Tag: economics (Page 2 of 3)

Kindle Price Dropping and A Bunch of Other Financial Stuff

April 12, 2011 / Scott / 0 Comments

Here’s another mind dump of thoughts on a few of the link worthy things I’ve read lately…enjoy!

Now you can buy a Kindle for $114! The gotcha here is that you have to be willing to look at ads and special offers. Still, I’m glad to see the price coming down one way or another. I still think the magic price for this device is $99. At least, that’s the price at which I’d bite.

5 Common Remote Work Misconceptions – Word!

Roth IRA: Time to retire Roth IRAs – Could not be more wrong. This guy needs to run the numbers, although I doubt he’d know where to start to do that. Roth IRAs and Traditional IRAs generate the exact same tax revenue if you make the assumption that the tax rate doesn’t change. But for the gov’ment, they get to have their candy now instead of waiting for you to retire. The upside for the account holder only comes if they end up in a higher tax bracket or tax rates rise across the board. Look where people have placed their bets.

Gov Shutdown’s Impact – Great argument by @newscoma for keeping $ in state instead of sending it to D.C. 🙂

IKEA desktop – <3 IKEA. This is pretty cool.

Portugal, Illinois and Caterpillar – “The Portugese have decided to protest against mathematics….” That’s pretty much all you need to know. Of course, as Dave Ramsey likes to point out, if they’d been doing math they wouldn’t be in this mess.

I’m reading– February 22nd through February 25th

February 25, 2011 / Scott / 0 Comments

Some WordPress 3.1 Themes That Take Advantage of Post Formats – Lots of good ideas here.

Make Tumblr Out Of WordPress 3.1 – If you recently upgraded to 3.1 and want to take advantage of the post formats, here's a great tutorial.

Moms Know What Ben Bernanke Doesn’t: Inflation Is Here – Not only is it here, it's more aggressive than is being reported. At least that's what trusted moms are telling me.

WordPress 3.1 Codex – Some really cool stuff in this release. I can't wait to see what kinds of cool things theme developers do with the new Post Formats!

Homebuyer Tax Credit Scheme..err…Alternative – Here's an idea: Let's stop propping up the market artificially and just get through this mess.

Breaking Up Boredom for Homeschoolers – Here are four really smart ways to change gears for a day and still keep the education ball rolling. Administration approved!

I’m reading– December 22nd through December 29th

December 29, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

10 Things We Learned in 2010 – Thanks to Mr. Dave Ramsey, I learned these things in the early 1990s. Almost 20 years ahead of the curve! Matters not…most people will forget this stuff in 5 or 6 years.

Track flight prices and check for airline refunds – Who was I talking to about doing something like this a while back? Oh yeah…emailing this to him immediately.

Will 2011 See App Makers Thinking Android-First? – Now I don't feel like as much of an idiot sitting here at Android 2.1 waiting for a Honeycomb phone to surface.

When the Diagnosis Is ‘Dead Butt Syndrome’ – Wait…so the contrapositive of this argument is that if I don't run I don't have to cross-train either, right? FTW!

How New Entrepreneurs Are Taking Advantage of the Great Reset – In front of and behind the firewall I might add.

Payday Lending Booms as Credit Cards Become Less Available – Two not-so-bold predictions. (1) Politicians will "do something" about this, probably at the state level. (2) As a result, payday lenders will be hurt, and lone-sharking at the street level will become a booming industry.

People always have and always will borrow money with outrageous terms. It's just a matter of whether they are going to lose their car title or the use of their thumbs when they don't pay.

If the market exists…

I’m reading– December 15th through December 17th

December 17, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

8 Tools For Easily Creating a Mobile Version of Your Website – Yet another reason I'm such a huge WordPress fan. With WordPress, you can do it with just a plugin. I've been doing it at www.scottadcox.com for a while now.

DSO Nano V2.0 – Pocket Sized Digital Storage Oscilloscope – Back in my day, we had to record the cable signal on a vcr tape and bring it to the oscilloscope in the electronics lab to figure out how to steal cable.

Time Investment Tips for the Offseason – Didn't see anything here about eating lots of bagels and watching documentaries. Going to have to re-evaluate my training plan.

Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar’s Value from 1913-2010 – 90s to now isn't bad. Afraid to look at the 70 and 80s for fear of what is coming.

Stuff You Should See– November 18th through December 6th

December 7, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

Death Taxes and Life Insurance – A principled argument against the death tax.

Delaying Tax Vote Could Crash Stock Market – No duh. Can’t believe someone was able to write an entire article on this obvious conclusion. Though it was nice to get a firm date on it. Don’t see a logical reason it would drop below 5%, but markets aren’t logical in the short term.

Higher IQ Scores Found in Cold Weather States – Thems can have smarts. Me takes heat.

Teva Stiletto Heels – Technology FTW!

Fixing the US Housing Finance System

NASA Goes Badly Off Course, Needs a New Commander – Hmmm. Interesting.

Some Linkage for Lookage

November 17, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

Ironman – The Inner Revolt and Busting Out – I think there’s even more to this. Part of it is convincing yourself that you are as tough as you’ve convinced everyone else you are.

An Even Tougher Deficit Plan – Sounds good to me, except for the VAT

Dr. Drew on Obamacare: ‘You will see a massive flight of physicians from the field’ – But he only plays a doctor on TV, right?

Stay Worried – “One way or another, it was worth having Microsoft Word with the expectation that the zillionaire Bill Gates’ shower is still no hotter than ours, and his private jet goes not much faster than our own cut-rate Southwest Airlines flights. All that seems simple enough — until now.”

The Parallels between Today and the Great Depression – To quote the great Jackie Martin Jr., “You all know the rules, they’re very much like Pyramid, but different.”

The Facts and Science of QEII

November 5, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

The newly announced monetization of debt…ERRRRR…devaluation of the currency…ERRRRR…quantitative easing announced by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday has many Americans confused and baffled. What does this really mean for us? After all “facts and science and argument does [sic] not seem to be winning the day” with the collection of hilljacks that is the American people.

Maybe what we really need is an easy to understand analogy to explain in terms that we can relate to.

Let’s say the money supply is a big pile of rich, high-grade manure we are using to to fertilize our gardens. Now, imagine that a big stud horse (the Fed) comes along and, with increasing frequency and volume, adds to our supply of manure. I guess the theory is that we’ll respond by just planting more crops. But how long would it take for us to stop calling this big stinking pile of crap “fertilizer” and start calling it “a big stinking pile of crap”?

Over time, the manure’s value to us would be greatly diminished, and we’ll be lucky if we can load a bunch of it up in wheel barrow and trade it for a loaf of bread from our neighbor. Meanwhile, no one knows who owns the damned horse that keeps adding crap to the pile.

Oversimplified? Maybe so. But it’s pushing the limit of what our government educated brains can handle. Best to leave it to the horse to decide what is best.

Stuff You Should See– September 3rd through October 13th

October 13, 2010 / Scott / 1 Comment

Top 5 things to HATE about Marathon Runners -Ha! Best list since “Stuff White People Like”. I made every annoying thing on this list!

Amusing Ourselves to Death – Awsum.

Higher education bubble poised to burst – "The people running America's colleges and universities have long thought they were exempt from the laws of supply and demand and unaffected by the business cycle. Turns out that's wrong."

Market: Over 12 Year Period You Made More on 1st Day of Month.. – That is a pretty amazing fact.

What if the Postal Service runs out of money? – Cheese and crackers! Just let it die already!

Testing Teachers On Math and Reading – I can just hear their excuse now…"I may not be able to lay an egg, but I can tell a good one from a bad one" or "Do you think Tiger Woods' golf coach is better than Tiger at golf?"

Google SEO Starter Guide updated

The Most Influential Consumers Online are on Twitter – The easiest way to get a lot of retweets is to write an article praising Twitter users.

Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter? – "Stupid jock" isn't always true.

Stop Repeating Yourself: Set Up a Workplace Wiki – I tried this at a former job a few years ago. The result–I used it. Then we had the middle management who would copy the contents of a help file somewhere and paste it into the wiki. That gets you bonus points for authorship when you show it in your PowerPoint!

IEEE Spectrum: Get on the Optical Bus – Good news for 3rd party software vendors. Now they can blame software issues on the fact that you don't have hardware with optical bus!

A few fabulous homeschool rants – heh.

How Drinking Buddies Saved Brazil’s Economy

October 6, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

My buddy IB Del.icio.us’d this for me…a good read (and there’s a podcast too). First of all, let me say I’m glad something like this could never happen in our country:

The only reason they enter the picture now — or ever — is because in 1992, there happened to be a new finance minister who knew nothing about economics.

So the gist of the story is that these guys came up with a “fake” currency that wasn’t “real” called the URV and weened the country onto it by instilling confidence in it over the country’s “real” currency. I would say that confidence is the only thing that makes a currency real to begin with. There’s really no intrinsic value in a piece of paper–maybe in the metal coins are made of, but not in paper.

I mean, think about it. The only thing that makes a check someone writes you worth anything is your faith in weather or not that person has the resources to deliver on the promise of value that check offers. No real difference in a piece of paper just because a government signed a check instead of a person.

Stuff You Should See– August 26th through September 3rd

September 3, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

Higher Ed Bubble Dwarfs Housing Bubble – There's an even bigger bubble in the amount actually learned. Not casting stones or anything, just sayin'.

Provide 30,000 rugby balls to youth&high school players – A Ball for All!

Does Stretching Before Running Prevent Injuries? – Short answer–no. The only thing I stretch is my running clothes.

Inspiration and Chai – "Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it."

How the Commerce Clause Made Congress All-Powerful – Must watch

The U.S. Postal Service Is Dying. Why Not Radically Rebrand It? – Actually makes more sense than doing stuff like sponsoring a cycling team in a largely international event.

Stuff You Should See– August 19th through August 26th

August 26, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

Grilled Cheese Academy – A real education

Financial Illiteracy Is Killing Us – Seriously, are there any non-profits focused on teaching financial literacy to kids? I will volunteer to help.

Tooth Regeneration Gel Could Replace Painful Fillings – Just ordered up some jelly beans to celebrate this news.

Facebook Places vs. Foursquare – Foursquare has a game/awards (kinda). The question with FB places is “why?”. Then again, you could probably ask that question about 90% of the content there.

Furman’s FIRST Running Program – No. Junk. Miles.

Lifehacker: Our List of the Best Android Apps – Already using most, so I’m linking to this mostly to validate my choices.

“I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb” –John Mellencamp – Sounds like Johnny Cougar doesn’t like having his cheese moved.

What Should I Do About My Virtual Life After Death? – Adding this to my list. It’s pretty far down, but on there nonetheless.

Real Estate’s Gold Rush Seems Gone for Good – hmph

Moving on – An early shot fired against book publishing. There will be more.

Fake Drink Spills save seats – Genius!

Lottery Ticket Art – Don’t throw away those scratch off tickets…you could still be a big winner!

Stuff You Should See– July 31st through August 16th

August 17, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

Disney Princesses, Deconstructed – All you can really do to fight it is to push a fascination with ocean dwelling killing machines instead of Princesses. But it’s an uphill battle.

Muscles Remember Past Glory – I strongly suspect fat bellies have the same memory ability.

Thanks No For Skipping Your Immunizations! Whooping CoughIs Back – I wouldn’t let Jenny McCarthy give me dating advice when I was 19. Why would I listen to her parenting tips?

What Happened to Yahoo – Bottom line–nothing was happening at Yahoo, so things started happening to Yahoo. And why is that when I change my Yahoo! password, my Del.icio.us password doesn’t change. Exhibit A.

Ragnar Central Florida – Always wanted to do one of these…I may have found a team!

Endless Bummer – Don’t worry, it’s safe for work.

Unsuck It – Pretty useful, especially if you are low on bandwidth and need to bucketize terms.

The Third Stage of Personal Finance – Good motivator to start your day.

Facebook bug spills name and pic for all 500 million users – Uh….awsum?

Complete Guide to Maximizing Your Android Phone’s Battery Life – When following these instructions, make sure you’re holding the phone correctly.

14 Famous Man Caves – And not one has a spin bike or a punching bag. Where does all the anger go?

7 Discipline-builders for Remote Workers – I found this article very distracting. 🙂

Girl quits job on dry erase board – I like TechCrunch too, but if you spend an hour a day there, you must be reading at a remedial level. It’s not Faulkner.

Michael P. Fleischer: Why I’m Not Hiring – Interesting…and I thought it was just because he was a racist.

The Great Reset of Urban Development in Economic Downturns – Metropolitan corridors. I don’t like the sound of that.

Internet gambling freedom boosted by House committee vote – It’s comin’….

Rdio – Even more music.

Zone 12 Project gang: Little Blue Egg – I will put this right next to the outdoor shower. Or maybe inside the outdoor shower.

Build Your Own Outdoor Shower – Coming soon to a side of the house near me. I hope.

Stuff You Should See– February 5th through February 11th

February 12, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

9 Studies That the Anti-Vaccination Movement Says Show Links or Bury the Truth – And a few notes on them. I don't understand the Latin parts, but I think the idea here is that these things keep a lot of people from getting really bad diseases, err, alive.

iPhone Is Buzz Compatible While Most Android Phones Aren’t – "Currently there is only an estimated 28% of Android devices in use that are capable of taking full advantage of these services. This is due to the fact that lower Android versions browser does not support HTML5, although the gears requirement is meet". How's that for ironic and frustrating?

Google Buzz in Enterprise – Will Need to Overcome Google Apps Limitations – More on Google Buzz in the Enterprise. This argument against it (for now) makes sense

A Butcher’s Tips for Avoiding Cuts in the Kitchen – We just bought a knife sharpener, and it scares me to have blades that will actually cut things now. Although, a sharp blade is probably safer.

A newspaper starts exiting the Web – Huh?! I guess if you're trying to kill your newspaper, it's better to kill it as quickly as possible instead of letting it suffer.

A “Miss Me” Billboard I Can Get Behind – For realz.

5 Reasons Why Google Buzz Will Fail – Funny!!!!

Consumer debt will hold back spending, holding back economic growth. – Don't be ridiculous. We just have to "get banks lending again". Right.

Ungovernable?

January 28, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say the U.S. is ungovernable. It’s just that a weapon has not yet been developed to make it stick.

Power at the national level creates extreme inequality between the few who hold office and the rest of us who do not. Basically, we can vote in elections, and that is it. With power more localized, we have a greater chance of holding office or having influence as voters. More important, we could “vote with our feet” by moving to jurisdictions that suit our preferences.

People already do this, but for the most part they stay in the U.S. That could be changing if a growth in centralized power results in more of a Generica.

Stuff You Should See– January 11th through January 15th

January 15, 2010 / Scott / 0 Comments

15 Steps to Cultivate Lifelong Learning – Very nice article here. Even though I sort of know all of these things intuitively, I need to be more active in implementing some of them.

Cocaine in Space Shuttle Hangar – And no mention of it in the local paper. At least no mention I could find. Interesting

Twitter’s Answer To Facebook Connect – I'm pretty close to breaking it off with Facebook for good. This is only fuel to the fire.

How to Tether Your Android Phone – Nirvana

Iphone VS Girlfriend – Maybe 2010 will be the year this type situation gets a clever name.

And How Are Things in Venezuela? – People spending their money needlessly because there's no point in maintaining savings in a soon to be devalued currency. Only in South America, right?

Top 10 Fighters – MMA Pound for Pound – I'd like to see these guys in a "Ten Men Enter, One Man Leaves" battle royale. I think if Anderson Silva could use his quickness to stay in open space for the first 15 minutes, he may come out as the real ultimate fighter.

Twitter’s traffic in trouble? – Scoble has a ton of advice for Twitter. My advice for Twitter: be Twitter and nothing else. Get rid of the 140 character limit? No way! Add comments? No way! Besides, do we really think Twitter could implement all these things without Fail Whaling left and right. Just be Twitter and be good at it, thanks!

Gettin’ After It!