The inflation predictor. I mean the one I use (Forbes); you can pick your own. The US has to print up 10 times as much money as it has to pay its immediate debts, meaning the dollar could drop to ten cents purchasing power. I say could drop, because in 2009-2010, we tripled the money supply and somehow, inflation didn’t take off that badly. Today’s trivia is that the average retiree’s income in America is $26.14 per day. (About $796 per month.) My opinion on the low inflation rate is that other countries are absorbing the excess paper dollars. The rot has not yet hit the corners of the empire. I won’t get specific about economics, which I have studied to advanced levels, but currency stays stable when the “velocity” of the cash is constant. If you had a dollar that was going to be worth less tomorrow, you would spend it as fast as you could. I did not allow for foreigners holding the dollars as they must be because that doesn’t make sense. But that does not mean I was wrong, it means when the volcano blows, fewer will survive.
Up yours MicroSoft, you put another nail in your coffin this morning. My letter to Collin got wiped out. It’s not that a computer loses files, it’s that in this day and age they still make an operating system that can. At the end, I went to save and one of those bastard-rat keyboard shortcuts wiped out my work. I blame MicroSoft for that. If you want to help the gimps, build them a special computer on your own damn time. Quit putting weird shit on mine.
That’s the defective part about MicroSoft, they created a system where every time they make it easier for idiots, it makes things worse for the educated. Like their hotmail, whose soul virtue is that it is almost free. Hotmail will time out when you go to get a refill, but the stupid thing will stay logged on all day behind your back if you get called away in an emergency. I mean, how do they even know?
And no matter how you try, hotmail will not let you open two e-mails at once. Tough luck if you want to view the price quote and invoice at the same time. And while I’m grumpy, the worst meal I had on the trip to Colorado and back was at Church’s Fried Chicken. Expensive for what you get, the mashed tastes packaged, the batter is blasé, and it the place has the atmosphere of an assembly line.
It’s a good thing my records were straight. I learned long ago that keeping your paperwork up to date is a defensive strategy that pays off. I was able to show my rent was paid on time (not my problem the check wasn’t deposited same day), and I was only $16 out on the projected cost of the return trip. Aurora to Ft. Lauderdale ran me $722.40 of which gasoline was $340.60, the largest single expense. Fun-wise, the Colorado trip was the best thing since Venezuela.
Pause the scooter yet another day, we discovered a higher amp battery is available and I need everything done right. We tested 9 amps and it makes the starter just sing. (The mechanic installed a car battery in his seat bin.) Again, the motive behind these upgrades is that the scooter has done a good job to date. That’s more than I can say for Virgin Mobile, my cell phone provider. Their customer service is a drag, it can take a half hour to get anything done. I needed to change to a voice-only plan and that wasted most of my morning and they texted me the instructions.
Tell you who does business right: Hacktronics in San Diego. This order they fronted me some free 10k potentiometers and a free Arduino. Some say it was not the newest model, but I’d take a new car if it was a free 2011. Damn rights I would. Isn’t it ironic, though, how I saved up six months for my first Arduino and the second one is free. Ah, but ain’t that America? Oh, and concerning my policy of paying by Money Order, they now ship same day for me, no waiting.
The bakery is also doing things right, since this is their first anniversary. That’s the place the original reviewer gave “six months maybe”. He complained the sweet buns were sweet and the bread tasted like bread. Poor guy, but some people don’t want to be satisfied.
I watched “Die Another Day”, a 2002 Bond story I’ve never seen. The theme has adapted well to computer special effects. The success of the series means they have the bucks for the good stuff. Movies never seen before are one of the better rewards of a youth not wasted on television. Love that fight between the laser beams. Has anyone noticed his conquests are getting younger, slimmer, and prettier? More teen-like and less hooker-house-wifey? Tinier waists, firmer thighs, perkier boobs? Well, it must be your imagination, for I never saw any such thing.
ADDENDUM
Aha! A major financial analyst (Kudrow) has finally published what I’ve been saying all along. The banks have been intentionally constricting the number of REOs on the market. Who remembers how long ago I pointed this out? Good, then let’s do a refresher. Banks are regulated as to how many houses they can repossess. If they put all sixteen million bad units on the market, it would collapse same day. So what did the banks do since 2009 that I did know was allowed?
The banks quit repossessing the houses. No repo notice means the house never enters the statistics. Word quickly got around that you would not get evicted if you quit paying. I did not know banks could do that, so my calculations were off. There are now entire subdivisions in New York and California where people have not made a house payment in going on four years. The deadbeats have not learned their lesson, since consumer spending is up in those states.
It creates a huge “shadow inventory” of houses that could burst the dam at any time. It has to begin somewhere and my guess is Miami or Las Vegas, where 25% of the houses are known to be in delinquency and half of what is left is underwater. I stick to my original plan to get a 3/3 in a fancy area (Las Olas) for $5,000 (in 2010 currency) and it will happen yet. House prices have not begun to collapse as they should have by now. There is no possibility of a turnaround in the market. Only dreamers hope for that.
Yes, that means my projections were wrong in total--but they were not wrong in detail. I was dead on the money with the information I had. I admit, I did not know banks would have the balls to break the law and begin renting out foreclosures to make ends meet. Yes, I also noticed Canada’s housing is beginning to collapse right on schedule, with 12% drops in the bigger cities.
In unrelated news, a man in Texas had a 3D printer “physically reclaimed” when he tried to print a plastic gun. Although there is no law that says you need a license to manufacture a weapon unless you intend to sell it, the ATF were involved in his questioning. For the record, the printer was rented. I told you, these printers are going to upset the world as we know it. So, does this mean terrorists can build a bomb as long as they don’t sell it? Something tells me we are about to find out the hard way.
[Author's note 2021: to everyone's surprise, the Canadian market did not collapse in 2012. By 2021, it is still skyrocketing, with old war-era fixer-uppers selling for upwards of a million and a half dollars. Using the pressure-cooker theory, this ultimately spells disaster, but what can you say if the ride was thirty or forty years long?]
