And make mortgages "recourse loans" too while we are at it.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/down-payment-rules-are-at-heart-of-mortgage-debate/

Read the text here. There is a balance between financial stability and home ownership. Really? Are you serious? It is this type of thinking that generates financial crises.

The Canadians don't have this type of confusion or play this stupid game of high-stakes Russian Roulette. Thus they have not gone through the same experience we have. Imagine that.

Vidant Medical Center Foundation Planned Giving Advisory Council

I was recently honored to be included as a member of the Vidant Medical Center Foundation's Planned Giving Advisory Council. I was brought on as an economic adviser and I am delighted to be a part of it. They claim I am an MD, but that is only true if they mean Mad Dog.

Anyway, once I had a health scare it made me realize just what a wonderful resource we have here in East Carolina. I figured it was my turn to help out.

P.S. That picture was 20 pounds ago.

And to think this guy's vote counts the same as yours mostly.

I remember in college one spring break some loser called the cops and said someone had stolen his cocaine. They brought a bag to his hotel and asked him if this was his. He said "hey you found it! Thanks guys!" Needless to say he had some time at the Florida cross bar hotel.

Coming for you.....

He sure is.

http://keithhennessey.com/2013/04/24/smarter/

Golf Tournament is Friday. The Disgruntled Clown is showing up for our 10th Anniversary. No one is safe...fair warning!

Has it really come to this?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323309604578428900867620018.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h

Oh NOOOO!

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/flaws-are-cited-in-a-landmark-study-on-debt-and-growth/?src=un

Fracking for you?

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/overcoming-objections-to-shale-gas-by-jeffrey-frankel

And you wonder what the problem is?

Good morning and welcome to the work week for those of you who still consider work to be an obligation and who still have employment.

I had heard of it but only in passing. Now I know it is true. Yep, the federal government spent $2.2 billion dollars last year on the Lifeline subsidy to provide cell phones to low income individuals. That's right, poor people need cell phones too so why not spend billions to provide them. Apparently cell phones are considered as essential as food and shelter. But why stop there? Isn't transportation necessary? Why not cars too? Have the poor go down to their local GM or Chrysler dealer (government owned you see?) and pick out some nice shiny new buggy and drive her home at taxpayers' expense.There is no difference here.

I am sick and tired of hearing about "the poor" and how mistreated they are and how we have so much more to do. Pssshaw! I remember a few years back when Michelle Obama went to a homeless shelter for Thanksgiving and helped serve the meal. A number of homeless folks were snapping her picture with cell phones far better than the one I have. I thought to myself, what have we to be ashamed of when poor people have a better phone than I do?

Now you know where they got those phones. Go back to work and pay up sucker. It is not your money, you did not build that, and you have benefited from a system that is unfair.

H.L. Menchen said "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." And after electing Obama twice, that is exactly what we are going to get. Go back to work, shut your mouth and remember that your society is now being shaped by the likes of Herbert Marcuse and Karl Marx. Have a good day comrade!

April 15th....Welcome Home Leona Helmsley.

There she is. Leona Helmsley God rest her soul. She was sent to the federal prison in Lexington, KY right when I was leaving grad school. She was a tax cheat and was thrown in the can on April 15th by order of the judge. She said "taxes are for little people" and that ticked the judge off.

In her honor, my favorite liquor store put up a sign that read: "Welcome Home Leona Helmsley". I have never forgotten that. So when the grim reaper comes to visit someone that really deserves it I break out the Welcome Home Leona Helmsley phrase.

And also every April 15th.

R.I.P. Margaret Thatcher

I am saddened at the recent passing of who I consider to be one of the icons of twentieth century history. Of course I mean the great Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher. Indeed, one of her greatest quotes is the headliner of this very Blog..."The problem with socialism is you eventually run out of other people's money." How true and this will become ever clearer with every tick of the clock as we slough toward our brave new utopian welfare state.

To recall, when she took over in 1980, things were so terrible in the UK that they could not even bury the dead. That is correct. Look it up. The government grave diggers union was on strike and the bodies where being stacked like cord wood. Maggie came in with Ronald Reagan and gave us a decade of economic rebirth that I am afraid will be reflected upon as the best of times.

To think that now in the UK they are having difficulty with her legacy and vilifying her as some terrible monster tells you all you need to know about modern Britain. As Johnnie Rotten and the Sex Pistols proclaimed "No future for you, and England's dreaming." The protests going on now are pathetic and sickening and deserving of your pity. The people who are now trying to debase her and her legacy are a bunch of wretched, filthy, dirty wankers. 

Ladies and Gentlemen...here it is!

I am really happy with how it turned out. It can be yours for the low, low price of $180.

Available at Amazon.com:


http://www.amazon.com/Routledge-Handbook-Economic-International-Handbooks/dp/0415677033/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365108099&sr=8-1&keywords=handbook+of+major+events+in+economic+history

I have changed my mind...10 reasons to re-establish the gold standard. Now I too have the Midas touch.

http://baselinescenario.com/2013/04/01/go-for-gold/

Kevin Murphy talks. Neat power point included! 30% drop out rate in the US and you wonder what the problem is?

http://bfi.uchicago.edu/events/murphytalk/index.shtml

Don't drop out of high school and then bitch about inequality. Dropping out, out of wedlock children and substance abuse are the three prime drivers of poverty. You could have 10 million more anti-poverty programs and they will do nothing about poverty until you address the trifecta of the poor listed above. Do nothing about them and you will do nothing about poverty.

Something that can't go on forever...won't.

I recently re-read this. I still have a hard time believing it. Oh yes, I just heard the Spanish unemployment rate for the poor souls 25 and under is 55%. Bueno suarte.

http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2012/06/sand-in-gears.html

I just heard on NBC from Andrea Mitchell....

....the vote in the Iowa caucus takes place in 1000 days. Start liking the sound of "president Clinton" again.

10,000% correct...and the simplicity of it escapes 99% of the population. No Bozos allowed.

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2013/03/what-is-purpose-of-insurance.html