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I’m no Bernanke, but I do understand what balance sheet means. And GM’s balance sheet as of June, 2008…. well… SUCKS:

This company’s balance sheet NEGATIVE $58 BILLION dollars. To me that company’s worthless…

This company that needs to die. Just like homeowners who are under water (i.e. owe more than what the house is worth) foreclose, this company needs to declare bankruptcy. Screw the pensions! Why tax us hard working people so we can fund the pension plans of others?

President Obama, let inefficient companies like this die and let natural markets take its course. Don’t bail them out! (Again!)

I get so riled up. Ok.. BREEEATHE….

So I’m actively investing in residential real estate and here are some of the things I’ve found that realtors do that are “ethically unsound”:

1) Let a listing expire then re-list under a different MLS number

Before it was people just relisting as the same MLS number. Days on Market (DOM) number would be reset to 0 (so it looks like a fresh new listing), but then they came up with CDOM (Continuous DOM). So all you had to look at was CDOM to see if the inventory was moving.

But if you put it under a DIFFERENT MLS number, guess what CDOM is effectively reset.

2) List on internet without a clear address.

Instead of putting house number along with the street name, they would just put street name. Hmm.. i wonder why? Perhaps to avoid getting their license revoked for listing properties that they’re not authorized to list? Who knows..

3) Move lockboxes or change lockbox codes without proper notification

This, I still have yet to figure out why this is. The only reason I could think of us is that they either want the property themselves or want to be dual agent (representing both buyer and seller, thus double commission)

F*cking dirty. Asswipes. You can read about this major dirt bag realtor I was involved with for VERY short time.

Government has one business and one business alone: to govern. It needs to do only bare minimum: police, fire, military, public utilities, and contract enforcement. It doesn’t need to bail out businesses, building housing, pay for people’s financial and physical well being, none of that. In fact, government should not even be involved in making ethical judgements. ASPCA, for example, should not be funded by government because a mistreated pet is none of its business. Cold? Yes. Government’s job? Heck no.

From my own Judeo-Christian beliefs about what marriage is, I personally am NOT ok with gay marriages. But there are a lot of things I am NOT ok with: publically funded health insurance, our foreign policies, illegal aliens demanding political rights, DMV, etc etc. In fact, I am NOT ok with a lot of things people do with their personal lives either: overeating, abusing their bodies, working unionized jobs, suing companies for their own obvious mistakes, and so on. 

But that doesn’t mean I want the government to step in and legislate how we should live in form of a law. Government is not in the business of legislating morality or ethics. So vote no on prop 8 not because I’m not necessarily gay marriage friendly, but I just don’t want the government telling us what is OK and what is NOT as far as lifestyle goes.

Yesterday, I was at the SF US Half Marathon. It was not a pleasant experience - waking up at 5:30 AM, driving an hour to SF, looking for parking in the worst-parking area of the city, walking 20 minutes in my sandals… all this in drizzling rain and freakin’ cold sea breeze.

Waiting for the marathon to finish was no party either. I had to poo and of course, nothing but port-a-potties with absolutely no ventilation. The sample vendors were stingy and I was friggin’ hungry. Worst yet, the MP3 player I was using had only 20 songs so I was repeating the same crap over and over again.

Yeap, I was one whiney little biatch.
When the marathoners were coming around towards the finish line, I noticed this homeless Asian guy on the other side of the street. There was a live band playing rock music, and being the crazy man that he is, there was probably a party going on his head. Pretty standard sight to see in big cities like SF.

I don’t mean just “partying”… he was playing his air-guitar, pseudo-dancing, and best of all, smiling like a freakin’ kitty kat:

(well, he looked like an animal of some kind with all that hair.)

This continued for at LEAST 20 minutes. Maybe even longer. Of course, if you’re a normal person, the polite thing to do is to not stare. (Side point: If you wanted to be a terrorist/conspirator trying to be in-conspicuous, the last person that should do it is a good looking man or even worse, a good looking woman. In fact, don’t even look average or blend in. Instead dress like a homeless person. NOBODY, and I mean even security personnel, will look at you. In fact, they look away and you become invisible.)

Not me. I stared at this dude for the entire duration. I think he got uncomfortable or something because he eventually stopped smiling and left. Who knows? Maybe he was just hungry.

But I got to thinking… how is he some damn happy? From my perspective, if you’re a homeless person living in a cold city like SF, life would suck and every minute of my life would be one long torture. But apparently not!

I guess happiness isn’t a factor of external factors, like people, events, money, etc. It is WAAAAAAAAAY better to be crazy and happy than sane and miserable.

So during the recent (but now long gone) real estate boom, people were afraid that we’d hit crazy Germany-after-WWI like hyper-inflation where money was so useless that when a lady took her wheelbarrow full of money to go buy a loaf of bread and left the it outside while in the store, some thieves stole basically the wheelbarrow and left the money because the wheelbarrow was worthless. (Wow, if my high school english teacher saw this crazy run-on sentence, i’m sure I’d make her proud.)

In fact, i had friends who were actually buying commodities like gold and silver because they were scared we’d hit triple digit inflation in the near future (*ehem* Hasselhoff). Well, I guess I can’t really blame anybody for this scare because I, too, thought about doing that.

I wonder if this hyper-inflation is checked. Not because the goverment got smart or the world governing bodies decided to band together and solve this necessary-evil problem of creating money for sake of liquidity.

Simple: money just disappeared when the real estate market tanked. Plain and simple. All that cash that was pumped into the real estate and mortgage industry just vanished. I can’t get a sense of how much but my guess is close to a trillion dollars.

I’ve gotten, “Trillions? That’s impossible!”.

Well, perhaps. Think about it this way. In Sacramento, CA alone, there are something like 5000 foreclosures where each house at one point was worth $500k and now selling for around $100k. That’s $400k worth of loss… times 5000 = $2,000,000,000. That’s just ONE city. In March 12, 2007 article by Bloomberg:

As many as 1.5 million more Americans may lose their homes, another 100,000 people in housing-related industries could be fired, and an estimated 100 additional subprime mortgage companies that lend money to people with bad or limited credit may go under, according to realtors, economists, analysts and a Federal Reserve governor. Financial stocks also could extend their declines over mortgage default worries.

Of course, I doubt it’s that high because media always tends to exaggerate, but let’s give’em the benefit of the doubt. And I’ll even give the benefit of the doubt that these foreclosures lose about $250k worth of value. That’s $1.6m x $250k = $400,000,000,000.

Now, that’s just home values. What a plenty of other jobs, businesses, loans, etc. that support the real estate industry? IndyMac, Washington Mutual, Lehman Brother, etc etc. The amount of money and credit that all these corporate casualties have gone bye-bye too!

US economy is in trillions as far total worth goes. But that’s not money supply we’re talking about. We’re talking about MOOLAH that literally disappeared with the real estate bust. The fuel that drove the real estate boom (and hence the inflation) dried up.

Funny thing is…. it seems like this ain’t done yet:

The option arm reset, i.e. when the homeowners will need to refinance because a entire balloon payment and/or rate floats to market conditions, has not even peaked yet. What does this mean? Probably more foreclosures.

So I’m guessing there’s gonna be a couple hundred billions more in money just vanishing. Maybe I’m wrong. Who knows.

Funny thing is… the very thing that people thought was the cause of inflation led to its own demise.

PS: By the way, this is the BEST time to buy real estate investments (i.e. rental properties)

When shit hits the fan (i.e. current bank failures, real estate bubble bursting exploding, people losing jobs, terminal diseases, wars, natural disasters…  make your choice), people seem to have this spiritual argument: is God fair? In fact last night, I went to mass and this was exactly the topic.

This is obviously a dumb question: of course, God is fair. If you believe that God created everything, then why not random chance? Randomness is His creation too, right?

Randomness is great because it really does not care who you are.. how, what, when, where you are in fact. THis isn’t probably a good example, but Joker from the movie Batman says

Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I am an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, Harvey? It’s fair.

It’s not to say that chaos is same as random chance but the principal is the same. We are all little boats on this shaky ocean of life. We all get shit to a certain degree: some of us have more skills, some have more money, some are better looking, some are well spoken…. but to a certain extent, some of us have more fear, some have more jitters, some have more anger, some have more addictive personalities, etc.

No one is perfect and everyone is subject to the same human faults, expressed in different characteristics. And because we are all boats on this turbulet life ocean, we can choose to set our sail and exert our force + focus in the direction that we want to go. Some will suceed, most will fail (why? that’s another ph.D thesis i can get into) but the truth and matter is, we all start out from the same ocean… the same random chance of life or cards we were dealt.

People ask… “well, what about a baby who’s born into this world and die at very young age. Do you think that’s fair even if he had no chance of ’setting his sail’?” Of course not… but what if you had time machine, go to future in time, and find out that he turns out to be a serial killer who kills babies for fun? Then was it fair? We can go into zillion different if’s… but we can always think of these other if’s that support or destroy our argument too.

No one can predict or change the future… but each and everyone does have the capacity to change his/her reaction toward’s a life’s event that would ultimately dictact whether or not God was fair.

I am not sure if this is already floating on internet, but i got an email, so here it is:

Subject: The Birk Economic Recovery Plan

Hi Pals,

I’m against the $85,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child.. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend..

Of course, it would NOT be tax free.

So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.

That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.

A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.

Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads

Put away money for college - it’ll be there

Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.

Buy a new car - create jobs

Invest in the market - capital drives growth

Pay for your parent’s medical insurance - health care improves

Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it…instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( “vote buy” ) economic incentive that is being proposed
by one of our candidates for President.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG - liquidate it.

Sell off its parts.

Let American General go back to being American General.

Sell off the real estate.

Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.

Sure it’s a crazy idea that can “never work.”

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion

We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .

And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh…I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Kindest personal regards,

Birk

T. J. Birkenmeier, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic

PS: Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it’s either good for a laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!

 

I would classify myself as libertarian: if it doesn’t affect me, then I don’t spend my energy thinking about it. When it comes to economics, I would say i’m way more so.

The thing that bothers me about the AIG bailout is this: would i rather live through the next great depression or live in pain for the next 10 years? I do not know. Of course, nothing is certain. My argument presumes that the AIG is the backbone of the US, and hence, world economy. Is it? Maybe, maybe not. But those damn wall street people think it is.

It’s an interesting dilemma, even from the point of view of the voters. Would i rather have a quick death or a slow, painful torturing with a very faint hope of survival? It’s an interesting dilemma. I guess this is why people who are in veggie state (i.e. coma) and their families have such hard time deciding whether or not to pull the plug.

If I were Bernanke, I would probably lean towards bailout even though I’m a libertarian. Why? Cuz, the problem is beyond any human control now. Sure you may have the strongest boat with a shitload of crew rowing your boat, but the boat is heading towards the cliff of Niagara falls. What shall I do? Row harder or just give up? The latter seems to me, more “humane”, because at least the crew will have time to accept God or whatever they believe in… make amends with their ex-wives or what not. The first, however, does seem more heroic b/c you gave your best. Can you imagine (if he were real…) Rocky Balboa giving up at the 11th round in the fight against the Russian? Man, that would suck. There would be no movie about Rocky if he did that.

That’s how I view Bernanke/FOMC/US trying to throw the last punch against this economic meltdown crisis. It’s a bad thing, sure. It’s not a bad thing, sure. But at least, they’re trying.

I don’t know if I’ll ever become a politician b/c

1. I’m too blunt - I would tell people to f*ck off if they piss me off, especially when I’m running for office
2. My standards are too high - I would expect all my underlings to get up @ 5:00 AM and do a 5 mile run every morning while chanting brain washing slogans about life, health, happines, etc. Gov’t employees tend to be exact opposite of what I’m striving to be.
3. I’m too positive - I think being pessimistic is a requirement to have a job with Uncle Sam
4. I hate inefficienty - I can’t even stand fax. Email people… EMAIL.

But if I were a politician, this would be a very very interesting problem to encounter.

Good thing I have 3 dogs. They present more problems than the national debt crisis anyway.

Mirrored from RedMol.com

There’s a whole bunch of people who are saying these ads suck or that they serve no purpose. Really? Hmm. Bill Gate is worth $60 billion dollars. I am sure he didn’t get there by total random chance. Funny thing is, i think i would listen to them if they were successful entrepreneurs themselves, but they’re not. Just bunch of critical, whiney little bitches. That’s what critics are supposed to do.. CRITICIZE.

NO purpose? Hmm.. i am not sure either but shoot, didn’t these people watch these ads with curiosity? I bet some people (like me) even sought them out on video sharing sites. That’s what good marketing is, ain’t it? Peek you curiosity?

There’s so much Microsoft bashing among silicon valley people. Man, get a life. Instead of making fun of Microsoft, why don’t you people try and build the next Microsoft? I bet they’re like “Psshhh. i would never build such shitty product.”

I’m sure there are lots of smart people out there who can build better OS , or better mouse trap… or whatever. But can they SELL like Microsoft and have total dominance? Probably NOT cuz if they can, they probably would’ve. *badabump*

Bill, if you ever read my post, i want to say thank you for bringing the PC to the masses. Linux or Mac will never take over the PC market, cuz most of the people will never understand them. But I would like to see you fix bugs in next OS’s cuz Vista sucks.

Maybe i’m just crazy. I love these commercials. Bill’s got more ha-ha than most people realize:

What will people think of next…

According to this article:

It’s no secret that the typical workweek for Silicon Valley’s programmers and engineers is a lot longer than 40 hours. Now, the battle over whether those high-tech workers should be treated as salaried professionals or hourly employees entitled to overtime pay has moved from the courtroom to the state Capitol.

Now if Arnold passes this stupid bill, it’s going to be equivalent to shooting California’s economic foot. Go ahead and kill the golden goose. Let’s have one big orgy BBQ and blow it all up.

Sure, make more stupid gov’t rules and see what happens… people clockin’ in and out, labor unions forming and demanding pension, innovation dying, etc etc. This would effectively turn high tech Silion Valley into another Detroit, Michigan. The one industry that the US completely dominates will be just another dumpster industry.

If you’re a high tech worker, you should be OPPOSED to this too! Do you think stock options are offered to hourly employees? Hell no. Stock options is an incentive for you to work hard and in return (hopefully), have a higher payout in the end. If you get RID of this profit motive, will people innovate? I really really doubt that. Just look at what happened to USSR and Cuba.

And when was the LAST time you were forced to work more than 40 hours? Probably NEVER. ANd if you were, you have nobody to blame except yourself. You don’t like it? Then freakin’ quit! Go get another job! There’s shitload of high tech jobs and plenty of talented workers. If you are worried, then that means you suck at what you do! WHenver I needed  a job, it took me no longer than a MONTH to find a job. A job that pays WELL.If high tech workers are hourly, trust me, the companies will take that into account. It will actually LOWER per hourly basis and thus screwed in the ass even more.

And guess who’s going to benefit from all this, f*cking unions:

The industry has found a receptive ear in Schwarzenegger, who wants to clarify the overtime exemption as part of an economic stimulus package that would be included in the state budget. The governor and lawmakers are still negotiating a spending plan two months into the fiscal year. Several Democrats also have signaled they are open to the change, but the fact that it is caught up in thorny budget negotiations could be problematic.

The powerful California Labor Federation is fighting the proposal, calling it a handout to the tech industry that could open the door to overtime exemptions for other classes of workers.

There we go. Union organizers are just whiny little bitches who only care about ONE thing and ONE thing alone: membership dues from their members who they’re “out to protect”. Yeah.. out to protect their fat ass salaries so they can keep feeding their fat asses.

“Big tech companies that have been sued for cheating workers out of overtime pay are trying to make matters worse by taking away workers’ rights to that pay,” the federation wrote in a flier it passed out in the halls of the Capitol last week. “Eliminating overtime amounts to a major pay cut for families already struggling to make ends meet.”

Ok i don’t know what classifies as “high tech”… for example, if I polish computer screens in a PC factory, am I a high tech worker?

This is a statement that I cannot “prove” but I’m pretty sure high tech people get paid PRETTY well, even without stock options. Don’t believe me? Just move to Silicon Valley, Austin, Seattle, etc. I REALLY REALLY doubt these people are having trouble feeding their families.

The people who are lobbying the gov’t for this are probably pansies who

1. can’t say no to their bosses
2. can’t take responsibility for what goes on in their life so they have to whine + bitch to the government
3. are paid well but just wants to squeeze the companies for cash

This is insane. The entire high tech industry is going to suffer b/c of these few stupid assholes.

I am going to petition Arnold to re-institute neutering of people so I can chop these idiots’ balls off.