Friday, March 18, 2011

When in Doubt, Lay it Out

A friend of mine used to say that (the title) right before he peeled out in his Trans Am and it always cracked me up.

I am a bit burned out this Friday after the event filled week. My cable and internet just came back on about a half hour ago so I am pressed for time as well. I had quite a few things I wanted to write about tonight, but I will slim it down to quick notes and then some comic relief and fun stuff to lighten the mood.

Unvarnished Opinion and Observation
No candy coating or being nice tonight, I am cutting loose.

-If I see another idiot say a country cannot default if they have a printing press I am going to scream. I like Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) as a thought project but in the end it only backs up 100% what I have said; notional money is not real money. Here is the MMT application killer should you encounter one on the street and don't want to physically assault them:
So how come every Japanese, British, and American is not given 50,000 a year from age 16 to death if printing money is so easy and with no consequence? This is where the MMT fails big time, they like to promote the printing press, but only in ways that are book keeping games between central banks. No country with it's own currency should not have 100% millionaires by their reasoning, yet it is not so.
Waiting for an answer that makes sense boys.
-Along the same lines I see that the FED said the big banks are healthy as can be and can buy back stock and raise dividends, and the FED will raise rates to 3%, HA! Just kidding. If the banks think the all clear is here, what about all those reserves sitting pretty? Do they get it in their head to deploy them?
-What would be so delicious (and I would cheer FOR the banks) is if they take all those reserves and counter all the currency intervention by central banks! Too funny and I think not too far fetched.
-Is this blog by Dinosaur Trader maybe the best thing you have read all year? It is for me, wow.
-At this point I want Warren Buffet to retire and go away.
-I was over in the 12631 chat room last night and who knew there were so many boxing fans? Cool. Search this blog with the top left search function for Boxing History and have at it. Bonus points if you can identify the fighters in this pic:


Friday Night Entertainment
Over 10,000 smiles served since 2007.

New Engine Idea?
I did not have time to really look into this but it sounds amazing:
Shockwave Generating Wave Discs Could Replace Internal Combustion Engines
Michigan researchers have built a prototype of a new auto motor that does away with pistons, crankshafts and valves, replacing the old internal combustion engine with a disc-shaped shock wave generator. It could slash the weight of hybrid cars and reduce auto emissions by 90 percent...
It consists of a rotor carved with wave-like channels. Fuel and air enter through central inlets, and the rotor spins to block their exit through a separate outlet. The sudden build-up of pressure generates a shock wave, compressing the mixture. Then it’s ignited, and as the rotor keeps spinning, the outlet opens again to let the hot gases escape. New Scientist explains in further detail.
Here is a look:

Anyone know anything about this?

Now Things are Getting Out of Hand
Regular readers know my most ardent future prediction (other than higher gold and silver) is the ever closer take over of the world by robots. Keep laughing, you will come to learn that I was right, punks.

The next step? Biological enhancements for robot brains to make them even better at killing the human race:
Semiconductors Threaded with Nerve Cells Could be the First Step Towards Biological Computers
Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

Picture Pages
It's better with pictures.

Marshmallow Kitty:
funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Uh-oh. You'll shoot your eye out is real?:
funny pictures - Mickey never bought into the whole "It's all fun and games til somebody loses an eye" crap
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
Poor Ralphie!

Not sure how this made it to the store shelves:
epic fail photos - Product Design FAIL
see more funny videos, and check out our Foul Bachelor Frog lols!
This find should beat out Kid Dynamites toy find.

Movie Clips
A couple of clips for the night.

I am totally watching "No Country for Old Men" this weekend as I have had it on my mind all week. Too many great scenes (especially the coin toss scene) but this is a close second:

Chilling.

A boxing film many have not seen is "Streets of Gold" and if you can find it (big if) I can highly recommend it:


Rock Blogging
Keep on rocking in the kind of free world.

Reader Gawains suggested some Bob Dylan and "Shelter from the Storm" live. I like it:


My lovely wife suggested "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele and this new tune rocks!:

Wow, the word timeless comes to mind.

Ok, I am going new age here! The first time I heard this song I thought the lyrics were cliche like and all that. After a while it grew on me and I can recommend "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri:

Not bad at all.

Love the Grand Funk Railroad tune "I'm Your Captain" and if you take it for a spin you will too:

Cus I just can't live without it, nice.

Only two left and I promise no Iron Maiden or Ozzy.

For me live music separates the men/women from the boys/girls. Any fool can sound great with all the studio help, but real talent live is so rare. How about Metallica playing "Sanitarium" live and it's better than the album version?:

Just get out great.

Last call. Hope you have a drink in hand.

I found a new live version of "Harden My Heart" by Quarterflash so have a run!:

Lady playing saxaphone = NICE!

Have a good night.

11 comments:

Smokin in Peosta said...

Nice music picks Dylan and Grand Funk Railroad & Adele great new voice.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Glad you like!

Stagflationary Mark said...

GYSC,

Quarterflash just took me back to the year I graduated high school!

Time flies.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Hey Mark! That song and that lady rock. I remember thinking in high school that I had all the time in the world, now not so much. Ugh.

The fighters in the picture are Tony Zale and Rocky Graziano.

Anonymous said...

Rocky Marciano on the right. Could wiki my way to the other guy, but that would be cheating.

BTW, when I was 18 I saw Raging Bull in the theater and thought it was just horrible. Recently I happened upon this movie at yahoo movies and saw it had super high reviews.


Now I thought to myself, hugh, maybe I was an idiot at 18, thinking a great movie was senseless. So of course, I had to rent it and see. Conclusion, the critics are more clueless than a freshly minted 18 year old. But at least you can count on them not to crash the car twice a year.

As for the Yahoo Users that rated the film highly, I think they just know that you have to say good things about a Dinero film.

EconomicDisconnect said...

The picture up top is from the second Tony Zale vs. Rocky Graziano fight, the only one of three that Graziano won by a 6th round knockout.

I thought Raging Bull was really good. Gritty and well filmed. Each to their own though. I think Dr. Zhivago sucks but it thought to be a classic by most.

GawainsGhost said...

Great take on MMT. But I'll quibble with you over semantics, GYC. Technically, the FED cannot print money. It can only print currency. There is a difference.

The real money is making money, which is another way of saying wealth is only created through production. Finance or lending is not, nor ever will be, a stable basis for the economy. I remember Bill Gross once said, "Credit is the lifeblood of capitalism." No, credit is a synonym for debt. Capital is the lifeblood of capitalism. That is, money making money. Until the American people figure that out, and our government stops borrowing and spending, I really don't see much hope for a sustainable recovery. Only yet another bubble being blown.

Anyway, as to Dylan, yeah, he is a particular genius. Only a handful of artists have influenced music the way he has.

It's a fascinating story, really. You know, he left the small town of Deleuth, Minnesota, and moved to Greenwich, New York, at the age of 18. There he met with writers and artists, studied poetry (he was heavily influenced by Dante). In five years, with only a guitar, harmonica and words, he had completely changed the American music scene and became the voice of a generation.

Genius is as genius does.

Anonymous said...

"So how come every Japanese, British, and American is not given 50,000 a year from age 16 to death if printing money is so easy and with no consequence?"

Who the hell said there will be "no" consequences?

If we did that there would indeed be major consequences, easiest of which would be massive unemployment - the worst of which would be out and out war with a creditor nation.

The point is, they CAN do this if they (the govt) wanted to. The logical corrolary is, they would only do this if the alternative is systematic domestic collapse, wisespread violence, & possible civil war.

Keep that straight. They will print only as much as necessary, and only so long as they gauge the risk of massive unemployment/war to be less likely than systematic collapse/violence/civil war. Anyone who says they can print as much as they want with NO consequences is an idiot. Still, if they consider the alternative to be worse, then, yes they can print all they want (and suffer the consequences).

Jennifer Hillier said...

I just choked on a chocolate mini egg. That E.T. "finger" sooooo does NOT look like a finger. So many jokes I could make but I am biting my tongue... it's painful...

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Diane Jones said...

"So how come every Japanese, British, and American is not given 50,000 a year from age 16 to death if printing money is so easy and with no consequence?" Who the hell said there will be "no" consequences? If we did that there would indeed be major consequences, easiest of which would be massive unemployment - the worst of which would be out and out war with a creditor nation. The point is, they CAN do this if they (the govt) wanted to. The logical corrolary is, they would only do this if the alternative is systematic domestic collapse, wisespread violence, & possible civil war. Keep that straight. They will print only as much as necessary, and only so long as they gauge the risk of massive unemployment/war to be less likely than systematic collapse/violence/civil war. Anyone who says they can print as much as they want with NO consequences is an idiot. Still, if they consider the alternative to be worse, then, yes they can print all they want (and suffer the consequences).