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.)

Kind of Funny

`Why do we retire at age 65+ (usually)? At 59 1/2 you can withdraw from an IRA account. However, maybe the subterfuge should change. ....

Why not allow individuals to retire once they are done with whatever school level they choose, (highschool, college, masters, PhD., even grade school if inclined enough.) and take out loans/debts based on thier future success rate?

i.e. I graduate with a PhD. from Harvard, I am allowed to retire and borrow 10 million dollars doing whatever I please until a certain year determined by my lender say, 39. Then I must start working and pay off those debts for the rest of my life, if I exceed expectations, the lendercould make a small profit......