The Latest News: I Am Not Dead

This is a non-A.D.D. related post.

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Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I have, however, become a much freer human being. I no longer have to endure the burden of a bi-monthly paycheck. I no longer have to figure out how much I can spend on a restaurant or on clothes or on that new power tool I had my eye on. I now have no money to spend…period. Having joined the ranks of freedom-loving jobless people, I can now pursue my real goal in life. My only problem…I don’t know what goal to pursue.

Maybe I should go into real estate. Prior to the economic crash, I heard an Australian-sounding voice tell me how to make millions in the real estate market without investing a single dollar. Funny…I don’t hear him on the radio anymore. Now, I hear an American-sounding voice tell me that I can create a home-based business that is so lucrative that my significant other will be able to join me in this financial heaven. Pre-crash all I needed was Joe Shmoe’s $29.95 book How You Can Make Boatloads of Money In Real Estate With No Money Down. Now, in the midst of the crash, I need Jane Shmoe’s $29.95 book How You Can Make Money With Just A Home Computer and a Telephone. Now…do I spend what little money I have on Jane’s book or, better yet, do I buy lottery tickets? This is a tough one. Financial freedom based on pure chance (but using my home computer and a telephone to make millions of dollars!!) or on pure chance (all I need to do is pick six numbers…how hard can that be?). I’ll let you know which choice works out best.

So, as I adjust to this freer lifestyle (You too can buy a new General Motors car with no money down! Well, that’s great…because now…I have no money) it may take me a bit of time to get back up to speed with the blog. Rest assured, this crazy A.D.D. mind is still at work, wreaking havoc with life, wondering how we will ever fix this economic mess.

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Here’s a nice summarization as to how we got into this economic mess. This is a snippet of a transcript of Jon Stewart’s interview with Elizabeth Warren, TARP overseer. Those of us who are old enough to remember will realize that the seeds of this problem was planted 30 years ago by our Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan.

Here’s Ms. Warren. I’ve added hyperlinks for those who are unfamiliar with this history. (Not every reader of this blog is 50 years old like me.)

We start[ed] pulling the threads out of the regulatory fabric [of the banking and securities laws] and what’s the first thing we get: we get a S+L, Warren said. Seven hundred financial institutions fail. Ten years later what do we get? a Long Term Capital Management, where we learn that when something collapses in one place in the world it collapses everywhere else. Early 2000s, we get Enron, which tells us the books are dirty. And what is our repeated response? We just keep pulling the threads out of the regulatory fabric.

So we have two choices — we are going to make a big decision, probably over about the next six months. And the big decision we are going to make is going to go one way or another. We are going decide, basically, Hey, we don’t need regulation. You know, it is fine. Boom and bust, boom and bust, boom and bust, and good luck with your 401k. Or alternatively we are going to say, you know, We are going to put with some smart regulation that is going to adapt to the fact that we have new products and what we are going to have going forward is we are going to have some stability and real prosperity for ordinary folks.

See: Jon Stewart and TARP