Thursday, December 31, 2009

That's all folks. Last day of the decade.

Weird, huh?

What a decade it's been too. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 11,354 on December 31st 1999. Exactly ten years later it's at 10,500. When history looks back at this decade, many people will say it was a lost decade economically. The blue chips lost 8% over a decade? That's ridiculous in itself, but lets talk about the fact that past over the past 27 months the Dow has gone from 14,100 to 6,600 back up to 10,500.

The numbers speak for themselves... and what really has caused all of this? The infamous "sub-prime mortgages"? The large bank institutions that gave loans and mortgages to everyone and their mother? The government that allowed trading, splitting up and selling of bad mortgages and loans into thousands pieces? Sure, they all contributed to where we are today, but the real root of the problem is the ignorance of fiscal responsibility of the average American.

I could bring up stats of how much more debt the average American had in 2000 versus 2007 but we all know what those numbers would look like. Where in our education system in the US is a requirement for learning how to take fiscal responsibility? In high school, the average student learns about the history of the Mayans, the periodic table and the pythagorean theorem. These are clearly more important topics than learning how to learn how to save and spend money. The combination of the ease of credit, society's image that anyone can achieve the American Dream and the lack of education of financial responsibility of our youth exploded in our faces in 2008. No wonder this will be called the lost decade.

To be continued...

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

On yo mind...

Can we address the fact that everything needs to be censored these days? It's the little things in life that help give us a sense of reality that everyday society taking away to censor 'children' these days. Why are we sheltering our future? The majority of my youth - everything was censored and it got worse over time. Is this really helping our future ? -- or is it just postponing the inevitable about life and reality. The truth is that no one can be censored their entire life and the longer you shelter someone, the longer it will take the to learn how the real world really functions. The truth is that life isn't fair and no matter how much anyone wants to argue that it is or "should be", it's not going to happen! When push comes to shove, reality will prevail. It always has and it always will.

I'd love to go on a rant about this but I just simply don't have the time... I wish I did. What's weird is that nothing specific provoked me to write this. I suppose its just built up over time.

Quick word on sports:

Sox pick up Lackey & Cameron, lose Lowell. G

Grade - B+

Good moves by the Sox. Lackey is that consistent starter they have been looking for to build off of. Disappointing to lose Lowell, but the guy is past his prime and we all know this is a business. If they could only think that way about Varitek...

I have to look more into the Rookie Catcher they are probably getting for Lowell. Not sure if hes any good.

If the Sox can pick up an all-star first basemen... Watch out Yanks.


Isles lost 7-1 last night. FML. Rollie first real bad start of the year & same with Tavares line. Oh well. Hopefully things will go better tonight. Perfect time for DiPi to come back!

Friday, December 4, 2009