Luggable’s wireless stopped working. Argh! Wrassled witht he drivers. Uninstall, reinstall. NG! Latest drivers loop and drive cpu to 100%. Argh! Not working, System restore, still ng. Arghhh!
XPfails – luggable – DELL’s wireless fails
Monday, January 15, 2007
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Posted by reinkefj
MONEY: What does the euro really mean to the dollar?
Monday, January 15, 2007http://www.ft.com/cms/s/
572b41a6-a414-11db-bec4-0000779e2340.html
Euro displaces dollar in bond markets
By David Oakley and Gillian Tett in London
Published: January 14 2007 22:08 | Last updated: January 14 2007 22:08
***Begin Quote***
The euro has displaced the US dollar as the world’s pre-eminent currency in international bond markets, having outstripped the dollar-denominated market for the second year in a row.
***End Quote***
Is this the beginning of the end of the US Dollar as the world’s reserve currency?
Try to envision what that means.
(1) Dollars stored overseas will come back to us as sort of IOUs. Foreigners will buy something with those dollars to take home. Anything of value. Remember the Japanese buying Rockafeller Center in NYC? The inflation that we exported overseas will come home to roost.
(2) Imports will get more expensive. Big Time! As we will have to pay for them in Euros, not Dollars.
(3) The general rise in prices caused by too many dollars chasing to few goods will hurt the poor, the elderly on fixed income.
(4) The non-productive parts of our economy (think government) will become more expensive as the prices go up. Government costs will rise faster. (Why? Only real people pay for things. Government and business are really fictions that just pass along costs to real people for payment. There’s “shipping and handling” on every transfer. Corporations, because of competition are motivated to minimize that. Governments are not. Thus if the cost to government goes up a dollar, I’d expect the cost to me goes up four dollars. While me quibble about the multiplier, it’s definitely there.)
Plan your finances accordingly.
Don’t hold dollars; buy things that will “surf” in inflation. Gold, Commodities, Equities, Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, things that appreciate in value.
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: Thinkin’ bout “social security insurance”. Ugh!
Monday, January 15, 2007http://www.cato.org/dailys/12-17-97.html
December 17, 1998
Chile’s Social Security Lesson For The U.S.
by José Piñera
José Piñera is Chile’s former secretary of labor and social security and is co-chairman of the Cato Institute’s Project on Social Security Privatization.title
***Begin Quote***
America’s Social Security system will go bust in 2010. As political leaders scramble to save it, they’ve overlooked an obvious free-market solution that works. They need only look at Chile.
***End Quote***
A blog comment spun me up on this one again. So, I pulled up the url to the Chilean solution. And, marveled that we had the answer in ’98 and did nothing with it. It was NOT just an academic answer, but a running system in a large country! In my world, a working field trial of an idea is evidence!
Here’s a fellow with a proven answer to “our” “social security insurance” problem.
(Note: I don’t have such a problem. I wrote off the theft decades ago. It’s nice of the robber to send me “statements” telling me how much they are going to restore to me. But, I’m not planning on getting it. AND, I object to the fact that it was stolen from me in the first place! I never agreed to it.)
It won’t work here because he was dealing with smart but illiterate people, Here in Amerika, we’re too smart for our own good.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me for decades, like American politicians do, and you deserve everything you get.
In Chile, the government served as a referee and “licensed” a bunch of investment companies to accept deposits. Due to the people’s illiteracy, the companies picked colored animals to be there logo. 93% of those illiterates opted for the new system. And, they were not limited to how much they could save for retirement — all tax free — and so the national savings rate is about 27%. What’s it in the US, negative 5?
Yup, we’re too smart for our own good.
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Posted by reinkefj
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