Survivalist Instincts Kicking In

I've found myself doing things to live more simply and more frugally over the past 7-8 months. Business has been down about 60% for me this year, which isn't devastating, thanks to Ame's salary, and thank goodness. Toss that together with an economy that had been slumping badly in my opinion for a couple of years (start with the rash of foreclosures a couple years ago), and it made sense to me to begin to look after some measures that would keep my family secure should it get worse.

Of course, it has gotten worse, but I'm not feeling pinched yet. There were some steps we took:

Pay off debts.

Last year, we knocked out a ton of debt, from old college loans, to all credit card debt, to paying off a car loan early. It wasn't sexy, but it's been fantastic not having those payments hanging over us. We don't use the credit card for anything but convenience or travel, and we haven't carried a balance since. 

Live more simply.

I've actually enjoyed much of this. I went to great lengths to plant a functional garden, raising it up off the surface, within cedar walls. It drains well and has excellent topsoil. It even has a section of sandy soil for the cucumbers. The yields were great, and best of all, the food is delicious. It has been a real pleasure to eat organic carrots and tomatoes. They just burst with flavors lost in the process of shipping food great distances to our tables. 

It wasn't big money saved in the garden up front, but just the process of making more soups and stews with lots of leftovers has meant more meals at home, which is a terrific savings. Plus, Isabel loves cooking with us, which is great fun.

I've looked for places to save money at every turn. Even business travel has been improved by crashing at friends' homes, with the obvious added bonus that I get to enjoy their company. When I do stay at motels, I stay within chains where I get points towards free stays. The Choice Hotels chain is great- reasonable rooms, plenty of promotions for points, easy redemption of free stays. 

Get out of the market.

With the inflation that has been going on, and with the foreclosures, I began sensing that having hard assets was going to be essential. Slowly, I moved the investments to gold. Wow, am I glad I did! I know this is regarded as kook stuff by so many in good times, but it's not so kooky now, is it? I urge my friends to do this now. Get out of the market. It isn't done sinking, because our government isn't done engaging in the problematic behavior that caused the problems in the first place. This bailout is going to mean a lot more inflation. Even if the price of gold doesn't go up any more (it will), the worst you will do is preserve your purchasing power as paper money buys less and less.

Still more to do.

I have been accumulating canned foods for emergency use, but I still don't have a full supply for a minimum three-month period, as I would like. Our house has storage issues, so this is a problem. I need to remove old junk to make the space. I would really love to get a freezer and perhaps even an extra fridge. I used to have the bonus fridge, and it was great, buying things that would keep in the fridge at low prices and storing them.

If we didn't have Ame's relatively recession-proof job (she delivers babies at Methodist Hospital), and we hadn't taken the steps to eliminate debt, I would probably be pretty worried right about now, with my own enterprise suffering. It's amazing to find out that you can still live pretty well even in trying circumstances, so long as the preparation is there. 

If you haven't altered the way you live towards preserving your family's security, I urge you to do it right away. Not like a Chicken Little thing here, but the news is getting worse, and I do expect some shortages in the near future. It will be temporary, no doubt. Hell- the Great Depression was temporary, if you catch my drift.

Governments And Prices

I've been blogging for five years about the relationship between taxes and the relative attractiveness of cities. Also, about how government officials don't get said relationship. I had the issues put clearly before me once again, but in a discussion about water policy, in a post title "BassAckWards":

Although I welcome this bit of news (higher prices!), both JN and I noticed the perverse order of things:

1. People use less water.

2. Prices rise.

As I have mentioned before, this order of events is terribly annoying to people. The reason it occurs so often in water is because most water utilities are run on a break-even basis, i.e.: if they sell less water, they have to raise prices to generate the same revenue.

Mainly, government officials never seem to understand the relationship between price and revenue. If the price goes up, consumption goes down. That's great for water consumption and for consumption of other natural resources, if conservation is your goal. It's disastrous in this example, because the city is trying to generate more revenue in response to lower usage. Their result is going to be even lower usage, hence, even lower revenues. (Still good for conservation, though.) If they wanted greater usage, they should lower the price. Well, government officials aren't to be confused with the sort of people who have a clue about economics.

Which brings me back to taxes. Cities that drive away businesses and people of means with their higher taxes tend to look at their falling tax revenues and conclude that to make up the shortfalls, they need to raise taxes. 

Well, duh! That's what drives people away! The revenues aren't going to rise. The population is going to fall. Just look at Cleveland, Detroit, and a host of other cities that have chased their tails, and their wealth away, by failing to understand the relationship between price and use.

As the man so named his post, most government officials are BassAckWards.

h/t Aguanomics

Short-Term Disaster

The Bush-McCain-Obama bailout isn't working in the here and now. The Dow is having its' worst week ever. That's a pity, because short-term success is the only success this train wreck could have achieved.  From CNN's early report:

Stock futures pointed to a dismal open Friday as markets around the world got hammered and General Electric reported quarterly results that were in line with Wall Street estimates.

and

US markets took a beating Thursday, with the Dow industrials plunging nearly 700 points to a five-year low, as panicked investors dumped stocks.

The unholy trinity of Bush, McCain, and Obama make Larry, Curly, and Moe look like Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, and Adam Smith. Heavy reliance on government solutions isn't breeding confidence in Americans. It seems the people have begun to get wise. Allowing the investment giants to fail would have actually generated greater confidence.

Better be out of the stock market and into gold. Libertarians have taken a lot of ridicule over the years for our economic outlooks, but everything that is happening now was predicted- by libertarian and free market economic analysts and policy wonks. Government isn't working. Maybe it's time to give up on what doesn't work, and to embrace the policy recommended by those who predicted this mess. 

Where Will We Defend Freedom?

(Fishers, IN)- If either John McCain or Barack Obama came out tomorrow and said that he had a plan that would eliminate about half of the newspapers in this country, and furthermore tell you which ones you could read, would you get behind that plan, or would you fight it? Would you say that there was a free market for newspapers in such a scenario? Or freedom of the press?

The Cato Institute's Michael Cannon so describes the Obama health care plan:

"He would let the Federal government dictate the content and the price of every private insurance plan in the United States."

and

"Imagine Barack Obama as President propose that he was going to have the government dictate the content of every news program in the United States, and eliminate half of the existing programs and newspapers that are out there. Would
you call that a government-dominated system? You certainly wouldn't call it a free press. And that's largely what Barack Obama wants to do with health care."

So says Tanner in the October 7, 2008 Cato Daily Podcast.

There is no doubt in my mind that there is both wilfull ignorance and deceptive talk among the backers of 'health care for all'. They tend to bristle at the word 'socialism', or the phrase 'socialized health care'. Well, what else would it be, then?

Oh! I know! Another drain on our ailing economy.

Gas Prices & Chicago Taxes

(Valparaiso, IN)- It's been interesting to note gas prices over the past two weeks, as they've been dropping. One thing that remains is that there is a huge difference between what you pay in Chicago and anywhere else. Here's what I've observed, and what I've paid for regular unleaded in the past two weeks:

9/18, Chicago: $4.60/gallon

9/21, Fishers, IN: $3.69/gal

9/22, Rock Island, IL: $3.74/gal

9/23, Prairie du Chien, WI: $3.56/gal

9/24, Viborg, SD: $3.29/gal

9/25, Western Nebraska: $3.14/gal

9/26, St. Louis, MO: $3.39/gal

9/27, Fishers, IN: $3.53/gal

10/1, Fishers, IN: $3.39/gal

10/4, Fishers, IN: $3.24/gal

10/5, Lebanon, IN: $3.18/gal

10/6, Joliet, IL: $3.79/gal

10/7, Blue Island, IL: $3.78/gal

10/7, Valparaiso, IN: $3.39/gal

Chicago and the adjacent small towns & cities are consistently 60 cents a gallon higher. I make it a point NEVER to buy gas in the Chicago area. Fill up by Merrillville at the latest when going up I-65, as a rule.

Cost of living is certainly one difference to explain it. I imagine taxes are another. What I can't explain is why Chicagoans are good with it.

Update: Three more prices to report from last night:

10/8, Joliet, IL: $3.79

10/8, Gary, IN: $3.36

10/8, Lebanon, IN: $3.07

Really- Why do Chicagoland residents accept being gouged so? It isn't merely on gas prices, but on all prices. I bought in Gary on the drive back. I ran the tank down pretty low to get the heck out of Illinois. At 43 cents/gal difference, on a 12-gallon fill-up, I saved $5.16. Imagine how many times per day this decision is made, and how the Illinois economy suffers, and the Indiana economy benefits accordingly.

Wide Market For Politcal Satire

One market that isn't collapsing is the one for political satire. SNL, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report are great, but you're missing out if you don't check out The Onion from time to time.


Obama Promises To Stop America's Shitty Jobs From Going Overseas

Bailout = Security, Huh?

So much for the transfer of wealth from earners to bad decision-makers ending up as some kind of immediate safeguard. It was supposed to make investors and markets here and around the world secure and stable, right? From an early AP report today:

Wall Street tumbled Monday, joining a selloff around the world, as fears grew
that the financial crisis will cascade through economies globally despite
bailout efforts by the U.S. and other governments. The credit market remained
under strain, and investors piled into government bonds. The Dow Jones
industrials skidded more than 200 points.

and

Over the weekend, governments across Europe rushed to prop up failing banks. The German government and financial industry agreed on a $68 billion bailout for commercial-property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, while France's BNP Paribas agreed to acquire a 75 percent stake in Fortis's Belgium bank after a government rescue failed.

Would have been better just to let the bad actors fail. If you believe in the common good, you cannot accept that it was best to give bad actors a gigantic infusion of cash at the short-term and long-term expense of everybody. We are getting hit with tomorrow's taxes because of the bailout. We are getting hit with a weakened dollar because we will borrow to 'afford' the bailout. And our markets are not stabilizing. They are crashing. Way to go, geniuses.

Punish those who voted for the bailout. Vote against McBama. Vote against Andre Carson.

Stick With What You Know

Sometimes sportswriters try to get cute and prove they have some depth, so they trot out a story that reaches into politics or everyday life. Bob Ley and "Outside The Lines" are notable exceptions, in that they can pull it off. They have the depth, because they are in touch with people.

Bob Kravits showed that he is out of touch, and out of his depth, when he posed this question in Sunday's Indy Star column:

When Michael Vick was led toward a federal courthouse, weighted down by handcuffs, leg shackles and several charges involving the depraved sport of dogfighting, protesters and unaffiliated citizens stood on the sidewalk and hurled invective at the doomed NFL quarterback.

When Helio Castroneves was led toward a federal courthouse Friday in Miami, also weighted down by handcuffs, leg shackles and felony charges of tax evasion, curious onlookers and IndyCar fans around the country prayed that the charges were false, and that Castroneves would eventually be found guilty of nothing more than ignorance.

So where's the righteous rage this time?

Real simple, Bob-O. America found what Vick did to dogs heinous and loathsome. America similarly finds paying taxes heinous and loathsome. I know that even if Castroneves is guilty of tax evasion, I'm rooting for him, because I believe it's his money. I have no soft spot for a guy like Vick who bred dogs to fight and electrocuted dogs that didn't do it well enough.

Kravits tried to make it racial. Load of Crapola. Must not have been paying attention the last five or so years to Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, or any of the other modern Know Nothings, who have demonized anyone with darker skin and a Hispanic sounding name.

Time To Talk About The Federal Reserve

It's rare that circumstances make it such that Americans take an interest in monetary policy and the Federal Reserve. Usually, such talk is the kind of thing that gets 'tinfoil hat' comments. However, we are living under such circumstances, and people are beginning to see that printing money without backing by assets is dangerous business, and is the business of our Treasury.

Here's a link to a debate about the Fed that is already underway. A shame place for comments wasn't made available. I am at your service.

I find it instructive to look back on the Federal Government's recent actions against NorFed and the Liberty Dollar. Mainly, it shows a deep commitment to valueless paper money and to inflationary policy.

Idiots

The House has now joined the Senate in passing the stupid bailout, and President Bush signed it. A few days ago, I cheered the House. Today, they are back to being regarded as assholes. Here's the House vote:

Democrats: 172 yeas, 63 nays
Republicans: 91 yeas, 108 nays

So good that the Democrats can see so clearly eye-to-eye with the President they regard as stupid. Looks like Andre Carson was one of the turncoats that changed his vote to stand with the President. Well, they're in league now. Can't wait for the days of 'change' coming ahead.

These are the days you vote Libertarian. These are the days we need 'None of the Above' on the ballot.

Bob Barr To Visit NW Indiana

Of all times for me to be working in the home office and not up north! Bob Barr will stop in Valparaiso tomorrow. From the Libertarian Party of Indiana:

"We're very excited," noted Law Libertarians of Valparaiso University president Jonathan Morris. "We've been working hard to bring Bob Barr to this area since his nomination in May. More people need to be exposed to his common sense approach to government. We're pleased that our efforts are assisting with getting that message out."

Barr's on-campus remarks to students, faculty and the public will be followed by a Meet and Greet with the candidate at Pesto's Italian Restaurant in Valparaiso.

WHAT: Barr Address at Valparaiso University
SPONSOR: Law School Libertarians at Valparaiso University
TIME: 6:30 p.m. (CT)

Go see Barr if you have the chance. He will sound vastly different than McBama. Presidential, even.

It Had To End

That was a nice run of good news there- two in a row! With trends in this country being what they've been, I knew it had to end. The Senate, predictably, tweaked the bailout to make it a little worse than it already was, thereby making it more palatable to our Senators, including McBama. The House gets to take its' vote tomorrow. From CNN:

The legislation, if passed by the House, would usher in one of the most far-reaching interventions in the economy since the Great Depression.

Advocates say the plan is crucial to government efforts to attack a credit crisis that threatens the economy and would free up banks to lend more. Opponents say it rewards bad decisions by Wall Street, puts taxpayers at risk and fails to address the real economic problems facing Americans.

CNN got my opposition right, that's for sure. So, under the Bush Administration, yet another bureaucracy stands to be born:

the Senate version would set up two oversight committees. A Financial Stability
Board would include the Federal Reserve chairman, the Securities and Exchange
Commission chairman, the Federal Home Finance Agency director, the Housing and
Urban Development secretary and the Treasury secretary.

Financial Stability Board? What next? An 'Equalization of Outcomes Bureau'? A 'Forgiveness of Stupidity Department'?

I don't know about you, but for me, this doesn't inspire confidence. It terrifies. Glad I got out of the market when I did, and got into gold, silver, and oil. Best decisions ever. CNN covers some reactions by random Americans, none of them speak of confidence. Best advice there: Live within your means, and plan now for your future.

A Parade Of Good News

I was angered to read about the case of Robert McNally, who upon finding a man in his daughter's bedroom, had confronted the attacker, who died as a result of the confrontation. I was putting myself, a man with a daughter, in his shoes and dreading some unsane, unjust set of charges being leveled against the hero- such is our world these days.

But no! Sanity prevails twice this week! The Marion County Prosecutor will not bring charges against McNally's successful defense of his daughter! From the Indy Star:

A Northwestside man who killed a would-be rapist in his home last weekend was justified in his actions, Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi announced today.

Robert McNally will not face criminal charges in the death of David Meyers, Brizzi said in a statement.

Two great outcomes in a mere three-day span? I can hardly stand it! What next? A cutting of the federal budget by half? Eliminating the property tax? Come on! Hit me while I'm weak!

Random Road Trip Photos



Here are some more.

Dubuque, IA, along the Mississippi. The locals try to cash in on the riverboat past, but only to a point. This one isn't going anywhere. There are dozens of 'riverboat' casinos, but only one plies the River, and then for only two hours a day. Mark Twain spins in his grave.

Prairie du Chien, WI. Now on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, you know you are in Wisconsin when the gas stations let you know they sell cheese AND food.

Not Worried About Short Term Effects

The most irritating comments I hear about the financial crisis are along the lines of 'having to do something', or 'needing to minimize the pain'. I'm seeing through that rhetoric for what it is, and calling it out as dangerous.

Needing to minimize whose pain? I have come to believe that for the President and lawmakers like Barney Frank, John McCain, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Dick Lugar, it's all about not having a deep recession happen on their immediate watch. That's exactly the problem. Forestalling what needs to happen only will beget a bigger problem- later.

These bad loans are nearly worthless assets. They have been overvalued for far too long. They should be valued as worthless or nearly worthless. Those who gave out these loans should be losing their asses. Those who took loans they couldn't pay back should be losing their homes. Politicians who encouraged the Federal Reserve to endlessly print money or borrow severly from China and Russia deserve to have a crash happen on their watch. This is actual economic and social justice. Prolonging the necessary means that it will be worse later. Want a depression? Promote a new bailout package.

The market is making correction- as it should. Propping up prices means artificially making things appear to be worth more than they are. That's what Bush, Frank, et al want us to do. This is why I am so pleased that so many members of the House voted against the bailout. It's senseless. It does not have to happen. It is sane that it does not.

Excellent News!

I cannot believe it. The Bush Bailout plan is dead in the water, thanks to the House of Representatives! From CNN:

The measure needs 218 votes for passage, but it came up 13 votes short of that target, as the final vote was 228 to 205 against. About 60% of Democrats voted for the measure, but less than a third of Republicans backed it.

President Bush is "very disappointed" by the House vote, his spokesman Tony Fratto said.

Good. President Bush deserves to be disappointed. In fact, he deserves to be desperately distraut, and flat out depressed. Well, he'll have the rest of his lifetime for that, upon reflection on his legacy.

Let's give credit and thanks to 40% of the House Democrats, and about 2/3 of the House Republicans for killing this. I liked Mike Pence's reasons. I don't care about the others' too much right now, although I probably will soon enough, when the next bailout is proposed.

Interesting to see a greater percentage of House Dems lining up with George W. Bush. I should like to see this allignment spun against their re-election efforts in the way their party leader Barrack Obama is assailing his opponent with the 'He voted with George Bush' lines in his ads. What's good for the goose, right?

Random Road Trip Pics

Here's the pride of Blue Earth, MN. Yes, it's the Jolly Green Giant- 55 feet of concrete. Kinda weird in that it isn't on the main highway or in the center of town. It was the pure dumb luck of the 'what the hell, go that way' road trip ethos.

Jolly!

Oh Shit! Steve 'cowers' under the Giant's shadow.

Pence Has It Right

(Fishers, IN)- Here's something positive to note, in the dim bleakness that is our political landscape, from an AP article:

Indiana Rep. Mike Pence said Sunday that he opposed the financial industry rescue plan that the House is expected to vote on today.

"We now have a deal that promises to bring near-term stability to our financial turmoil, but at what price?" the Columbus Republican wrote in a statement to his colleagues Sunday. "Economic freedom means the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail. The decision to give the federal government the ability to nationalize almost every bad mortgage in America interrupts this basic truth of our free-market economy."

It isn't just nationalization that is worrisome. It's that we can count on getting more of anything that is subsidized. We know that to be true by watching the subsidization of corn and ethanol. What are we subidizing with this bailout? Bad decision-making. If we prop it up, we tell lenders they don't have to be careful with extending credit. We tell borrowers they don't have to afford their mortgage payments. We tell all that someone else will deal with their messes. It's rotten policy.

So, freedom to fail is important. Bad decisions should fail. They shouldn't be rewarded.

Kudos and thanks to Mike Pence. Nice to see some rational thought eminating from our state every now and again.

Update: Doug Masson offers what he calls 'cynicism' in a comment, not believing that his stand is principled. I find this cynicism wholly reasonable, what with the general absense of principle in the Congress. Besides, news stories don't always pick up the whole thing, so I went to Pence's site for the whole statement. Here's what's pertinent for me:

Republicans improved this bill but it remains the largest corporate bailout in American history, forever changes the relationship between government and the financial sector, and passes the cost along to the American people. I cannot support it.

Before you vote, ask yourself why you came here and vote with courage and integrity to those principles.

If you came here because you believe in limited government and the freedom of the American marketplace, vote in accordance with those convictions.

Now I like Pence's statement even more. Sure, we'll never know what kind of horse trading takes place behind closed doors, but what the man put in black & white is exactly what I want to see and hear. Link to Pence's statement.

Democrats can oppose this bailout in accordance with their own stated principles as well. I'd really like to see it from one of Indiana's Congressional Democrats.

Old Rockin' Friends

(St. Louis, MO)- It was a great moment when Steve & I surprised our fellow ex-Clevelander friends Doug Enkler and Robert Griffin with our attendance, at a show in their hometown of St. Louis. Prisonshake played at a place called the Bluebird, in celebration of the release of their new double album, "Dirty Moons", that was some 15 years in the making. It was my guess that I hadn't seen either of them in at least that long.

Doug Enkler at center stage.

Robert Griffin playing the Les Paul. That was a new wrinkle. He played the same Stratocaster as he had in Cleveland all those years, but added the Les Paul for songs with a harder edge.

It was fascinating for me to hear Robert's guitar again. Although most of the songs were new to me, (They did play "Carthage Burns", and "It Seemed a Brilliant Idea") his intonation was distinctly his own. I really enjoyed hearing, and seeing, the guys once again.

Road Trip Denouement

(Omaha, NE)- As we wind down the trip and head towards home, we have an 'itinerary' light on stops, but big on miles. Stop 1: The Union Pacific RR Museum across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, IA. Stop 2: The Bluebird in St. Louis, to see Prisonshake- a band led by two ex-Clevelanders, Robert Griffin and Doug Enkler. Griffin runs Scat Records, an outfit Steve worked for, and I 'interned' (volunteered?) for, back in the early 90s.

Yesterday's stops included a small town barber shop/western store north of Omaha, in a town called Tekamah, NE. Steve had wanted to stop at some 'Floyd The Barber' kinda shop, and we found it. The northern two-thirds of the building had recently sustained heavy fire damage, and was closed off. As we walked in, we could see the western store as being the larger part of the store, with the barber just in the frontage. The western store folks all got real attentive, but then relaxed with disappointment when they saw that we were just there for ear-lowering.

Steve sat down for the #1 clipper, and engaged in the kind of small talk that got it known that we were just passing through on a road trip. Talk then got to agriculture. "Are they harvesting up north yet?" We talked about soybeans, corn, the absence of anything of any other crop, and the harvesting we had seen. Five minutes, and the buzz-cutting was done, and everybody had the farm report.

We had tried to drive parallel to the Missouri River as much as we could, in Iowa and Nebraska, but found that there was very little access. Dug the signs that said, 'No trespassing. You will be shot". Unlike the Mississippi, which has rails and byways running alongside it, the Missouri only has occasional runs of a mile or so beside it. These are 'Minimum Maintenance Roads', per the signs. In plain English, some have some gravel. Many are just topsoil roads, which are very soft. Steve wasn't happy about driving my Toyota in such conditions, and when he asked if it had front wheel or rear wheel drive, we knew it was time to switch.

We ended up in Omaha, which is the biggest city we've been in on the trip thus far. The suburban setting feels out of place, but with the end near, and more than 450 miles to St. Louis, the backroad action is likely done- at least for today.