Boulder is a Stoopid Place

Brett Steenbarger claims trading teaches many life lessons.

Trading is a crucible of life: it distills, in a matter of minutes, the basic human challenge: the need to judge, plan, and seek values under conditions of risk and uncertainty. In mastering trading, we necessarily face and master ourselves. Very few arenas of life so immediately reward self-development–and punish its absence. So many life lessons can be culled from trading and the markets:

Read the top ten here.

The article says California is on the brink of a global warming breakthrough. Made me think they had some great new technology or something. Not to worry, they are simply passing a law. I suppose “a breakthrough”, at least to a journalist, is a Republican governor wanting to pass legislation bringing California in line with the Kyoto protocol. I consider it news, but hardly a breakthrough. A breakthrough will bring results, the legislature simply passes laws.

For you non-financial types, Bill Gross of PIMCO investments is considered “the Bond King”. Dan Fuss from Loomis Sales has easily beaten Gross at his own game over the last 15 years. To be successful and perform as Gross and Fuss have, bond investors must be able to paint a macro vision of the economy and the interactions that make it work. So it pays to listen to their opinion. In this article Dan Fuss is none to optimistic. His main points are…

Speaking by phone from his office on the 34th floor, Fuss paints a gloomy economic picture, especially for the U.S. He points out that economic growth is slowing just as prices are rising – a miserable mixture that could lead to an era of stagflation reminiscent of the 1970s.

He says the federal government has promised “the old folks” health and retirement benefits that it can’t deliver without hiking taxes or cutting spending, yet it shows little inclination to do either.

Instead, he expects federal borrowing to grow, sending the yield on the ten-year Treasury, now 5%, to 6.25% over the next few years. That’s bad news for Treasurys, because rising rates cause prices to fall.

It’s hard to argue with his vision, but the market does have a mind of its’ own. And for you investment types, Fuss is bullish on the New Zealand dollar.

The city of Chicago passed the new super minimum wage law. The results, according the the Wall Street Journal (paid registration required) are…

Target was the first big chain to react, recently canceling plans to open a new superstore in a run-down area on the city’s North side. Only a few months ago the project was hailed by city leaders as an anchor for redeveloping that depressed neighborhood. Now it gets to stay depressed. Wal-Mart has also announced that its plans to build 20 new stores in the city over the next five years are “on hold” until the wage issue is resolved.

I also like this comment on the living wage and working poor…

The entire “living-wage” movement is the latest product of upper-income politicians who want to stick it to non-union companies in the name of helping the poor. But the working poor lose twice in Chicago: first, in lost retail jobs and then in less access to low-cost goods.

Over the longer term Target and Walmart might change their plans. Somehow, I doubt they are in a hurry.

Apparently creating a Horse Co-op is a solution to the problem.

County land use director Graham Billingsly seems quite pleased a solution has been found…

Billingsley said the boarders may have brainstormed a viable loophole.

“As far as I know, that would not violate any laws,” he said.

Don’t think for a second the county would have cut the owners any slack if it would have set a precedent that weakened their powers. The county would gladly let the landowner “rot in hell” before losing any power to help them. The only solution is take the county to court. I hope a viable solution is found. It looks like the person who turned them in to the County Commissioners will be the real loser.

From today’s letter to the editor…

Are land sales open to everyone?

Doesn’t it strike anyone as being a little questionable when Boulder County open space sells 32 acres of sacred open space to a private company to develop as a dairy? I harbor no ill will toward the company owner, but I just wonder how he worked it at a time when the county is telling the owner of private land that she cannot board horses on her land and makes the suggestion that she go co-op.

I get the feeling something’s missing here but either way, you get a idea of the power welded by the Boulder County Commissioners. However, I’m bothered by two things:

1. The letter writer thinks open space is “sacred”.

2. The County Commissioners bullying the land owner regarding the horse boarder (who bought the land with the intention of boarding other people’s horses just as the previous owners did).

Open Space is land bought by the county to be preserved for whatever reason the Commissioners think is important. Some reasons are good, some are bad. However, the local citizenry has bought into the “purchase and preserve open space” idea so heavily that to speak out against open space acquisitions is blasphemy. This same thought process has somehow made open space “sacred” (right behind the prairie dog). I’m sure the County sold the land because it no longer fit into their plans and they could purchase another piece of land with the proceeds that better fit into their “vision”. More than likely (as in almost a certainty) whomever bought the land has all sorts of regulations about what can and can’t be done on that former piece of open space.

The horse boarding case is more complicated and some of the details are here, although I don’t appreciate how the author presents the case. Also, a letter from the present owners sister.

Thanks to Ann Althouse, via Instapundit, I found this posting on boys going to a private NY City school, who spend 9 hours a day memorizing the Koran. The reward is (apparently)…

The young boys are taught that if they memorize the entire Koran, they will gain admittance to heaven and the right to choose 10 persons to bring along with them.

Furthermore, they don’t even understand what they are memorizing. It’s not reading since there isn’t any comprehension.

…Meanwhile, these boys — who must be quite smart to have a shot at memorizing the 6,200 verses — are deprived of all other education, including instruction in Arabic, the language of the text they are memorizing phonetically. (Nor are they provided with a translation: they are learning only to pronounce sounds.)

Ann points out there are legal implications due to state educational requirements, not to mention the more obvious concerns.

The Boulder citizenry, in an effort to alleviate their guilty, SUV driving conscience, are getting ready to tax themselves to follow the Kyoto protocol. Vote this November. Fortunately I live in the County, but I’m sure they won’t be far behind in implementing a similar measure.

Here’s an excerpt about how the tax isn’t high enough…

City Councilman Andy Schultheiss cast the only dissenting vote. He said the program is polling very well – around 80 percent – and said people are willing to pay for a program that cuts carbon.

“I don’t think we’re in any danger of losing this election. I think we could ask for 10 times this amount and win,” he said. “I think we’re going to struggle to reach these goals with this plan, and I think this is one of the two or three most important things facing the world and the nation and this city.” (emphasis added)

This is simply another way for government to stick their nose into the business of private citizens and industry. I’m stunned by how willing the people of Boulder appear to be to tax themselves into economic oblivion. The City suffered a stagnant to falling sales tax for a number of years and only recently turned the corner. They are counting on the new Crossroads Mall, whoops I mean the Twenty Ninth Street mall (shopping center???) to fuel the Cities need for tax revenue.

Thailand Plans 1 Free Laptop Per Child: Financial News – Yahoo! Finance

Oh THIS is really stupid. There’s a difference between learning knowledge and using a computer. Technology can be a tool or a crutch. Without proper knowledge, it’s a crutch. In the local school system, a TI-84 calculator is required for Algebra. I’ve seen it in use, believe me, for most students it’s a crutch.

Ed Quillen of the Denver Post whines about his voting experience.

First he complains that in Chaffee County (Salida area) a Democrat rarely wins…

The 5th has never elected a Democrat in its 35 years of existence, and this one-party history provoked some talk among area Democrats. We have a fine candidate, Jay Fawcett, but he has no realistic chance of winning unless the Republican is caught in bed with a dead girl or live boy.

Oh “Cry Me a River” Ed. Good grief, like this is something special?? Boulder county is exactly opposite.

So Ed decides to vote anyway, after explaining that he doesn’t believe in switching parties, to try out the electronic voting machine. Oop’s, he gets the wrong ballot…

…thanks to the wonders of modern technology. On its first trial, the new electronic voting device gave me the wrong ballot.

That’s a legitimate problem, we’ll examine his conclusion in a moment, but first he takes a trip down memory lane, talking about the different voting environments he’s been exposed to. I guess that makes his criticism more legitimate. Now back to the Aug 8th primary and more whining…

The first element to dislike was the location. Like many other counties, Chaffee has moved to “vote centers” rather than the traditional precincts. The polling place for Precinct 2 is across the street from my house. The new vote center is four blocks away – thereby at least quintupling the amount of time and travel involved in getting to the polls.

FOUR whole blocks away, oh goodness gracious. My polling place was moved from about 2 miles from my house, an easy downhill coast, to about 8-10 miles from my house, apparently due to handicap access.

Oh and they wanted to see his Driver’s License. Cry me a river again. Now we’re coming to the juicy part…

I got my code number and some instructions – basically, this is not a touch screen, you have to turn the dial and press enter. After a short wait, I settled into my machine, punched in my code, and got the Republican ballot for Precinct 15 rather than the Democratic ballot for Precinct 2.

Being an honest guy, he informed the judge, got a new number and voted electronically. Once again he has to tell us how irrelevant his vote his. (Thanks Ed).

His conclusion about this experience…

And I gained some familiarity with the new electronic system. That is, I now have good reason not to trust it at all.

How does Ed know that the problem wasn’t human error? That would be my first conclusion.

There’s a reporter, Kevin Corke that works for ABC, who seems to have trouble understanding why the Bush administration maintained the secrecy of the recent British (and US) investigation of the terrorists that wanted to blow up multiple international flights from the UK to the US. Read about it on Betsy’s page. As a teaser, here’s a snippit…

Corke: “Yeah well said because a lot of people here are going to be asking the question, not only today but in the days to come, if, if the administration has known about this potential plot what was the hold up in getting the word out, especially domestically?

Needless to say, Kevin Corke is an idiot. I’m sure glad he wasn’t around during WWII.

Dan Eggeen and Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post are kind enough to explain why secrecy was maintained in this article detailing the history of the secret investigation by British and US intelligence agencies. Some US government officials apparently were irritated at being left out of the loop …

Several sources suggested last week that the extensive secrecy irritated some officials who were kept out of the loop at intelligence and law enforcement agencies, but declined to discuss the tensions in detail. Michael P. Jackson, Homeland Security’s deputy secretary, said the secrecy “wasn’t controversial. It was operational security.”

I say that’s a good thing. They’re way too many people in Washington DC whose first action would be to leak the story to the press (as in the New York Times). Who can blame top officials that kept information under raps, restricting access to people who really had a “need to know”? Well yes, Kevin Corke and Boulder liberals will probably squawk with a clear conscience.

Remember the subway bombings in the UK? Another reason to keep a secret…

Even now, three days after British authorities arrested 24 suspects — and two days after most of the suspects have been publicly named — U.S. officials are tight-lipped about the most rudimentary details of the case, citing strict British secrecy laws and a desire to avoid the strained relations that followed U.S. leaks about the 2005 subway bombings.

I wouldn’t rely on people like Kevin Corke to tell me if was raining outside. And great job by British and US intelligence agencies.

Hillary Hall sent Linda Salas packing. The non-official tally 8395 to 5824.

The Daily Camera captures the reason Salas was sent home so convincingly…

The tally showed citizens’ dissatisfaction with the county’s recent
elections and current voting process, Hall said.

No kidding????

My voting experience left a little to be desired but that’s for another day.

Linda is the present Boulder County Clerk and Recorder and has done a pathetic job. Here’s an experience from an early voter in the letters to the editor section of today’s Boulder Daily Camera (free registration required)….

Having responded to the last-minute call for election judges, I had to vote early because I am judging in a precinct not my own. I chose the E-slate voting machine to increase my familiarity with the device for Election Day.

Imagine my surprise when the first thing to pop up on the screen after entering the
authorization code was a large, highlighted window saying “Linda Salas Boulder County Clerk and Recorder,” with an underlying handwritten signature in a different color. Advancing the cursor once moved the highlighting, but left the text dominating the frame. The font size in this message is much larger than the names of candidates in the actual ballot section.

I wish this type of arrogance by elected Boulder officials (and elsewhere too) was limited to Linda Salas, unfortunately it isn’t. Fortunately, in this case there’s a good chance we can “throw the bum out”. Note that this election will basically be decided in the Democratic primary on August 8th since Republican’s basically can’t buy a vote in Boulder County. Also remember that independent voters can register as Democrats on election day so they can vote in the Democratic primary. It’s an easy process to switch back to independent (actually non-affiliated is the technical term).

Salas’ challenger is Hillary Hall and she was endorsed by the Daily Camera on August 2nd. Needless to say, this is one of the few times I’m in agreement with the Camera’s editorial staff.

John Dvorak takes cell phone users to task along with the cell phones themselves, not to mention the service. In other words, he rants against the whole cell phone universe. I especially enjoy this little snippet…

Then there are the oh-so-important users who must have a crazy-looking Bluetooth earpiece hanging off their ear looking like a big hearing aid or a borg implant. These clowns walk around in public like this. Do they think women dig it?

What irritates me most is the cell phone users who apparently believe everyone around them must truly enjoy hearing their half of the conversation. While stuck on the tarmac at Dulles the other day, we were treated to our seat-mates angst as she discovered that OU’s (University of Oklahoma’s) starting quarterback had been dismissed for the season. Like we really cared and wanted to hear it. It would have been “ok” if she could keep her voice down, but we were all privileged learned how depressing this was to her. This whole process took 3 or 4 separate phone calls for her to confirm what was going on. Cry me a river lady and may OU have a sucky season.

Looks like Tropical Storm Chris is turning into a dud. From the NHC web site…

Due to the inability of the Air Force reconnaissance aircraft to find any tropical storm strength winds, Chris was finally been downgraded to a tropical depression Friday morning. Despite an unfavorable overall environment, a flare up in thunderstorms closer to the circulation center could easily bring Chris back to minimal tropical storm status at any time.

In general this is a good thing. I certainly don’t wish the citizens of Cuba ill will, but I do wish ill will upon Fidel.

I was involved in this once from a low ranking managerial position. When they got where they were discussing my peers, etc I ask to be excused.

My present employer apparently also is implementing rankings and ratings. After the last layoff they apparently made a big deal about A, B and C employees (I was on vacation at the time). I’m not sure what the real solution is, but certainly one bad ranking shouldn’t be able to dislodge your career like it almost did to the person described in this post.

Everyone knows who the low performing employees are, institutionlizing the process may be good for keeping legal expenses low, but probably does more harm than good to company moral.

Make sure and go to the video link. Enjoy.

Well it looks like Fidel may get a present courtesy of Tropical Storm Chris. The present 3-day cone shows a possibility of the path hitting Cuba. More details at the National Huricane Center website.

This is apparently Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychologist from Los Angeles. Enjoy…

http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=null.