Enjoy differences in others...

Everyday I wake up and do my normal routine. I check out CNBC Squawk and ESPN, drink coffee, eat breakfast and try to read the Newspaper.

Today was interesting, I write for the UC student Newspaper and I heard a lot of talk going around about an article centered around Greek Life and it downfalls. The writer has written some good articles and I decided to read it.

http://www.newsrecord.org/sections/opinion/sigma-alpha-epsilon-creed-words-to-live-by-1.1738535

After reading it, I noticed his article had 150+ comments online from readers. This has to be close to our papers record. What bothered me was how negative and angry the responses were. The article was not horrible, it threw some blows to the Greek system, but the writer has thrown blows at political policies and parties as well with far less outcry.

In the last year, so many crazy things have happened. I can remember when General Electric was hovering around 6 dollars a share. Had they dropped below 6 per share, some horrible things could have happened to the U.S. economy. However, where was the outcry and 150+ comments from students?

Right now, the economy is a wreck and if people could have the same passion to fix problems as they do to complain about less important issues, I would be excited about the future.....

We need to be problem solvers, no complainers.........its amazing how an army will fight for a ridiculous cause before assessing the situation and then spend loads of there time condemning and hating someone else. That time costs money, and your time could be spent in other ways, and many Greek systems help charitable organizations and contribute a ton to their local campuses. Focus on the good and do not try to condemn someone who has problems with your way of life. Enjoy the fact that someone is different, as I do when people have no idea what the DOW is, or do not realize what implications economics can have on our everyday life.

Taxes + Death=Certainty^2

Today I opened my paycheck and realized one of the few things I hate. This, "thing" attacks me every two weeks as I open my pay check and see funds taken for, you guessed it, taxes.

My biggest irk, the city of Cincinnati took more taxes than the state of OH (but that's ok since UC is paying my checks).

It would be nice to have an interactive chart on each of my checks to show me exactly where my tax dollars are going (most to social security).

Anyways, I do not know anyone who enjoys taxes, and I will not complain about them for 2 more weeks.

Simple S and D

I uncovered a nice Supply and Demand problem in the following New York Times article today:

"Shortage of Doctors an Obstacle..."

The article explains the lack of supply of shortage of Doctors currently in the United States and the growing number of baby boomers who are getting older and in need of health services.

Doctors are not becoming physicians or practicing Medicare services due to the lack of pay. Also, since medical school is so expensive, most doctors specialize. There is a demand for physicians, but a lack of incentive to be a physician due to low pay.

One answer, proposed by several people is too increase Medical School enrollment. Personally, I do not want a check up from a B or C average-student, but hey, grade inflation has occurred everywhere else in college, why not Med-School?

I love this part of the article, "Under a far-reaching 2006 law, the state (Massachusetts) succeeded in reducing the number of uninsured. But many who gained coverage have been struggling to find primary care doctors, and the average waiting time for routine office visits has increased."

So a state has attempted a more, "universal health model." The result, more waiting, and more demand for doctors who are not there. No problem, we have an example not too follow in creating a new health system........I bet politicians don't see it this way.

So putting 2 and 2 together, we should give health care to everyone, then we will all have to drive many miles, wait many hours, or both in order to be helped, minimally. To fix it, lets increase the number of doctors or subsidize Med-School costs so we can have third tier students examining us on a regular basis....There has to be a better way.

Looking at the state of Massachusetts example, I think the problem of high demand and low supply of doctors should be solved in a different manner. Possibly substituting some capital for labor.........Can a machine or system such as Cook County Hospitals for diagnosing heart problems help this supply and demand problem?

From Blink by Malcolm Gladwell "One of the stories I tell in "Blink" is about the Emergency Room doctors at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. That's the big public hospital in Chicago, and a few years ago they changed the way they diagnosed heart attacks. They instructed their doctors to gather less information on their patients: they encouraged them to zero in on just a few critical pieces of information about patients suffering from chest pain--like blood pressure and the ECG--while ignoring everything else, like the patient's age and weight and medical history. And what happened? Cook County is now one of the best places in the United States at diagnosing chest pain.

Krugman Speech Today

I just finished attending the Paul Krugman (far left) speech today in TUC's Great Hall at the University of Cincinnati. He recently won the Nobel Prize in economics, and his talk today centered around the current economic crisis (an obvious choice).

He made some interesting points, but you could tell he had to watch his words as he did not want to get too political as he does in his New York Times Column. He did a wonderful job staying focused on economics and had a pessimistic but honest outlook as he said of the future, "it will be a long, and difficult haul." His main worry was unemployment could remain high for the next decade.

Attending the lecture was 200+ composed of Economic faculty across the coutnry, Trustees of the University of Cincinnati, and some other local big-whigs.

One of Krugmans best points was our neglect in remembering history and the problems that occur when we as Americans become complacent. The question is, how many students really understand or are attempting to understand what is happening now? If we are not students of the current problem, what will the future hold in store and how bad could it be if we are to get out of this mess?

What is the answer? Is big business (too big to fail) the main problem? Or did politics go too far in selling thier votes to companies? Krugman even mentioned the "off with the heads," attitude has been very mellow. Perhaps it is due to the fact many politicians were in the pockets of these CEO's so everything has been kept quiet.

Will government spending move us forward or should small business be the way out? Instead of 20 huge conglomerate financial banks, how would it be if bank owners had to conduct due dilligence in handing out loans becasue if they failed to do so they would receive no gov't help (like small banks for instance)?

All I can say is someone (probably my generation) will have to pay for this mess. And someone (my gen. again) will have to "starve" or not receive lovely health/monetary benefits until the age of 100. Hopefully the most educated generation in American history (again, my genereation) can make some decisions and force the older gens to understand its not their game and its not their rules anymore when it comes to our tax dollars going to their benefits and foul-ups. But then again, we will also have to realize, the dream of retirement is over and the American dream of a huge house is finally reverting back to the American dream of a steady job and a loving family. It will get better, but it will not be short and sweet.

Can everyone ever have it all? Let's Hope Not.

Every American should own a home.

Every American should have healthcare.

These are a few things Democrats and Republicans have tried to push over the last 10 years. When have we as Americans been entitled to anything? How about, Every American should go to work, work hard, save for their family and not expect any help. The attitude that placed us atop the world commercially.

Maybe out motto should be changed to a quote I read today, "It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm." - Sam Levenson

No offense, but the only time everyone can have equal of anything, resorts in Communism, where everyone is equally poor. Promises are annoying, how about politicians just give us the facts and hurt some feelings. We cannot allow Healthcare to become as big a problem as this crises, in which politicians and financiers alike never revealed the complications or truths of the business. Trying to give everyone a home helped lead to subprime. Trying to give everyone healthcare...........could lead to something worse.

Problems with the Banks and their Balance Sheets

Two days ago, the Dow dropped over 280 points after Bank of America had posted earnings of 0.46 cents a share crushing expected estimates of 0.04 cents per share.

The question is, after this news, why did the market fall? My accounting professor made an interesting point that seems obvious and is occurring now and will be for the next few quarters.

"The banks balance sheets and income statements look good because they have devalued an asset (risky mortgages) from say $100 to $50. Then the banks have found someone to purchase that lousy asset at say $55. Their financial statements show a $5 dollar accounting profit, but in reality and hopefully in the footnotes a -$45 economic profit is shown."

So even though the numbers "look good," based on that $5 accounting profit, investors saw the truth and the lack of economic profit.

I can't get enough Politics.....

The Fifth Summit of the Americas took place last week. The Summit is a meeting of 34 leaders from the Americas (yes South and Central America are America too). I began to wonder, since 33 of these 34 leaders speak Spanish (guess who does not), why the United States has not had a bilingual president since .....Martin Van Buren????

Searching the net I could not really find a biligual president after the early Van Buren (he was fluent in Dutch) but Jimmy Carter and George Bush spoke, "marginal spanish." You can argue other presidents had minimal spanish skills as well (but seriously, you could argue any American knows minimal spanish, so that does not count.)

When will the day come when the U.S. president will have to be multi-lingual? Would it help our country get more foriegn respect?

Dont get me wrong, all the other leaders of the world do not speak english, but many do. I understand the The United States is the leader of the commercial world, but that said, our leaders have had to expensive and elite of an education to not at least suffice some sort of foreign language skill (possibly a minor or undergraduate degree).

Any thoughts.......

That Guy is Loaded!

Too often, many of assume a big house or a big anything means someone is rich. Maybe its as Chris Rock once said, "There is a difference between Rich, and Wealthy, Shaq is rich, the guy who writes his checks is Wealthy!"

I agree, Shaq is probably rich, but even so, always be safe in assuming, until you see the numbers (accurate ones) no one has what they claim. I do not want to come off as a misanthrope, but here are a couple examples......

Bernie Madoff, worth 823 million dollars at the end of last year....he wasnt rich, but many people that gave him money to invest were. Currently, he faces 150 years in prison.

Evander Holyfield, who once had a 3 page write up on his mansion in Sports Illustrated almost had to auction it to cover child support. He was quoted saying, "I'm not broke, I'm just not liquid." Im sorry Evander, but I don't know the difference between broke and ill-liquidity.....His electric bill accoring to Yahoo was $17,000 last December alone!

My personal favorite...Travis Henry (picture above with his dependants), in 2007 he signed a five year 22.5 million dollar football contract. He was cut a year later and 9 children with 9 different women forced him into a drug trafficing arrest. Estimeated child support payments were $170,000 a year!

I hate to play the monday morning quarterback, but even if you make a million dollars a year, you cannot spend one million + 1 in that same year. A good thing to say if you do spend a dollar to much is, "Im just not liquid."

The American Dream, Get into Politics

Yahoo finance published the Presidents tax return;

"President Obama reported an adjusted gross income of $2,656,902. They paid roughly $855,000 in federal income taxes and almost $78,000 in state income taxes.
Now hold up—since when do (honest) politicians make millions of dollars? Well, normally they don't. "

-Actually, normally they (honest politicians) do, name a president this century that wasnt rich and ill show you different.

According to Fox News, the couple actually pulled in $4.2 million in 2007.

Vice President Bidden and his wife took in around $270,000 this year. Not too shabby, but somehow I suspect they are worth significantly more........

Another fine example of how at the end of the day we are all the same color, Green, but some are more Green than others!

Baffling......Why does everyone lie?

Today on CNBC, Tom Nolan CEO of General Growth Properties a mall owner and leaser to retail stores said his business model was still strong, even though his company is declaring bankruptcy and the company was not given approval to refinance thier debts any longer.

Interesting.........

His company, he mentioned had a solid NOI (Net Operating Income) and his shopping centers had 92.5 percent occupancy. Thats nice, but General Growth is 27 billion dollars in debt! How can your business model be strong if you 27 billion dollars in debt!

I am sure retail and credit pinches only excerbated the problem, but eventuallly 27 billion of debt is going to catch up to you sooner or later, especially if you business model over the last 15 years was an, "agressive mortgage finance acquisition strategy."

Older Generation View on the Economy: My Column, Money Talk

Waiting for “The Crash of 2008: Causes and Cures,” a class presented by Robert Marischen, I noticed everyone on the fourth floor of Tangeman University Center was significantly older than I am. Entering the room for the course, I was excited to hear what Marischen had to say; after all, he has an MBA, CPA, CFP and a CDP (whatever that is). He was also chief financial officer for several companies during his career.But looking around I thought I might have entered a Social Security clinic, judging by the people around me. I must have looked out of place to the kind woman who handed me a packet with OLLI written across the front.

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is a program here at the University of Cincinnati that specializes in educating individuals over the age of 50. The program covers a variety of topics. The most popular topics seem to focus on wealth management and health, but right-side brain activities like creative writing, film and language classes are available as well.Needless to say, it was a dead giveaway: I am not part of OLLI, as you have to be more than half a century old to participate.

The class took a while to get rolling as the instructor had a limited number of handouts, and, for reasons the youth of America may not understand, e-mail never came up.Finally, a decision was made, calling for the 16 people who wanted the information packet at the end of the class, to get it and share with others. After this dilemma was over Marischen introduced game theory. Marischen mentioned that decisions were made or, “games were played,” in order for someone in the political or financial world to gain more power or money.This seems quite obvious, but looking at this game in depth changes the scope. Should politicians (especially) and even financiers be incentivized by their own monetary gain over what seems like the ethical goals of providing jobs and opportunity for growth in the economy?

Marischen suggested the war in Iraq was the main focus for the start of the crisis, suggesting the conflicts began in 2003 (after the dot com bubble burst) and that the war was a political tool to get the economy rolling for the last of the Republican White House years.It was an interesting point; many current theories suggest this crisis began prior to 2003, siting bank deregulation in 1999 as allowing the creation of mega banks such as Citi and AIG.

Of course, discussion ensued and opinions were expressed heatedly as many were unhappy with the opinions of the instructor, but he did a solid job standing his ground and insisting game theory was the way to look at this crisis. Many were obviously angry, but the educational understanding of the crisis was not high, as it was an introductory course and most of us still are trying to sort out how this all happened.

Marischen made a great point in terms of how the CEOs of certain companies exacerbated this mess.“Those that committed fraud should be in jail, but you should not go to jail for stupidity,” Marischen said.What he means is that many CEOs were stupid because they did not know what was going on or they didn’t necessarily try to fully understand what was happening in their companies. Maybe these CEOs should not go to jail, but their money should be taken and given back to tax payers (the government).

Upon leaving what many might have thought was a World Bingo Tournament, I came out realizing older generations have faced horrible economic conditions before, and they have interesting things to say.They respected a person far younger being in the mix and OLLI is creating a great avenue for elders to meet.A mix of OLLI and students could create an even better network and possibly help get us out of this economic problem because the older generations have invaluable advice and experience we, as young students, sometimes forget.

Lessons from a Short Story

In The Sea Oak by George Saunders, a family of two uneducated unemployed single mothers, a optismistic Aunt, and a quiet but hard working young man (brother to the single mothers) struggle to raise kids in a horrible neighborhood. The Aunt's although she has never had anything in her life remains positive until she dies.

The Aunt is scared to death (literally) from a burglar and is buried only to revive with powers allowing her to see the future. Falling apart by the limbs her attitude has changed from complete optimism in her former life to a planned no more b.s. style that involves the young man and the single mothers working harder so one of the young boys in the household does not die.

Two quotes seem to portray a great message in this short story, one comes from this families step father giving a diatribe to the derelict family, "Anybody can do anything, but first they gotta try. Its the freaking American way-you start out in a dangerous craphole and work hard so you can someday move up to a somewhat less dangerous craphole."

The second comes from the Aunt (Bernie) at the end of the story, dieing for the second time with her body parts all over the place she asks the young man, "Some people get everything and I got nothing, Why did this happen?" He replies, "I don't know."

So the question is, if you have everything or if you have nothing, should you sit iddly by or attempt to achieve something for future generations? The Aunt did this and was completely opptimistic in her first life, but when she died and saw the future, her whole outlook had changed. Had her optimism been selfish?

Also, why can't Americans seem to appreciate the crapholes they live in and realize that taking care of people is what its about, not one-upping all the time? The recession is changing this for the better and making some realize that talent is not equal across the board, but neither is effort. Anyone after selfish gain will die unhappy, and that is why the Aunt came back, to die peacefully knowing she saved a life in the future.

Things to do.....

Cincinnati has multiple interesting things to do on any given day. Yesterday for example, the kite festival took place in Mason and the Observatory had a viewing of Saturn through a telescope that was at least 15 feet long. For five dollars (a donation) I was able to see the moon (closely), the orion nebula, and Saturn, you cant do that at your average bar.

After yesterday I came to the realization that Cincinnati is a great place to live and there are many cool things to do. Do not be afraid to try something new. the best part is, you can do these things cheaply. So if you took you girlfriend to an expensive dinner last night and then had nothing else to do (To each their own), look harder and find something and find a cheap place to eat as well.

Why do so many people neglect the numbers...

Yesterday, sitting in class a debate started about cell phones placing the iPhone against the Blackberry in a battle of the best hand held device available. Anyways, back to the point, sometimes a lie or rather an unintended exaggeration is easy to spot in another person. A perfect example, in class a smart young but obvious M.B.A. student, you know the ones who wear everything business down to the trousers. Anyways, the guy is a nice guy just a bit over the top.

In class he mentioned, "The Blackberries email is much faster, I write 300 emails a day........"

Then I lost him, 300 emails a day, is that possible? Lets do some simple math, if you write 2 emails per minute (120 every hour) than he would spend 2 hours and 30 min of nothing but 30 seconds emails!

Lets say he does 5 a minute (20 seconds a piece) that is still 1 whole hour of nothing but emails, and 20 seconds a piece...........

So instead of trying to be mister impressive sometimes it is better to just do the math and admit it, you don't email 300 times a day, because it would drive you nuts and take up the whole day. But then again, he also probably works 70 hours a week (also, not feasible.)