Friday, July 17, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Whitney Tilson: Why There Is More Pain To Come
Whitney Tilson: Why There Is More Pain To Come
According to one of the statistics in this presentation, 29% of all new car sales in California in 2007 were financed using Home Equity Lines of Credit. The same figure was about 20% in Florida in 2007. So, with these artificially-boosted car sales, how did the car companies still manage to go bankrupt? And how could they possibly keep up the same rate of sales during the housing crash, when HELOCs are no longer so easily obtained?
According to one of the statistics in this presentation, 29% of all new car sales in California in 2007 were financed using Home Equity Lines of Credit. The same figure was about 20% in Florida in 2007. So, with these artificially-boosted car sales, how did the car companies still manage to go bankrupt? And how could they possibly keep up the same rate of sales during the housing crash, when HELOCs are no longer so easily obtained?
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Better Than Google
Bing
Use this search engine- the searches are almost always more relevant, you can find hundreds more images than Google Image search, and the 3-D Maps are like nothing you've seen before in an online map (after you download the applet on the site). Google Maps' 'Street View' is still really useful, but if you haven't tried Bing, you really should check it out.
Use this search engine- the searches are almost always more relevant, you can find hundreds more images than Google Image search, and the 3-D Maps are like nothing you've seen before in an online map (after you download the applet on the site). Google Maps' 'Street View' is still really useful, but if you haven't tried Bing, you really should check it out.
HUNTING AIREDALE PHOTOS
HUNTING AIREDALE PHOTOS
Click on the link, and then keep clicking at the bottom of each page for more pictures- they get better with each page. Pretty cool stuff!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Light Bulbs
In 2007, Popular Mechanics did a comparison test of compact fluorescent light bulbs. They're filled with mercury, so they're not very safe for kids. But other than that, aside from the energy consumption differences between CFLs and incandescent bulbs, CFL bulbs produce a higher-quality light in my opinion. Popular Mechanics seems to agree.
Anyway, in the test, their highest-rated CFL bulb was this one.
I recently purchased a similar bulb- this one- and it is excellent for any room where you are planning to look at a computer screen (or a television i assume). The light is extremely bright and white, which makes looking at a screen much easier on your eyes.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Tornado Chasers
Lately I've been seeing these vehicles on the road on days when storms have been predicted. I can't tell who is funding their strange-looking projects. I'm guessing that there is some TV show behind this that I've never heard of. Does anyone know who is putting these vehicles together?
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Will We Have Inflation or Deflation?
First, Deflation.
Even through the years of the recent housing bubble, the U.S. economy as a whole did not experience any significant inflation, due to the balancing effects of other commodities like energy (excluding oil during the past 18 months) and consumer goods.
A very crude, simplistic explanation in real-world terms: during the U.S housing bubble, Wal-Mart expanded into smaller & smaller communities while adopting an entirely new (grocery) business, and surrounding larger U.S. cities with multiple stores. This is no accident, of course, because it ensures that a large majority of Americans are now within a 30-minute drive of a Wal-Mart store, and they make a large share of their annual spending on consumable goods at that store. Wal-Mart's effect of driving down prices (their own prices and their competitors' prices) is just one example of how the U.S. economy has avoided inflation, even during the past 2 decades of rapidly increasing prices on the most-valuable assets of most american families.
The Obama administration's monetary and fiscal policies will cause inflation, to be sure- but not until the national economy rebounds. And right now, when that rebound will happen is completely unpredictable. Until the economy begins to grow, there will be too few significant commodities with rising prices which will balance against deflation- possibly oil, and products whose prices are linked to oil, such as agricultural products via the ethanol industry.
This is just something to think about the next time you drive past a gas station with increasing prices- the rising price of oil might be a good thing, because it is virtually the only thing slowing down the cycle of deflation. Click here to read why deflation is just as bad as inflation.
Even through the years of the recent housing bubble, the U.S. economy as a whole did not experience any significant inflation, due to the balancing effects of other commodities like energy (excluding oil during the past 18 months) and consumer goods.
A very crude, simplistic explanation in real-world terms: during the U.S housing bubble, Wal-Mart expanded into smaller & smaller communities while adopting an entirely new (grocery) business, and surrounding larger U.S. cities with multiple stores. This is no accident, of course, because it ensures that a large majority of Americans are now within a 30-minute drive of a Wal-Mart store, and they make a large share of their annual spending on consumable goods at that store. Wal-Mart's effect of driving down prices (their own prices and their competitors' prices) is just one example of how the U.S. economy has avoided inflation, even during the past 2 decades of rapidly increasing prices on the most-valuable assets of most american families.
But now housing prices are falling, too.This makes it almost impossible to slow down deflation, much less prevent it.
The Obama administration's monetary and fiscal policies will cause inflation, to be sure- but not until the national economy rebounds. And right now, when that rebound will happen is completely unpredictable. Until the economy begins to grow, there will be too few significant commodities with rising prices which will balance against deflation- possibly oil, and products whose prices are linked to oil, such as agricultural products via the ethanol industry.
This is just something to think about the next time you drive past a gas station with increasing prices- the rising price of oil might be a good thing, because it is virtually the only thing slowing down the cycle of deflation. Click here to read why deflation is just as bad as inflation.
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