister who brags about being greek to family and friends though we have never been to Greece and we are the fourth genetation americans. First question. When do we stop bragging about being greek. Maybe tenth generation? or by the time you become less then 15% greek (thinking about future generations). The factor of the matter is all these meaningless braggings just makes her look like an arrogant fool.

Now in order to be greek by great grandparents would have once had to live in Greece. Odds are that if we went back a couple of generations my greek ancestors would have most likely came from another country whether it was in their lifttime, 4 generation before them, or 4 centuries before them. Lets get say my great grandparents, great grandparents came to greece from Italy does this mean my great grandparents use to brag about being italian? If this ends up being true does this mean I should start telling people im italian? If i decide to move to Canada and have children, will my Children brag about being American, Canadien, Greek, or all three? What do you think?

The point im trying to make is why do people who are several generations in brag so much about their "ancestors" nationality when 90% of them will never go to their "ancestors"home country or bother to learn the language? Alot of them don't even know the history of the nation or current affiars of the nation they are bragging about. What if the history was all about tyranny is that something to be bragging about? Being human is all that should really matter.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Stealing Your Nickle through Water Bottles!

This is a followup to an older post. New York's new water bottle tax is bull shit! When I read about the new water bottle tax, they stated it was more of an incentive to get people to start recycling. They would charge anyone who bought a water bottle an extra five sense and inorder to recieve your five cents back you have to bring it to Stop and Shop or another food store for recycling. I was underthe impression with others that this ment pay an extra five cents at the register and get your five cents back when you recycle it plus you would get the original five cents your are suppose to get back when you recycle. In other words Stop and Shop is suppose to give me two nickles one for tax and one for the bottle. This is bullshit! I ended up paying an extra five cents at the register and five cents back from recycling. Where is my other nickle?

Why Does This Piss Me Off? I'm a hard working american just like all of you and I don't think its right to have a new tax which is suppose to save the environment by stealing our hard earned nickles, Or any other tax that nickle and dimes us over petty stuff. What happens when we have nothing left? The Economy is bad enough as it is so how will stealing our money going to allow us more to spend? (Spending means buying products creating start ups) Do we even know where our money is going? I don't but I do know alot of our money is being spent in this war that no american wants(people voted for Obama who promised to bring the troops home, what happened?) . Our Nobel peace prize wining president just sent a nother 30,000 troops over seas. Maybe this is where our money is going. Or maybe our warmongle president is going to be using it to create bunch of new temp jobs like rebuilding tunnels and bridges as he announced earlier this week. Creating temp jobs is just going to create another recession once the money is spent and the roads and tunnels are rebuilt it doesnt take a genuis to realize this one.

If these scumbag Senators or congressmen get to vote for rising taxes, creating regulations and supporting stimulus plans which is all bad for the economy, then why cant the american people vote to reduce their salaries, kick them out office for breaking promises, lower taxes or remove regulations.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

4th Place

Regarding the the trading contest, I was in second place until wednesday, I wasnted to sell but the software i use to participate in the contest was telling me my password expired and would not allow me to make my trade. I finished in fourth. The other contest I won I finally receive my money. I received my 5 ozs of silver. Also thanks to the dollars rally and me not having time to adjust my stop i got stopped out making me a 21 dollar profit.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Applying Economics to American History



Presented by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. at the "Economics for High School Students" seminar. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama; 20 November 2009. Sponsored by Jeremy S. Davis.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Mondays Trading November 30th

Today I purchased 150 shares of SLV at 17.97. Last night I shorted the S&P in the trading contest and I purchased 5 ozs of silver. SLV is up to 18.14, The S&P is down since I entered although I still am not using the software accuratly but hope to win money like I did two weeks ago. Im still waiting for that money too. I am also looking forward to my silver coming in the mail. Its an exciting week with alot to look forward to and alot of money to make.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Dollar Bubble



The Dollar Bubble starring Peter Schiff, Ron Paul, Marc Faber, Gerald Celente, Jim Rogers, and others. Prepare now for the U.S. dollar collapse.

Obama Promises To End The War



"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank. " - Barack Obama Campaign Promise - October 27, 2007

New York Water Bottle Tax

It was announced recently in New York their would be a new water bottle tax. The way it works is when you are purchasing a water bottle such as poland spring, at the point of sale, you will be charged an additional five cents. This new tax is suppose make buyers bring their empty water bottles to the store and redeem them for their nickle back. The water bottles will be reused and hopefully people will pollute less, protecting the environment. There's talk about adding this tax to all juice, soda, and beer bottles.

I know a nickle does not sound like much but I drink at least one water bottle a day. This ends up being $18.25 a year that I would rather spend elsewhere (assuming I can't lug my water bottles back to stop and shop). Stuff like this makes me feel like the governments job is to steal our hard earned money through inflation and tax and limit our rights through new laws. I'm for saving the environment but every time the government wants to do something it comes from new taxes or raising taxes. The better way to achieve this would be to raise the deposit fee. Screw the tax and give each recycler an additional nickle or dime. The additional nickle or dime will be spent helping the economy and will make people happier. Not everyone will have the chance to bring back every water bottle.

A wise man once said "you are guaranteed only two things in life, death and taxes."

Now you pay an addition 5 cents, then you have to bring your water bottles back and get your nickle back. If your like me, we have a yellow garbage can in front of our homes that is filled with recyclable items. Now we have to sort through our recyclable items and bring the water bottles back to stop and shop or other stores to get our nickle back. Extra work for us.

Correct me here if Im wrong but right now its my understanding that you are charged an extra nickle then when the bottle is returned you get your nickle back. We use to not get charged the nickle and get a nickle back for returning the water bottles. Water bottles were also cheaper at one point meaning that nickle brought you that much closer to a another water bottle. in fact at one point during the 1960's soda bottles were 7 cents and when you would return them you would get one cent back. every 7 you get one free. Now our only incentive to recycle is to cover the cost of the additional tax. It makes you feel like something is wrong.

Another thing I don't like about this new tax is most taxes go up over time. There is a good chance of this tax increasing over time. Every time you feel like your getting ahead there is new taxes or tax increase. Taxation destroys wealth hurts the economy, hurts the tax payer, and funds a bunch of useless government projects. Maybe the people should march to Washington and demand money and less taxes like the way aig, gm and a bunch of other companies did. We survived as nation with few laws and few or no taxes or decades, why not try this way of life. If we lasted this long with out this new tax why do we need it now. Just have Obama address the nation with the importance of recycling and maybe an incentive or higher incentive and I'm sure there will be an increase in recycled products. Obama haters will like the fact that hes doing something for the environment that wont hurt the tax payer.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Nationwide End The Fed Rally

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4883531/NY/New-York/Nationwide-End-The-Fed-Rally/Federal-Reserve-Bank-Of-New-York/

Sunday November 22, 2009 from 12:00pm - 3:00pm
Federal Reserve Bank Of New York

33 Liberty Street
New York, New York 10004 Get Directions
With the threat of a watered down version of HR 1207 & S604 looming, it is time to turn up the AUDIT THE FED pressure cooker! This END THE FED rally marks the one year anniversary of the End The Fed! Movement and it is vital that we continue raising awareness of the cause. With the experience of two prior rally's in NYC under our belt, we have learned a few things to make this protest a bit more productive.

We are taking our efforts to the streets in a more organic, grassroots way. No yelling at empty buildings (well, maybe a little) and no speakers preaching to the choir. Our mission is to educate. Our job is to take our passion and knowledge to the people of NYC in order to garner greater support for HR1207 & S604. Our focus is to drive as many people as possible to breathe down the necks of NY's Representatives and Senators so they can do the right thing "By the People." Our method is to speak with and to put as much literature regarding the Fed in the hands of the public en masse in order to create a new wave of citizens impassioned by the true underlying problem at hand. With your help, the congressfolks who have yet to co-sponsor either bill will be forced to feel the economic pain of the people as they make their voices heard to keep the Federal Reserve Transparency Act and the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act in tact, as written.

We will not settle for anything less and there is no compromise. A full, independent audit of the Federal Reserve is absolutely necessary and crucial for American citizen's to understand why their pockets have been looted; why their savings has been diminished as the dollars' value drops; why the incessant boom and bust cycles exist; why we can "afford' endless immoral wars; why the middle class is disappearing; why the same banks who have gotten rich by robbing us blind in the first place then, again, benefit in the form of bailouts at the taxpayers' expense; why the "lender of last resort" is accountable to NO ONE; And, the beat goes on......

This rally will be short, sweet and powerful. We have modified many AUDIT THE FED document files to include the NYCCFL MeetUp address and posted them here in the files section. The links to these files are provided below. Pick and choose which file(s) suits your fancy and print out as many as you can. No one should come empty handed.

Timeline:

12 noon - Meet at the Fed Bank of NY. Here we will spend an hour getting our selves pumped up while we hand out flyers to the passersby.
1pm - March to Union Square. Pass out as much AUDIT THE FED literature as possible along the way.
2pm - Engulf Union Square for an hour or so to pass out literature until your hands have been emptied.
3pm-ish - Part ways to your favorite means to watch football.

There it is. Three short, productive hours. Again, no one should come empty handed. Keeping the AUDIT THE FED bills in tact may be fruitless lest we continue raising awareness and then providing the newly awakened citizen's the necessary tools to accomplish the timely, pertinent goals put forth in HR 1207 & S604.

Your Patriots @ Arms,

PLEASE NOTE: Lots of literature can be downloaded from the NYC CFL meetup group [url=http://www.meetup.com/campaignforlibertynyc/]here[/url]

Website: http://www.meetup.com/campaignforlibertynyc

No Trading

Sorry its been crazy and I haven't had much time for anything. Although this week I did manage to come in third place in a trading contest (yay) which wins me a few bucks for making 1688 points off the S&P. I attempted to sell on wedesday night but unfortunetly I am still new to the trading software and the sell failed. Maybe next week I'll figure out how to use the software. Aside from that I have not completed any trades this week but hope to in two weeks. the market should be closed for thanksgiving and black friday. Anything can happen those days causing the market to be gapped up or down. You can go in but iI wont. After the holidays i hope to make some successful trades.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Im out baby

Wow what happened? The dollar today weakened, causing commodities to increase in price. Silver made a new high today at 18.13 but closing the day at 18.02. There was a huge .40 point gap today, what happened there? I don't know but it took out my stop. I know Ben Bernanke mad an announcement, Ben ernanke is still not interested in raising interest rates, this might be the very reason for the decline of the dollar today. Obama is also in china trying to get the chinese to invest more money with us. It must be nice to show the chinese a chart of the dollars rapid decline.

We'll See what happens tomorrow

Saturday, November 14, 2009

SLV update

This is what my chart looks like, although I have my money invested in ZSL which is 2 times silver short. This is silver long. We had an interesting week, we kept on getting gapped up. The volume remains low. Anyway we if look at the chart, since we made our investment, it popped up to 17.41, made a double flat top, came down a little and make a lower high at 17.16. It may be slow, and we didnt get our money but the stars are aligning. Im going to hold my position.

Ps I had a good feeling earlier in the week and readjust my stop to 4.45. I didnt want all that gapping to stop me out.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Investing in Silver

If you guys haven't figured it out yet, I really like silver. Years ago when I was four years of age my grandmother gave me my first real peice of silver back in the 1980's. It was a JFK half dollar from 1964. At the time it was coolest thing being I have ever seen a a half dollar prior. I liked the way it was bigger and heaver then quaters and Susan B Anthony coins. When i got my second JFK half dollar I realized the one from 1964 was heavier then the one from 1976. This started my hobby as a coin collecter.

Silver is awesome because its a good conductor or electricity, its used in computers, a ton of other items and you have to go digging in mines for it. Its a small peice of matter that has been through so much and can do so much. Silver was also been used for centuries with gold as a form of currency and in which our constituion states in article 1 section 10 basically conrgess has the right to coin silver and gold and distribute them as a currency. Years ago in 1971 Nixon took away our right to bring our hard earned dollars or silver certificates to the banks to be redeemed silver. One ounce of silver for ever silver certificate. today its about 17 dollars an ounce. Now we use Fed notes which is backed by nothing. But dont worry when the Fed notes fail completly we will go back to silver and gold, a currency that has been a world currency for thousands of years. Ironically the amero which is supose to replace the the dollar is made out of 999 silver.

Gold I would invest in but being that I am broke, silver is the best way to go for me. Ways to invest in silver would be to collect silver dollars, half dollars, dimes and quarters from before 1964. Buy Silver bars or bullion. Im collecting coins and investing my money in slv which is the silver etf, agq which is silver 2x long and zsl which is silver 2x short. If you think silver is going to go up invest in slv or agq if you think silver to going to go down invest in zsl or short the others. Personally I have been swing trading making money on both the way up and down. When silver declines which is predicted to be next week, thats why i invested in zsl it will be time to purchase more coins. Most coin dealers change their prices according to slv. If slv is low im buying silver!


This is what my char lookes like. The way slv leveled off, the highlighed section where it jumped up a point in a day, the fact it stopped making new highs and was gapped up to that high, makes me feel like the up trend is over for now and it will plummit at least a point, to test that 15.8 line out. Ill keep you guys posted through the week.

Below is a silver certificate, Compare it to the dollar. I like where it says "PAYABLE TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND"

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Trading Silver


Silver made a lower high this week and is struggling in its current position. The dollar also seems to have a lot of volume while silver wedges out. This might be a good turnaround time and a good time to short silver. ZSL is a ticker which is two times silver short. I made a limit order so if ZSL drops 6 cents then it will trigger my trade of 300 shares. This will definetly be a good bear trade. A friend suggests it should take a week to make 300 bucks which will be one point. Ill be happy with 100 bucks. Either way we will see what happens.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Shorting the S&P

I called up and entered a trading contest today, the rules are you get 5 contracts and with the 5 contracts you can do what ever you want to the S&P. The three traders with the most earnings will win cash while the others don't. Why not I have nothing to loose. The last contest I came in 5th place out of 17, not bad for my first trading contest.

This week, I was really unsure of what to do after looking at the charts so I shorted the S&P. I strongly believe the S&P will make a turn for the worse in the near future, im just unsure of how soon it will turn. I feel like it can happen any day or it might have one last thrust upwards kissing 1100 again then failing to make new highs and eventually going down hill. I predict this last thrust will be in will take about a month to achieve

Problems With College Tuition

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

DYY Dies

Last night I put a stop on DYY at 7.80, today DYY sold at 7.80. I know the but hey id rather walk away with a small profit then no profit. SVM is down but since there is not stop there it will continue to grow as the dollar weakens.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Commodities!

To quote Wikipedia a Commodities are "good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market." Commodities are goods such as copper, paper, milk,corn, oil etc. I like Commodities because they are easy to predict and are greatly effected by the dollar. As we all know the dollar gets weaker just about every week causing Commodities to become more valuable. This is why im spending my time investing in Commodities right now. My favorite is silver. I have been making trades with silver etfs and been purchasing silver coins. If the dollar completely craps out the prices of silver and gold will be tremondous and happily traded in other countries.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

When Will The Dow Jones Crash?

Earlier this week beginning Wednesday October 14th, the Dow Jones Industrial started testing new highs just over 10,000 and closing just over 10,000. The following day Thursday October 15th, we started the day under 10,000 but thrusted up over 10,000 by the end of the day. Friday there was a few highs barely over 10,000 and finally we ended the day at 9995.91. The Dow Jones right now is at a place where anything can happen. It can either gain strengh and shoot up to 11,000 over the next couple of weeks or the weakening Dow Jones might turn around and start heading down for a while. How low will the Dow Jones go? I have no clue, but if you are familar with elliot wave theories or fibonacci retracements the Dow Jones is likely to crash hard into the ground. Since bulls owned the Dow Jones since the 1970's it is possible that the Dow Jones might drop down to the support we saw in the 1970's which would be around 1,000. That can be completely devastating!



What is also interesting, if we were to compare the dow to the price of gold, back in 1999 when the Dow Jones first started testing new highs around 10,000, the Dow was worth about 40 oz of gold. This week the second time the dow is testing highs at 10,000 the dow is only worth about 9 oz of gold. In order to have the same economy with the same dow to gold ratio the dow today would have to be at approx 42116.

Personally I believe the Dow Jones will have a severe crash in the near future. My hope is that if it does we can go back to trading in silver and gold.

Why Government Bailouts Destroy Wealth

A friend and I had this discussion recently with GM as the example. I thought this might be a good topic for my blog!

GM (General Motors or Government Motors) must have been doing great at one point. They had benifits, high salaries, and a ton of workers who created a huge supply of cars to fill a huge demand of cars. Out of no where the demand fell, people either had less money to spend or decided to that a competor had a better product. GM stayed positive still creating a vast amount of cars while the demand decreasing. Spending all this money building cars with no one buying just means GM is destroying wealth. The supply was too great, so cutting costs and profit margins was not effective enough to create a decent profit. The owner has several choices. Reinvent the cars with a feature noone else has, start creating a new products, downsize, or sell.

If GM decided to down size then they would lay off a ton of workers, cut salaries and create a smaller supply to fill a smaller demand. Over time after the market corrects itself and the demand will increase so will employment, salaries and profits. If GM decided sell, some one will come along buy up GM reinvent it and try to increase profits by fixing the flaws.

If the Governement bails them out or takes over, it would destroy wealth. If GM is failing giving GM a billion will only prolong its demise. If their is no demand the business will fail. If you give a company a billion dollars to create a supply where there is no demand all you are doing is destroying wealth, wasting efforts, wasting money, and wasting time creating products that wont sell. If the government bails out any company they are either printing up money out of thin air causing the exisiting money to loose its value or taxing people and using those taxes to restore that company. Either method used will hurt the people or the buyers. If more of our money is taken away from us, obviously we have less money. If we have less money we are less likely to buy causing demand to shrink.

Now since GM has been renamed Governement Motors, you dont realize it but whether or not they sell cars they are getting your money. If you buy from GM your moneys going to the governement, if dont buy from GM your tax dollar will go into GM keeping them alive. Let nature take its course! GM is becoming a burden to society by destroying wealth.

As for layed of workers they can find employment elsewhere contributing to other industries or start new companies eventually employing others.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Risky Trade, My Bad

Obviously the greater the risk the greater the reward. I purchased 100 shares of DYY which is 2 times levered and 200 shares SVM. I purchased these shares thinking they are on their way to making new heights being both are about even with older highs. The next line of resistance can make me a mean profit. Lets see what happens.

Securing Your Profits

People who ride their stocks up and down like roller coaster are merely just going from red to green over and over and in the long run it gets risky. In this economy you never know what companies may tank. Remember Fanny and Freddie? That was a disaster. As long as we are following the theories of keynesian economics, really anything can happen at anytime.

Unfortunately my investment with SLV ended today. But not to worry when SLV gets out of this valley and prices start climbing again I will be willing to buy again. But for now an extra $320.02 in my pocket will be welcomed. So here is how I secured my profit. I purchased SLV for 15.88 on September 25th. This week SLV was having a difficult time closing over 17.50 so I had reason to believe that SLV was going to turn around soon. And it did.

Last night I moved my stop up from 17 to 17.20. I Enjoy my job but the problem with it is I cant monitor my investments through out the course of the day and I love trading! So my thinking last night was to secure more of what I had. The way is it allows you sell a stock at a price you are comfortable with. For example a stop at 17.20 means if the stock drops below 17.20 as seen today just before 1( I would say lunch time but I go for lunch at 2), my stock will automatically sell at 17.20 giving me my profits today.

Another way to secure profits is with a trailing stop. In a trailing stop, the stop will follow the price of the stock and sell when that stock reaches that stop price. At one point I had purchased CTCM for 5.53, ( this is going back, this is one of the few times I used a trailing stop. ) when CTCM reached 12.50 I put a .50 trailing stop on it. In other words if CTCM is being traded for 12.50 my .50 trailing stop was at 12. when CTCM reached 13, my trailing stop moved up to 12.5. When the stock price moved up to 14 my trailing stop moved up to 13.50. Then when CTCM's stock priced dropped down to 12 dollars, CTCM automatically sold for 13.50 where as if I just left a regular stop at 12 I would have lost that extra 1.50 points of profit. Since I go big 1.5 can equal a lot of money. Why use stops to secure your profits? because if the stock crashes you will get out ahead with profit opposed to loosing everything.

The moral of the story is use stops to secure your profits and get out while your ahead.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

My Trading Mentallity

I'm still some what new to trading so please bear with me. This would be considered my trading mentallity. I spoke with a friend recently and she told me she had bought stock back in 2006. In 2007 and 2008 her retail stock did very well that is until the stock market crashed, and her stock still has never recoverd. It took just a few short weeks to go into negative numbers(I dont have exact numbers but I believe she trippled her money or so she says and lost it). She told me to stay away from the stock market. I started studing candle stick charting made a few successful trades, and wanted to show my thinking verses my friends. Alot of people I speak with have this mentality to be a bull where they are only interested in long term investment spanding over years. Me I want to get in, get out, go big and go home.

Below illustrates my investment with SLV which is an ETF which represents silver. on September 25th I bought 200 shares of SLV for 15.88. Two weeks after SLV started making highs over 17 to be exact the highest we have seen was 17.52 then following day 17.42, and today 17.48. I beleive the SLV might reverse soon so I put a stop at 17.00, so if the SLV goes down to 17 it will automaticlly sell securing 1.12 points worth of profit. If SLV starts making new highs again I will eventually raise my stop. It doesnt matter what happens I will be making a minnimum of 224. So basiclly my mentallity is get in secure your profits and sit back until the market kicks you out. The bigger the risk the bigger the reward!



Click The Image Below to See the Full Chart!SLV


Sunday, October 11, 2009

Bad Practices by Ben Bernanke



After the last post I just wrote Bad Economist vs Good Economist I want to take a look at this video of Ben Bernanke. Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the federal reserve is being questioned about lending out half a trillion dollar to forgiegn institutes. Whats bad about this unapproved loan is the money was just printed out of thin air and and sent over seas without approval from congress to increase short term interest rates meanwhile devalueing the dollar and causing inflation and prices in the united states to increase. Now giving out a loan is a big risk, you are taking a risk that these failing instiutes will no longer fail and be able to pay you back with interest over time. What if this is a temporoary cure and the instutites still fail and need to deafult on those loan? Another question, if your broke, why would you lend out half a trillion dollar to another person that is broke? If your lending out a dollar to a person or half a trillion dollars to a person, wouldn't you at least remeber who you lent the money too.


*Bonus - More Bad Practices by Ben Bernanke

Bad Economist vs Good Economist!

I started reading Henry Hazlitts book this weekend, "Economics In One Lesson" and want to share what I got out of the first two chapters, Bad Economist vs Good Economist. So a bad economist will only see or project the immediate economic effects from an event while a good economist will see and project the immediate and long term econimic effects of an event.

Heres Henry Hazlitt's example:
A kid takes a brick and smashes a bakers window, runs away and gets away. A Bad economist would pretty much say sucks for you now you need to spend $250 to have that window replaced. A good economist would pretty much say that sucks but hey the $250 you were saving will now be spent on the repair. The $250 will be put back into the economy, paying the salaries of the person who created and cut the glass, and the salaries of the poeple who came in and replaced the window. Yeah you loose some of your savings, but your $250 had a great effect on a ton people you don't know, securing their jobs for one more day keeping the economic cycle going.

My example:
A stimulus plan was used to give the people $600 to encourage spending. Other similar situations would consist of bank bailouts, corportate stimulus, etc. I would say the the bad economist might think this great, we'll print a lot of money and just give the money to the entire working class or to banks or other failing companies. Giving the people more money to spend and keeping banks and other companies in business is good for the economy. (If this is the case why not just give everyone 1 trillion dollars when they are born so they will never have to worry about money ever again, allowing us to living in a free utopian society) anyway I feel the good economist might feel stimulus is horrible for the economy! If you are just merely printing up money out of thin air then the money already out there will loose its value becoming worth even less and causing inflation to rise. Your giving people $600 but in return the value of the dollar will decrease causing the prices of commodities to increase. Your giving people $600 dollars but through taxes and elavated food, metal, etc prices will increase and the people will be suffering later on down the road. As for banks and business (A) maybe it was there time to go due to people not liking their interest rates, products, and services, (B) maybe people would love to contribute to the wellbeing of those business but people just don't have the money. Instead of devalueing the dollar lets raise bank interest rates, encourage investing, and cut taxes. Doing so will honestly give the people more money to circulate, and hopefully kick start the economy over time.

What are your Thoughts?

Friday, October 9, 2009

Wheels In The Sky Keep On Turning!

I know, "Wheels In The Sky Keep On Turning" sounds like a Journey song, and it isbut what are you going to do. I like Journey and a ton of other shit you will soon see on this blog. Enjoy!