Plexico Burress: The Government is More Afraid of Citizens with Guns than Drunk Drivers

The Libertarians and NRA should support him and work to get him free. "Consider the nonautomotive case of Plaxico Burress, who accidentally shot himself with an unregistered, concealed gun. Stupid? Yes. Illegal. Yes. End result? A painful leg injury (to himself)—and two years in jail. Now compare that with fellow NFL player Leonard Little, who in 1998 ran a red light and smashed into a car whose driver died the next day from her injuries. Little was found to have a BAC of 0.19, more than twice the legal limit in the state of Missouri. Stupid? Yes. Illegal? Yes. End result? Another person lost her life. Little's sentence, compared with Burress', was minor: 90 days. He missed only eight football games and was able to keep his license." From "In Praise of Traffic Tickets" by Tom Vanderbilt

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Warren Buffett's Children and Philanthropy

When Warren Buffett donated $30 billion to the Gates Foundation, he also gave $1 billion to each of his children's foundations to give away.  He challenged them to actively get involved in giving away the money and making a difference. Fast Company has an article on the lessons they have learned since then.

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Very Well-Written and Researched Article on The Healthcare Crisis

In "The New Yorker", Atul Gawande has a very good article on the health-care crisis.  It is 8 pages, but well-worth reading. Basically, he looked at McAllen, Texas which is a border town that has the highest medical expenditure in the country.  Why are the prices high?  Texas has medical tort reform.  Because of poverty, there is a high amount of alcoholism and obesity, but about the same rates as El Paso, which spends a lot less. Ultimately, he concludes that it comes down to the doctors and their mentality.  In McAllen, the doctors are entrepreneurial, and look at patients as a source of revenue.  More than in other cities, the doctors own partnerships in for-profit hospitals and diagnostic centers and tend to schedule more diagnostic tests and follow-up visits. At the Mayo clinic, by contrast, they have some of the cheapest and best heathcare.  There, it is set up that doctors are on salary and profits are pooled and distributed.  They put patients first over maximizing revenue.  The critical thing is that doctors meet and brain storm together, as an alternative to ordering more tests. Gawande feels that all the current proposals (having private insurance companies vs. public options vs. single-payer vs. health savings accounts) are all missing the point.  The only way to reduce costs and improve health care is to provide incentives for physicians to privately form associations to work together. I think he is probably right that unnecessary tests are why healthcare is expensive and, since TX has tort reform, it's not that the doctors need to cover themselves, but because of profits. But, that doesn't mean entrepreneurship is the problem.  It's just that the doctors are clever enough to exploit the real issue - that the people who pay aren't the people who benefit.  If people were price conscious (paying out of their pocket, for example) it would be hard to sell extra, expensive tests. I saw one of Dylan Ratigan's articles where he also described this.  He said that no other form of insurance is tied to your employer.  He described health insurance like you and your collegues go out to lunch and know that the total bill will be split between all of you and your employer pays half and chooses the restaurant.  So you are limited to the choices there and will pick the most expensive option because you know that the cost will be split. Getting a plan independent of work is like dining alone.  You are responsible for the whole bill, so you might not take the most expensive package of benefits.

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Are European Stocks Currently Under-priced and Good Investments?

Forbes magazine recently recommended these ETFs:

Vanguard European (VGK)

Market Vectors Russia (RSX)

SPDR S&P Emerging Europe(GUR)

iShares MSCI Sweden (EWD)

All of these funds should do well through buy and hold, or by trading them according to the Stock Trading Riches system.

The middle two picks (RSX, GUR) might be especially volatile and, hence, generate a lot of trades in my system.

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India Fund (IFN) Trade Example

After I published my book on stock trading, I found that, when we would go to parties, people would start talking to me about the markets and finance.

Most asked for my opinions on the market, economy, and/or stocks.  Some people, though, would tell me things like investing in stocks is gambling, and that you have no control.

I don't agree because a good system will give you an edge. Instead of being like a gambler, you are more like the house/casino. As long as you set "table limits" (e.g. don't over-trade) you can build wealth over time.

Here is an actual trade that I experienced. It shows my Stock Trading Riches system (and its edge) in action:

I initially bought 142 shares of the India Fund (IFN) at $14.07 in January, 2005 and then turned over the management of this position to my formula.

Here are the buys/sells that the formula recommended in January of each year:

2005 Buy 142 shares @ $14.07
2006 Sell 72 shares @ $28.27
2007 No Trade @ $28.61
2008 Sell 19 shares @ $39.05
2009 Buy 66 shares @ $16.97

Even though IFN went up 21% from 2005 to 2009, the formula was up 82%.

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Another Example of How Government Censorship is dumb and useless

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/aug2009/bw20090820_237166.htm Alabama banned a California wine because they thought the label was too racy. All it did was explode interest and sales for the winery...

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Jet Blue's All-you-can-jet

Jet Blue is selling $599 all you can fly passes until Aug 21. It will let you fly unlimited domestic and international trips between Sept 8 and Oct 8. You only have to pay taxes for int'l trips. You can only take one flight per day, and each trip must be booked 3 days in advance.  Other than that, there don't seem to be any catches. It's interesting!

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Les Paul, A Major Influence on Modern Music Technology, Died

This article shows that Les Paul was a real tinkerer: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090813/ap_on_en_mu/us_obit_les_paul

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Fw: Flori "duh"

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/specials/weirdflorida/blog/2009/08/oh_no_niceville_again_police.html

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Ben Stein, Creationism, and Roger Ebert

Ben Stein, former Nixon speech writer, funny in "Ferris Bueller", and host of the old Comedy Central show "Win Ben Stein's Money", turned cynically 180 degrees from being smart, and created a movie bashing evolution and praising intelligent design, so he can kiss up to the evangelical nut jobs in the republican party. Roger Ebert totally ripped on it: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/12/win_ben_steins_mind.html

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$100 Million Payday for Energy Trader?

Andrew J. Hall is the head of a small trading company called Philbro. He made a lot of money for Citigroup and now his contract calls for a nine figure bonus.

The problems are:

1. Will the government allow it? They probably will because it is well-documented in his contract.

2. If they pay the bonus, Citigroup may experience a public backlash.

3. If they don't pay the bonus, other companies will be happy to hire him.

I think this situation shows the complications and problems that arise when government gets too involved in business.

Citibank is at a big disadvantage with the government having a veto power over their bonuses. Other companies are already trying to lure away Citigroup's superstars.

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Sign of the Times: NJ Family are the ONLY Residents in a Luxury FL Condo High Rise

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090801/ap_on_re_us/us_lonely_highrise

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