No Time to Post Dr. Jones!

No post tonight as I have been doing phone calls and emails for the last hour. Why? The kitchen project planned a while ago is about to begin, and there was a slight mix up with the contractor as to when. He wanted to start THIS MONDAY and we had listed two weeks from Monday as the start date. All seems settled now the 27th, but now my wife is already getting all anxious. Fun times for this writer.....

Points for the reader that knows from where I swiped that title.

Lobby Money
Fitting with last nights post about how our leaders really have no idea what is going on, Barry Ritholtz highlights a Time Magazine piece that show the wild return on investment lobbyist are able to get for their industries. Ritholtz writes:

The print edition specifically cites Derivative trading banks and Auto Dealers as examples of ROI. Derivatives trading banks spent $28 million, and got to avoid allocating $5 billion to $7 billion to back their trades. The gain in annual profits is about $3 billion — with the risk remaining on the taxpayers. A pretty nifty return on lobbying investment (minus the lobbyists soul burning in Hell for eternity — but that’s a small price to pay.

Auto Dealers made out even better: They dropped less than $10 million dollars ($6.3 million on lobbying, and an additional $3.4 million in campaign contributions). For their troubles, the dealers get to keep $20 billion each year in undisclosed added interest and fee kickbacks to over-priced loans.

It's probably better that I do not write anything!

Have a good night.