I have been having a running debate with one of my investment bank friends (call him Mike) about how to stimulate the economy. His essential premise is that below-water mortgages (where the value of the home is less than the outstanding mortgage) are causing banks to freeze lendable assets in anticipation of being forced to write down potential bad loans in the inevitable event of a homeowners default. If the government “covers” the portion of the account underwater and allows the bank to remark...

Sanity Zone 9-25-2011

The Role of Government

I am not going to offer a political commentary on this topic, but rather an attempt to offer a distillation of the competing theories of “government” and what the impacts may be. As with any short piece, there will be missing or abbreviated concepts, so address those with comments, please.

First, let’s get definitions:

• Government: A third party formed to create and enforce

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Hi Everyone.

I thought it somewhat necessary for my intellectual health to write at least something on the foolishness surrounding the so-called "Debt Crisis." I hope you all remember that I have no dog in this hunt, save that I am partial to eating and sleeping safely in my home, working for a wage, and not being persecuted for my beliefs.

For all those who wonder whether it would be catastrophic to allow the US to default on its obligations, the answer is yes....

Sanity Zone 2-4-2011 The QE2

No, the QE2 is not a boat. It stands for Quantitative Easing 2, which is fancy econo-speak for “printing money and dumping it into the currency markets.” One might wonder what all the fuss is about, as the Federal Reserve increases the money supply regularly. Well, all things equal, I can understand how this might be confusing, but this can be simple to understand with a few graphs.

The Situation:
The US economy is currently...

Don't mistake my next few statements as an indictment of ALL Eagles fans.

For those who did not get a chance to see the Eagles play the Colts Sunday afternoon, but did get a chance to see on endless replays the hit by Kurt Coleman on Austin Collie, what you didn't get so witness was what happened after the play.

It was clear that Collie had taken a helmet to helmet hit from his blind side by Coleman. It was also clear that Collie was knocked out before falling to the...