Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Mike]

Great piece, Doc. Thank you for sharing. The author illuminates the biggest problem facing our country: Both parties like to spend like drunk sailors on shore leave and nether makes concessions. Instead of budget meetings centered on "we'll cut this if you cut that", we get "we'll let you spend on that if you let us spend on this". The social security age needs to be raised about 5 years, defense spending needs to be slashed by 30%, healthcare needs price controls - no more $110 aspirin and tissues. Then we use the savings to rebuild our own infrastructure instead of trying to build functioning democracies in third world shithole theocracies full of people who hate our guts. If people spent less on healthcare and student loans than they do on mortgages and cars the economy would churn at a rate unseen since the Eisenhower administration. We might even aspire to do something daring and great like send men to Mars instead of kids to the Middle East.

But we'll probably just continue to throw poop at each other until the whole thing collapses.

[Ghengis Jon]

You'll never be a politician Mike. You need to start lying, blustering, and be insulting. You need to spew your nonsensical political fantasies, shamelessly pander for votes, and promise what you have no intent of following through with. You should be far more arrogant, show the nation you have absolutely no clue how to maturely interact with the rest of the world, demonstrate intellectual flatulence when it comes to policy issues both foriegn and domestic, and need a much, much larger messiah complex. Speak in sound bites and flash a phony smile into all available cameras whenever possible. Use words like "forward", "winning", and "Merica". Pretend to care about people. And I don't care how good your legal team is, stop drowning kittens in your idle hours. The time is much better spent shaking down lobbyists and corporations for cash.

[hack]

I think one thing Americans all could use is a reminder of the rigidities built into the system. Whilst it's true that clear-headed flyover country leaders arrive in DC ready to cut the fat but instead get seduced into this dirty system, there are other elements that just can't be tampered with. One example was that someone last week reminded me that before the US attacked Iraq, Saddam was trying to sell his oil in any currency other than dollars. The US's global economic standing would be severely damaged if oil weren't traded in dollars. That's a good example of this kind of rigidity -- no pol can mess with that. With all my focus on military contracting and the Saudis, that was a good reminder for me of something the US actually does get from Saudi -- an assurance that the most powerful oil actor is going to keep the most important commodity dollarized. The US probably didn't need to take out Saddam solely because it was worried about oil being traded in other currencies, but it's surely one of a set of underlying motives that dovetail with Dick Cheney's pocketbook, etc. I don't like it one bit, and maybe the whole thing is a faustian bargain, but I'm not going to be the pol that severs those ties and stops that spending in the process, unless I truly understand the consequences. And there will always consequences we cannot predict.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Hack ..... excellent counterpoint to David Stockman's article which, while I found interesting and I don't disagree one bit with Mike's post on it, I too found Stockman's piece heavy on ideology and weak on realism ...... and he, of all people, should understand this. It's a lot like Sanders beating his ideological socialist drum and Trump's populist one.

Stockman berates voters for putting in office the types he derides but it takes a hell of an intellect and an accurate world view to see this and do something about it with your ballot. We all know the American electorate is never going to fully understand the dysfunctional mess the "Imperial City" is in and how to dismantle it and at the same time preserve the Republic.

[Hannibal]

Trump is the guy that everyone thought they wanted for decades -- a guy who isn't a mealy-mouthed politician that is beholden to party lines and special interests. Only for some reason, everyone hoped that this unicorn candidate would be a nice, well-spoken guy. It's unrealistic. The only guy who was ever going to challenge the system was somebody who was a self-made billionaire who is has also perfected the art of trolling for free media time. Decades of political correctness have ensured that we can never have civil discourse about subjects like immigration, so the only guy who can bring up the subject is somebody who doesn't engage in civil discourse. It's really that simple.

This election the realistic choices still available are either Barack Obama's third term (Hillary), George W's third term (Cruz or Rubio), or Trump.

[Mike]

Yep. I think I'll have to punch a ticket for the HillTron 4000, go home and have a good cry, then move on with life.

[The Oracle]

Donald Trump was a self made billionaire?

[Hannibal]

Donald Trump was a self made billionaire?

Absolutely. His net worth is a couple of orders of magnitude higher than what he inherited.

[The Oracle]

I don't consider someone inheriting a hundred million dollars to be a self made anything.

[Mike]

I've seen it reported that had he simply invested the $200 million he inherited in an S&P index fund, he'd be worth more than he is today. Basically, he has performed slightly worse than the market average over that time span.

[Hannibal]

I don't consider someone inheriting a hundred million dollars to be a self made anything.

So it's a piece of cake to increase your net worth by two orders of magnitude? Yeah that explains why all trust fund babies easily become billionaires.

FTR the $200 Million number comes from Marco Rubio and not Trump. I haven't seen any reliable fact checking on what that number is.

[The Oracle]

Everything I've seen estimates it between $40M-200M. That's why I said $100M, could be higher or a little lower. Doesn't change the point. Fine, he's not a complete moron to blow though tens or hundreds of millions of dollars and keep his growth in line with the market or a little above.

Someone like Phil Knight would be a better example of self made.

[drok]

If he simply invested in an unmanaged fund, he would have made more, so yes, it is a piece of cake.

[Ghengis Jon]

We're stuck with Hillary for two reasons. One, the Dem establishment knows that she will beat (margin varies) any of the GOP pretenders so it is operating in a manner to insure her nomination. Two, the GOP has utterly and completely failed to put forth a candidate with the wisdom and intellectual firepower for the office of President. I desperately do not want to vote for the HillTron 4000 and all other candidates offered are worse than that pathetic option. Its going to be Leona Helmsley vs David Berkowitz. Whatta choice.

[Hannibal]

If he simply invested in an unmanaged fund, he would have made more, so yes, it is a piece of cake.

Assuming that:

1. You use the highest available number for what he inherited. Like I said above, that number comes from Marco Rubio, one of his slimy opponents.

2. You also use the lowest available estimate of his net worth, which is far less than the number he reported when he filed the paperwork to run for President.

3. He would have lived in a trailer park with no expenses, when in reality he has lived a lavish lifestyle complete with private jets, huge mansions, expensive lawyers, and ex-wives who have taken big chunks of money with them when they left.

4. You ignore the fact that Trump was highly successful long before his dad died.