David Chartier’s Friends

Open Letter to Rep. DeGette and any other member of Congress

nobody@vox.com(John Gaskell) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:29:08 -0600

Here is an email I just sent off to Rep. Diane DeGette, my Congresswoman:

Dear Rep. DeGette,

I appreciate your taking time to write the letter back to all of the concerned constituents that I am sure contacted you regarding the Wall Street Bail Out. And by now, I think you are beginning to see why we are angry. We are angry because Congress has once again added trillions of dollars to our national debt to bail out organizations that will not survive regardless of what we do. The culture on Wall Street is corrupt and un-sustainable.

The entire premise of Adam Smith's creation of free market capitalism is that each entrepreneur, each business, indirectly helps themselves and their fellow man. The baker helps himself by making and selling bread and helps his fellow man by feeding him. The premise requires that greed, corruption are kept in check by the proprietor and moral behavior is followed. Without this proper moral compass, free market capitalism, in its purest form cannot function. Executives of many large corporations have lost their moral compass to the mandate of maximizing share holder profits in the short term and ensuring maximum bonuses for the corporate elite. Since they are incapable of moral behavior, we must then regulate them.

I believe one way to reduce the greed of Wall Street is to take away the temptation. I would suggest you author a bill NOW that would mandate a maximum executive compensation for all public companies. If this will not fly, make the law apply to those that make bids on government contracts or receive federal bail-out assistance; Basically, any company that receives federal dollars must agree to a maximum executive compensation agreement of no more than say, 20 times their lowest employee's salary. Want to increase your pay? Increase the salary of the workers below you.

Please let me know what your thoughts are on this proposal. I believe now is the time to make a change in the culture of business in America. This proposal will help the American workers, shareholders and help regain the public's trust in publicly traded companies.
Thank you,

John Gaskell

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Push the button, Frank

nobody@vox.com(superpixel) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:56:32 -0600

This "bailout" isn't padding CEO accounts or buying diamonds for Blofeld. It's is oiling the machine of our markets and if we don't pass it there will be worse consequences than a trillion bucks added to our debt. It SOUNDS like a lot of money, but for what it'll do it might as well be the superconducting-synth-oil from the future...

When money market accounts are trading sub-par you have to be very worried about these things. Here's hoping tomorrow Congress figures this out and quits the saber-rattling.

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My Answer to the President

nobody@vox.com(John Gaskell) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:44:09 -0600

Sit and learn from the master

John Gaskell
mrgaskell@me.com
Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Congresman Ron Paul
> Date: September 25, 2008 1:52:18 PM MDT
> To: mrgaskell@mac.com
> Subject: My Answer to the President
> Reply-To: Congresman_Ron_Paul_bcpag_lnavwj@cp20.com
>

> Dear Friends:
>
> The financial meltdown the economists of the Austrian School > predicted has arrived.
>
> We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created > credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution > being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No > liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed. By doing > more of the same, we will only continue and intensify the > distortions in our economy - all the capital misallocation, all the > malinvestment - and prevent the market's attempt to re-establish > rational pricing of houses and other assets.
>
> Last night the president addressed the nation about the financial > crisis. There is no point in going through his remarks line by line, > since I'd only be repeating what I've been saying over and over - > not just for the past several days, but for years and even decades.
>
> Still, at least a few observations are necessary.
>
> The president assures us that his administration "is working with > Congress to address the root cause behind much of the instability in > our markets." Care to take a guess at whether the Federal Reserve > and its money creation spree were even mentioned?
>
> We are told that "low interest rates" led to excessive borrowing, > but we are not told how these low interest rates came about. They > were a deliberate policy of the Federal Reserve. As always, > artificially low interest rates distort the market. Entrepreneurs > engage in malinvestments - investments that do not make sense in > light of current resource availability, that occur in more > temporally remote stages of the capital structure than the pattern > of consumer demand can support, and that would not have been made at > all if the interest rate had been permitted to tell the truth > instead of being toyed with by the Fed.
>
> Not a word about any of that, of course, because Americans might > then discover how the great wise men in Washington caused this great > debacle. Better to keep scapegoating the mortgage industry or > "wildcat capitalism" (as if we actually have a pure free market!).
>
> Speaking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the president said: > "Because these companies were chartered by Congress, many believed > they were guaranteed by the federal government. This allowed them to > borrow enormous sums of money, fuel the market for questionable > investments, and put our financial system at risk."
>
> Doesn't that prove the foolishness of chartering Fannie and Freddie > in the first place? Doesn't that suggest that maybe, just maybe, > government may have contributed to this mess? And of course, by > bailing out Fannie and Freddie, hasn't the federal government shown > that the "many" who "believed they were guaranteed by the federal > government" were in fact correct?
>
> Then come the scare tactics. If we don't give dictatorial powers to > the Treasury Secretary "the stock market would drop even more, which > would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your > home could plummet." Left unsaid, naturally, is that with the > bailout and all the money and credit that must be produced out of > thin air to fund it, the value of your retirement account will drop > anyway, because the value of the dollar will suffer a precipitous > decline. As for home prices, they are obviously much too high, and > supply and demand cannot equilibrate if government insists on > propping them up.
>
> It's the same destructive strategy that government tried during the > Great Depression: prop up prices at all costs. The Depression went > on for over a decade. On the other hand, when liquidation was > allowed to occur in the equally devastating downturn of 1921, the > economy recovered within less than a year.
>
> The president also tells us that Senators McCain and Obama will join > him at the White House today in order to figure out how to get the > bipartisan bailout passed. The two senators would do their country > much more good if they stayed on the campaign trail debating who the > bigger celebrity is, or whatever it is that occupies their attention > these days.
>
> F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize for showing how central banks' > manipulation of interest rates creates the boom-bust cycle with > which we are sadly familiar. In 1932, in the depths of the Great > Depression, he described the foolish policies being pursued in his > day - and which are being proposed, just as destructively, in our own:
>
> Instead of furthering the inevitable liquidation of the > maladjustments brought about by the boom during the last three > years, all conceivable means have been used to prevent that > readjustment from taking place; and one of these means, which has > been repeatedly tried though without success, from the earliest to > the most recent stages of depression, has been this deliberate > policy of credit expansion.
>
> To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt > to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because > we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to > create further misdirection - a procedure that can only lead to a > much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an > end... It is probably to this experiment, together with the attempts > to prevent liquidation once the crisis had come, that we owe the > exceptional severity and duration of the depression.
>
> The only thing we learn from history, I am afraid, is that we do not > learn from history.
>
> The very people who have spent the past several years assuring us > that the economy is fundamentally sound, and who themselves > foolishly cheered the extension of all these novel kinds of > mortgages, are the ones who now claim to be the experts who will > restore prosperity! Just how spectacularly wrong, how utterly > without a clue, does someone have to be before his expert status is > called into question?
>
> Oh, and did you notice that the bailout is now being called a > "rescue plan"? I guess "bailout" wasn't sitting too well with the > American people.
>
> The very people who with somber faces tell us of their deep concern > for the spread of democracy around the world are the ones most > insistent on forcing a bill through Congress that the American > people overwhelmingly oppose. The very fact that some of you seem to > think you're supposed to have a voice in all this actually seems to > annoy them.
>
> I continue to urge you to contact your representatives and give them > a piece of your mind. I myself am doing everything I can to promote > the correct point of view on the crisis. Be sure also to educate > yourselves on these subjects - the Campaign for Liberty blog is an > excellent place to start. Read the posts, ask questions in the > comment section, and learn.
>
> H.G. Wells once said that civilization was in a race between > education and catastrophe. Let us learn the truth and spread it as > far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the > greatest weapon we have.
>
> In liberty,
>
>
>
> Ron Paul
>
>
> Political Advertisement paid for by Committee to Re-Elect Ron Paul
>
>
> You are subscribed to this newsletter as mrgaskell@mac.com. Please > click here to modify your message preferences or to unsubscribe from > any future mailings. We will respect all unsubscribe requests.
>

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Bill and Ted's Economic Downturn

nobody@vox.com(superpixel) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:09:00 -0600

The only thing Bush may have done right was to put Bernake and Paulsen in place before the shit hit the fan. Bernake did his PhD thesis on what caused the 1929 market crash and the fallout, while Paulsen used to run Goldman-Sachs and knows precisely what all this mess is about-- and the impact.

Let's face it, this is an ugly situation. The giant bailout is just a patch on a big-ass hole some very greedy SOB's dug for the rest of us. Remember the "wanna mortgage? click the flying monkey!!!" days? Yeah, that was, in retrospect, a very bad idea.

So bottom line: this won't really fix this mess. It will, however, prevent a massive run in the market that could shake global markets and cause a massive economic meltdown that would be far worse than an additional trillion-dollar debt.

Sounds crazy? Crazy like a fox.

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Why isn't this an iPhone app yet?

nobody@vox.com(superpixel) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:41:41 -0600

- A GPS-enabled alarm clock. Legend has it some guy has created one of these using the Bug Labs platform, but wouldn't this be relatively easy on the iPhone? This is for folks who commute via train and wind up falling asleep on the commute, in case you were wondering.

- A "holographic" pet or 2. There's one freakin' "virtual pet" app right now. And it looks kinda lame. I'm talking about 3D pets, since there are a couple of "cutesy" 2D versions... There's this kickin' preview of what a "holographic" iPhone animation would look like, which gave me a crazy idea. Now if only I knew someone who could do the dev work! But there's also just a pet you can view in 3D using the accelerometer.

- XYZ Construction Set or SimCity. Dude, seriously. You've finally got a decent click-and-drag interface on a mobile device! Moving stuff around, rotating, etc. are all stupid easy on the iPhone. Apps that let you build stuff (then play it or use it outside the device) should be gold. There's a primitive 3D app on the store now, but wouldn't a landscape or dream house app be cool?

I could keep going, but at this point I really just need to ping a developer!

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The Vagina Demagogues

nobody@vox.com(superpixel) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:11:51 -0600

If you are a Democrat and you supported Hillary but now you're going to vote for Palin you are sexist. You're also proving the sexist commenters correct: you're voting for gender apart from policy.

You know the old saying "wolf in sheep's clothing"? Well, Palinators, you're falling for it! Don't believe me? Think voting for the Hockey MILF is gonna advance the cause of women's rights? OK, how about this:

As mayor, Sarah Palin made rape victims pay for their own rape kits.

Classy, huh?

Please read this post and then tell me how AWESOME Palin is for women. She's not. She was put on the ticket to confuse voters, distract from actual debate and pretty much sink Obama's shot at the White House. It is working. Don't be an idiot.

The only good thing I can say is that with the US Gov't nationalizing several insurance and lending institutions, the next president will have no choice but to increase taxes or watch inflation skyrocket (we've already printed way too much money). Actually, that's not true. They could also take the other route: cut the budget until it bleeds. If you thought groups like NPR, NEA, even the EPA and FDA were cut to shreds during the Reagan years, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Enjoy.

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McElection

nobody@vox.com(superpixel) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 11:17:31 -0600

I'm going to talk about the real McElection in a moment, but I have to say first, a Google search of "McElection" brings up a series of fake political ads that are really tasty.

McElection: Time for Change

Now, the real, live election has become a McElection of its own. It would appear the voters have decided to opt for the Happy Meal because it comes with a shiny new toy. Very well, it is only fitting that we can't squeeze into our skinny jeans any more than we can fit into our smart genes any more.

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You can catch me on Twitter

nobody@vox.com(superpixel) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:30:25 -0600

Trying ShoZu for iphone and thought I should explain where I'm at most often these days.
Twitter is easy for me to update. It is also where many of my coworkers, friends and business opportunities spend time tweeting about their day.
For a guy who spends his days in the back of a garage it is one way to keep sane.
I'm vagredajr on Twitter if you're interested.

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Trading Places

nobody@vox.com(John Gaskell) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:21:05 -0600

Great article on “demographic inversion” seen in many major US cities. The author, Alan Ehrenhalt, argues that economic factors (see: gas, long commutes) is causing people to move back into the cities. I would argue that the lack a of sense of community in the sprawling suburbs, coupled with more family-centric urban housing development and parks is making urban living more fashionable and economically favorable.

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Woo, I'm blogging again!

nobody@vox.com(superpixel) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:53:59 -0600

After an extended vacation from unfiltered personal blogging, I'm back on vox to continue my verbal assault on good sense. Or something.

At the least, I'll share my travails as a work-at-home dad. Or something.

Ah, who am I kidding? I'll be lucky just to keep up with my wife's blog!

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