Aftermath 2022 Blog: March 2014

Monday, March 31, 2014

G30 up 1.84%

G30 as of 3/31/2014
			Shares (M)	Shares (M)	Price	Price	Total (M)	Total (M)
Rank	Symbol	Company	02/28/14	03/31/14	02/28/14	03/31/14	02/28/14	03/31/14
1	AAPL	Apple Inc	891.99	891.99	526.24	536.74	469,401	478,767
2	XOM	Exxon Mobil	4340	4320	96.27	97.68	417,812	421,978
3	GOOG	Google	336.05	336.05	1,215.65	1,114.51	408,519	374,531
4	MSFT	Microsoft	8300	8300	38.31	40.99	317,973	340,217
5	BRK-A	Berkshire Hath	1.65	1.65	173,708	187,350	286,618	309,128
6	JNJ	Johnson Johnson	2820	2820	92.12	98.23	259,778	277,009
7	WFC	Wells Fargo	5260	5260	46.42	49.74	244,169	261,632
8	GE	General Electric	10090	10030	25.47	25.89	256,992	259,677
9	SSNLF	Samsung	210.31	210.31	1,275.00	1,220.00	268,145	256,578
10	WMT	Wal-Mart	3240	3230	74.70	76.43	242,028	246,869
11	RDS-B	Royal Dutch Shell	3150	3150	77.92	78.11	245,448	246,047
12	NSRGY	Nestle	3190	3190	75.44	75.22	240,654	239,952
13	JPM	JP Morgan Chase	3760	3760	56.82	60.71	213,643	228,270
14	CVX	Chevron	1920	1910	115.33	118.91	221,434	227,118
15	PG	Proctor Gamble	2710	2710	78.66	80.60	213,169	218,426
16	NVS	Novartis	2430	2430	83.18	85.02	202,127	206,599
17	PFE	Pfizer	6480	6380	32.11	32.12	208,073	204,926
18	IBM	IBM	1050	1040	185.17	192.49	194,429	200,190
19	VZ	Verizon	2860	4140	47.58	47.57	136,079	196,940
20	HSBC	HSBC Holdings	3750	3750	52.79	50.83	197,963	190,613
21	T	ATT	5230	5210	31.93	35.07	166,994	182,715
22	ORCL	Oracle	4500	4460	39.11	40.91	175,995	182,459
23	BAC	Bank of America	10590	10570	16.53	17.20	175,053	181,804
24	BHP	BHP Billiton	2660	2660	68.90	67.77	183,274	180,268
25	KO	Coca Cola	4420	4410	38.20	38.66	168,844	170,491
26	BUD	Anheuser-Busch	1630	1610	104.61	105.30	170,514	169,533
27	MRK	Merck	2920	2940	56.99	56.77	166,411	166,904
28	AMZN	Amazon	459.26	459.26	362.10	336.36	166,298	154,477
29	FB	Facebook	2550	2550	68.46	60.24	174,573	153,612
30	BP	BP plc	3100	3100	50.61	48.10	156,891	149,110
							6,949,300	7,076,834
								1.84%

I dumped Citigroup (C) and Comcast (CMCSA) and added Nestle (NSRGY) and Samsung (SSNLF). The totals don't match the 2/28/14 numbers because of the changes.

============
Update: I think Total SA (TOT) should perhaps be added. It now has a market cap of $150 billion.

Is HealthCare.gov Radikal?

The HealthCare.gov website has a distinct logo:

It is hard to identify with just those letters, but note the Futura-style "a", and the hook on the small "t", which is not Futura. Also note the Futura-style "g" without the lower loop. There are literally tens of thousands of fonts available, but I think I have identified it. It is called "Radikal" and is available for license at myfonts.com for $30. Luckily there is a way of previewing custom text. Compare these:

Ding, Ding, Ding, we have a match! The first part of it is Radikal Medium, and the ".gov" part is Radikal UltraThin. But look at the lower-case g, it doesn't quite match. In the logo, the g has a more rounded top, so it could be some other logo.

But that is the only part of the website that uses that font. Because the font has a bizarre k. Check this out:

Now you know the rest of the story.

Who cares what you say, as long as you look good doing it

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-calls-on-vladimir-putin-to-move-russian-troops-from-ukraine/

Who cares what it says, I find it very attractive. The nice round O's, the hooks on the lower case L's, and the tail on those T's. The T's kind of look like upside down F's.

What is it? A sans-serif, not Arial, that's for sure. It says "museo-sans". There is also reference to "nimbus-sans". So I think it is one of those two. Very nice.

Here is more, with a fitting headline:

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/teen-says-theres-a-way-to-save-the-federal-government-millions-down-to-the-letter/

I've done a little searching, but these are the only two examples I've found on the entire web and on CBSNews.com where Museo Sans is actually used (other than typography sites).

Samsung Profile

Company name: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Stock symbol: SSNLF
Headquarters: Suwon, South Korea
Industry: Electronics
Stock price (as of 3/28/2014): 1,220.0
Share Outstanding: 210.3 mn
Market Cap: 256,566 mn
Annual Revenues: 268.8 bn
Annual Profits: 30.1 bn
Assets: 590 bn
Rank on the Fortune 500 List: 14
Percent stock ownership by US citizens: 35%

I hadn't previously included Samsung on my list of Global 30 stocks because it wasn't listed on the NYSE. Also it doesn't seem to be traded very frequently. Nevertheless, a large part of the company is owned by mutual funds. And it did increase in value during the 4th quarter of 2013. So I will add it the next time I update it, in a couple of days.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Font Test

I made my own font. It wasn't succesful, but it was interesting. Note that the Th and qu are one letter, and this has both a short i (in the word "quick") and a regular I. Note also the schwa (backwards e). I used BitFontMaker.

Here is another version. I modified the font using TypeLight.

The Pope wants you to sign up for Obamacare

The President will do anything to promote the Unaffordable Care Act.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Lucida Console vs Verdana

These are very similar fonts, but the Lucida Console has more space. I think I will use it as my default font.

(Lucida Console) Grumpy wizards make toxic brew for the evil queen and Jack.

(Verdana) Grumpy wizards make toxic brew for the evil queen and Jack.

Art Deco fonts

Source: http://ruffledblog.com/art-deco-week-fonts/

The above fonts are: 1. Andes 2. Broadway 3. Niteclub 4. Parisian 5. Deco Tech 6. Anastasia

Chicago font

This was the default font on Macintosh. It looks like the tops of the b's d's h's and t's were chopped off.

These guys really hate Arial

I don't have the same problem, but it is interesting for font nerds.

Why I don't like Serif fonts

There are a lot of fonts out there. How do you narrow them down? First, although most Serif fonts look better, they suffer from a fatal flaw - the lower case l's look just like 1's. The Sans-Serif fonts do not have this problem, but some of the monospace fonts, like Courier do.

The Georgia font does a better job in this regard, since the 1's are much shorter. But I don't like the shorter 1. And all the rest of them are screwed up.

So I henceforth ban Courier and Times New Roman from use on this blog. For the moment, my default font is Trebuchet.

Just to make this clear, this is Courier, mixing up the 1's and l's.

And this is Times New Roman, mixing up the 1's and l's.

Didn't anybody think of this when designing the fonts?

Sans-Serif Font Test

There are a lot more of these so I will make the text shorter.

(Arial) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Arial Black) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Arimo) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Calibri) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Candara) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Century Gothic) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Corbel) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Corbert) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(DejaVu Sans) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(DejaVu Sans Condensed) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(eurofurence light) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Franklin Gothic Medium) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Lucida Sans Unicode) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Modern) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Tahoma) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Trebuchet) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Verdana) The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

Serif Font Test

This is a test of Serif fonts. Again, these may not display on other computers.

(Cambria) The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Caslon) The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Clarendon) The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(DejaVu Serif) The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(EB Garamond) The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Garamond) The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Georgia) The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Palatino) The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Rockwell) The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Times New Roman) The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

===============
EB Garamond is not working, for whatever reason.

Monospaced Font Test

I am using this to test various monospaced fonts. I am using Windows 8, so these may not appear on other types of computers.

Here is my test phrase, first in the default font.

(Courier formatted). The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Consolas). The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Courier css). The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Courier New). The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(DejaVu Sans Mono). The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Fixedsys). The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Lucida Console). The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(QuickType Mono). The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(QuickType II Mono). The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

(Terminal). The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. The job requires extra pluck and zeal from every young wage earner. 0123456789

=============

Conclusion: Consolas does not display, for whatever reason. Courier is the same as Courier New and QuickType Mono is the same as QuickType II Mono. DejaVu Sans Mono looks the best. Note the funky looking lower case L.

Verizon Wireless is $113.5 billion in debt

See: http://www.verizon.com/investor/outstandingdebt.htm

I wonder if there are any companies that owe more.

Lucinda Blackletter

Most fonts look pretty much alike. So let me start with one that definitely stands out: Lucida Blackletter. And to get the right feel, I will use an old version of the Lord's Prayer in it.

Source: Luke 11:1-4 in the Coverdale Bible (at www.studylight.org) using the Lucinda Blackletter font.

Garamond font saves ink

Using the General Services Administration's estimated annual cost of ink -- $467 million -- Suvir concluded that if the federal government used Garamond exclusively it could save nearly 30% -- or $136 million per year. An additional $234 million could be saved annually if state governments also jumped on board, he reported.

Read more: http://www.koco.com/entertainment/teen-to-govt-change-your-typeface-save-millions/25206146

You have to install Garamond, since it doesn't come by default on Windows. Here is how it looks:

I usually use Times New Roman for everything. I think Garamond has a very British feel to it, and check out the size of the tail on that Q. Using different fonts can evoke a different mood. So if you want to write about the 1950s there may be a different font to use than writing about the 1940s, kind off like architectural styles. I may write more about this.

================
Update: This should appear as Garamond. That is, if you have the Garamond font installed.

The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog

And this as Century Gothic:

The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog

Friday, March 28, 2014

NYSE Margin Debt reaches another all-time high

Now at $466 bn as of Feb 2014, up from $451 bn. It will keep going up forever.

The mountain of debt at Caesars Palace

Caesars Entertainment Corp and its subsidiaries own nearly half the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip: Caesars Palace, Octavius Tower (which is separate), Bally's Las Vegas, Harrah's Las Vegas, The Cromwell (formerly Barbary Coast), Flamingo, Paris Las Vegas, The Quad, Rio, LINQ, Horseshoe and Planet Hollywood. It bought up both Bally's and Harrah's.

To finance the acquisitions and go private, it rang up a total of $30 billion in debt in 2007. The interest costs are $575 million per quarter. The problem is that its EBITDA is only $400 million per quarter. It keeps selling casinos to raise cash but it still owes about $23 billion.

"Caesars Entertainment Corp. today reported its fourth-quarter earnings, announcing a stunning loss of $1.756 billion. Revenue: $2.078 billion (up 3.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012). Casino revenues declined $75.3 million, or 5.1%, compared to the previous year. Earnings: The company lost $1.75 billion, a major hit compared to the $435 million loss Caesars suffered in the same quarter a year earlier." http://www.vegasinc.com/business/gaming/2014/mar/11/caesars-reports-4th-quarter-losses-top-17-billion/ In other words, it would have to almost double its revenues just to break even.

This is going to end well. Not.

Vegas is finished

"Nevada's gambling revenue in February plunged 13.7 percent, a decline blamed on a huge drop in baccarat winnings and a tough comparison from a year earlier when the Las Vegas Strip recorded its highest win total ever, state regulators reported Friday. Casinos statewide reported a win of $926.1 million in February, down from nearly $1.1 billion raked in during the same month the year before. The tumble on the Strip, home to Nevada's posh resorts, was even more dramatic. Casinos there reported gambling revenue of $555.7 million, down 20.1 percent compared with $696.1 million won in February 2013, the state Gaming Control Board said."
http://news.yahoo.com/nevada-gambling-revenue-falls-13-200434399.html

=======
"Nevada’s major casinos reported a net loss of $1.35 billion in 2013, the fifth straight year of losses. The state Gaming Control Board released its Nevada Gaming Abstract today, detailing figures from the industry that show gambling accounted for 45.1 percent of total revenues. Food, hotel rooms, drinks and other attractions make up the majority of revenues. The casinos reported $23.9 billion in total revenues, or a 0.4 percent gain from fiscal 2012. The net loss was 11.2 percent more than last year. The state’s 263 casinos that gross at least $1 million in gaming revenues have not reported a profit since 2008, Lawton said. The big casinos paid $804 million in state taxes and fees, or 7.7 percent of their gaming revenues. Statewide, slot machines accounted for 64.9 percent of the gaming win of $10.3 billion. Table games produced 31.7 percent of gaming revenues. Casinos on the Las Vegas Strip produced $15.5 billion in total revenues, with 37 percent coming from gaming. The net loss on the Strip was $1.4 billion, or 13 percent less than 2012."
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2014/jan/10/nevadas-biggest-casinos-lose-13-billion-2013/

Top Cities #6 - Airports

And yet a new ranking, influenced by how busy the airport is. The number in brackets is the amount of passenger traffic. Compare to prior list.

London (4) [106] (Heathrow and Gatwick)
Tokyo (1) [99] (Haneda and Narita)
New York (2) [84] (JFK and Newark)
Chicago (9) [67]
Los Angeles (5) [67]
Shanghai (11) [78] (Pudong and Hongqiao)
Paris (8) [62]
Seoul/Incheon (3) [42]
Beijing (13) [84]
Moscow (12) [59] (Domodedovo 30, Sheremetyevo 29)
Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe (6) [15]
San Francisco/San Jose (7) [44]
Hong Kong (14) [56]
Jakarta (19) [60]
Sao Paolo (10) [32]
Guanzhou (18) [52]
Istanbul (20) [51]
Washington (15) [44] (Dulles and BWI)
Bangkok (24) [51]
Houston (23) [40]
Mexico City (16) [26]
Singapore (17) [38]
Dallas (27) (60)
Mumbai (29) [30]
Shenzhen (25) [30]
Taipei (21) [no data]
Buenos Aires (22) [no data]
Atlanta (new) [94]
Dubai (new) [66]
Frankfurt (31) [58]
Randstad (new) [52]
Toronto-Mississauga (28) [35]

Atlanta, Dubai and Randstad are new. Rhine-Ruhr and Nagoya (both just added) are gone, as is Zurich. Toronto should be gone as well, but I let it stay. It has less traffic than Denver [53],Kuala Lumpur [47], and even Charlotte [43] and a few more cities, but it ranks higher in other stats.

Top Cities #5

I'm redoing my list yet again, this time using estimated GDP (PPP). These numbers are kind of fuzzy, so my number is in brackets, and it could have some errors. Same rules, use prior list, and move up or down 5. But this time I am expanding it to 32 cities.

Tokyo (3) [1479]
New York (2) [1406]
Seoul/Incheon (6) [774]
London (1) [752]
Los Angeles (10) [792]
Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe (11) [655]
San Francisco/San Jose (7) [535]
Paris (13) [764]
Chicago (4) [525]
Sao Paolo (5) [473]
Shanghai (8) [517]
Moscow (17) [520]
Beijing (12) [427]
Hong Kong (9) [405]
Washington (20) [449]
Mexico City (16) [411]
Singapore (15) [328]
Guangzhou (19) [320]
Jakarta (14) [225]
Istanbul (25) [301]
Taipei (21) [298]
Buenos Aires (18) [280]
Houston (28) [449]
Bangkok (22) [262]
Shenzhen (30) [302]
Rhine-Ruhr (new) [465]
Dallas (new) [420]
Toronto-Mississauga (23) [261]
Mumbai (24)
Nagoya (new) [467]
Frankfurt (26) [227]
Zurich (27) [95]

Only Manila falls off the list this time.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Top Cities #4

I just ran across a ranking of the best cities for millionaires. It conveniently has 30 cities on it. So, time for a new list. Same rules - a city can move up or down 5 spots from the previous list, and up to 4 cities added and dropped. Prior ranking in parens.

London (6)
New York (1)
Tokyo (5)
Chicago (7)
Sao Paolo (3) (ranked higher than Seoul)
Seoul/Incheon (2)
San Francisco/San Jose (10)
Shanghai (4)
Hong Kong (14)
Los Angeles (15)
Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe (11)
Beijing (8)
Paris (18)
Jakarta (9)
Singapore (20)
Mexico City (21)
Moscow (12)
Buenos Aires (13)
Guangzhou (16)
Washington (17)
Taipei (26)
Bangkok (19)
Toronto/Mississauga (28)
Mumbai (22)
Istanbul (23)
Frankfurt (new)
Zurich (new)
Houston (new)
Manila (24)
Shenzhen (25)

Dubai, Busan, and Chongqing, which were just added, get dropped. Houston makes its appearance for the first time. Sao Paolo got lucky again and is still ranked much higher than it should be.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

El Mariachi Loco

Halbig v. Sebelius

Source: http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5543968478140712755&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr

Issue: "At issue in this case is whether the ACA allows the IRS to provide tax credits to residents of states that declined to establish their own health insurance Exchanges, that is, in states where the federal government has stepped in and is running the Exchange."

Conclusion: "The Court finds that the plain text of the statute, the statutory structure, and the statutory purpose make clear that Congress intended to make premium tax credits available on both state-run and federally-facilitated Exchanges. The Court therefore concludes that "Congress has directly spoken to the precise question" of whether an "Exchange" under 26 U.S.C. § 36B includes federally-facilitated Exchanges. ... For the reasons discussed above, the Court finds that the IRS Rule is consistent with the text, structure, and purpose of the Affordable Care Act. Section 36B must be read as authorizing the IRS to deliver tax credits to individuals purchasing health insurance on federally-facilitated Exchanges."

====================

In the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a group of small business owners says the law authorizes tax credits only for people who buy insurance on exchanges established by the states. The business owners are challenging an Internal Revenue Service regulation based on the act that says the tax credits are available to all qualifying individuals, regardless of whether they buy insurance at the state level or federally. The case revolves around four words in the law, which says the tax credits are available to people who enrolled through an exchange "established by the state."

The third judge on the appeals court panel, Thomas Griffith, expressed skepticism over the administration's argument that the subsidies are available regardless of whether people buy insurance on a state-run or federally facilitated exchange. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/25/federal-appeals-obamacare_n_5030583.html

Monday, March 24, 2014

Your cat wants you to get Obamacare

Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/acabracket

Do it for the psychedelic cats and other cute animals at the whitehouse website.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Living Off The Land

Friday, March 21, 2014

Iceland freaks out over AuroraCoin

"Iceland’s Parliamentary Economic Affairs and Trade Committee held a formal discussion regarding auroracoin in closed meeting on 14th March.

Auroracoin is a digital currency based on the litecoin source code, and a portion of it will be provided for free to Icelandic citizens. " http://www.coindesk.com/icelandic-parliament-committee-holds-closed-session-discuss-auroracoin/

"The power must be taken away from the politicians and given back to the people. Cryptocurrencies are a very important milestone in this fight for liberty. They bring the hope of a new era of free currencies, immune to the meddling of politicians and their cronies." http://auroracoin.org/

Dogecoin

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

The Boss in Tokyo

Nestle Profile

Company name: Nestlé
Stock symbol: NSRGY
Headquarters: Vevey, Switzerland
Industry: Food
Stock price (as of 3/19/2014): 73.47
Share Outstanding: 3,190 mn
Market Cap: 234,369 mn
Annual Revenues: 98.97 bn
Annual Profits: 10,691 bn
Assets: 122 bn
Rank on the Fortune 500 List: 71
Percent stock ownership by US citizens: 22%

Nestle was the world's most profitable company in 2010. I'm going to add them to my Global 30 list, the next time I update it.

David Stockman on the Fed Taper

See http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/2014/03/19/feds-taper-kabuki-is-farce-gong-show-of-cacophony-confusion-and-calamity-coming/

Dmitry Orlov thinks a 3% interest rate is the magic threshold

All we’re waiting for is interest rates to go across the magic threshold of 3% and the entire budget of the country explodes. There are also all types of other tendencies that point in the direction of collapse and systemic failure at all levels.”

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Does he mean the 10 year rates? Right now the 10-year T-Note rate is at 2.78%. One year ago, it was below 2%.

Steak & Egger Manwich

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Your dog wants you to sign up for Obamacare

Is it illegal for a region to vote to secede from a country?

There are several secession movements going on:

- Catalonia wants to secede from Spain, but Spain will not allow a vote on independence.
- Scotland is planning a vote on independence from the UK which will occur on September 18, 2014. If the vote is yes, then Scotland will become independent, but it is unclear what that means, like will it have to apply to join the EU and the Commonwealth and can it use the British pound.
- Quebec is still talking about becoming independent of Canada, and may hold another referendum at some point.
- Venice wants to secede from Italy and is holding a non-binding referendum.

In addition, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. This differs from the other cases because it was done by their parliament instead of by a vote of the people. The International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion "on 22 July 2010, holding that Kosovo's declaration of independence was not in violation either of general principles of international law, which do not prohibit unilateral declarations of independence".

The Falkland Islands in 2013 held a referendum in which 99% of the population voted to remain a British colony, but Argentina said the vote was illegal.

Is Crimea in the same category as these other movements? If not, why not? Kerry says that the vote was illegal. My question is, what is the grounds for calling it illegal? Isn't the right of self-determination one of the principles of international law?

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Girl in a green dress

Her name is Reina Torindoru or Reina Treindl.

China UnionPay

See: http://en.unionpay.com/comInstr/aboutUs/file_50174738.html

Watch out Visa and MasterCard, you have a competitor.

Top Cities #3

This is kind of pointless, but I am going to take my previous list, which I just posted, and use the Skyline Ranking to adjust it. Again, each city can only move up or down 5 spots.

1. New York (2)
2. Seoul-Incheon (4)
3. Sao Paolo (7) (ranks higher than Shanghai and Tokyo)
4. Shanghai (6)
5. Tokyo (3)
6. London (1)
7. Chicago (11)
8. Beijing (9)
9. Jakarta (14) (ranks higher than San Francisco and Osaka).
10. San Francisco/San Jose (5)
11. Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe (8)
12. Moscow (17)
13. Buenos Aires (15) (ranks higher than Los Angeles, Washington and Paris)
14. Hong Kong (19)
15. Los Angeles (10)
16. Guangzhou (20)
17. Washington (12)
18. Paris (13)
19. Bangkok (22)
20. Singapore (25)
21. Mexico City (16)
22. Mumbai (23)
23. Istanbul (18)
24. Manila (24)
25. Shenzhen (30)
26. Taipei (21)
27. Dubai (new)
28. Toronto-Mississauga (new)
29. Busan (new)
30. Chongqing (new)

Zurich, Boston, and Frankfurt, which were just added, get knocked off, along with Delhi.

This produces some anomalies, like Sao Paolo being #3, and Jakarta being #9.

New List of Top 30 Cities

The Global Financial Centres Index 14 came out recently, and I am going to run it through my "system". I take the previous list, and cities can move up or down 5 spots, and up to 5 cities added or dropped. Over time, the better cities should bubble up or down. Previous rankings in parens.

1. London (3)
2. New York (1)
3. Tokyo (2)
4. Seoul (4)
5. San Francisco/San Jose (10)
6. Shanghai (9)
7. Sao Paolo (5)
8. Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe (7)
9. Beijing (8)
10. Los Angeles (6)
11. Chicago (16)
12. Washington (12)
13. Paris (13)
14. Jakarta (14)
15. Buenos Aires (20)
16. Mexico City (11)
17. Moscow (12)
18. Istanbul (21)
19. Hong Kong (24)
20. Guangzhou (15)
21. Taipei (23)
22. Bangkok (25)
23. Mumbai (18)
24. Manila (19)
25. Singapore (30)
26. Zurich (none)
27. Delhi (22)
28. Boston (none)
29. Frankfurt (none)
30. Shenzhen (27)

Rhine-Ruhr, Miami, and Cairo fall off, and replaced by Zurich, Boston, and Frankfurt. I could have added Geneva, but it would be by far the smallest city on the list (pop. 185,000 with 915,000 in the greater area).

Friday, March 14, 2014

Expanded hardship exemption from Obamacare

You can now be exempt from Obamacare if you can't find a plan that you consider affordable.

"But people can also qualify for hardships for the unspecified nonreason that "you experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance," which only requires "documentation if possible." And yet another waiver is available to those who say they are merely unable to afford coverage, regardless of their prior insurance. In a word, these shifting legal benchmarks offer an exemption to everyone who conceivably wants one."
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304250204579433312607325596

The form is here: http://marketplace.cms.gov/getofficialresources/publications-and-articles/hardship-exemption.pdf

I don't understand the comment about "unable to afford coverage, regardless of their prior insurance". This is only open to those who received a notice of cancellation.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

What happens if you take out traffic lights?

It makes the town a much more comfortable place to be.

Further adventures of the Boss and the Dogfather

Monday, March 10, 2014

Dow and Base

The correlation used to be at 4.3, now it has dropped to 4.2. With the Fed expanding the base by $65 billion each month, that means the Dow should continue to rise by 280 points per month.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Top 30 Cities in the World

This is like the 101st time I have done this. I start with the latest February list, and each city will change no more than 5 places up or down from that list, and up to 5 new ones will be added. The factors used to adjust it are based on the number of billionaires in the city, metro system ridership, and skyline rating. Previous ranking in parens, and some of these have explanations.

1. New York (3). #1 because of the number of billionaires, and the skyline.
2. Tokyo (1). #1 in the number of metro system ridership
3. London (5). Moved up because of the number of billionaires
4. Seoul (2).
5. São Paolo (10). It shouldn't necessarily be this high, but it is higher than Los Angeles
6. Los Angeles (4).
7. Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe (6).
8. Beijing (13).
9. Shanghai. (11). Beijing is ranked higher than Shanghai, both on the number of billionaires and subway ridership.
10. San Francisco/San Jose (8)
11. Mexico City (7)
12. Moscow (17)
13. Paris (16)
14. Jakarta (9)
15. Guangzhou (19). Guangzhou beats out Chicago, based on its better transportation system.
16. Chicago (20)
17. Washington DC/Baltimore (12)
18. Mumbai (22)
19. Manila (14)
20. Buenos Aires (15)
21. Istanbul (26)
22. Delhi (18)
23. Taipei (28)
24. Hong Kong (29)
25. Bangkok (27)
26. Rhine-Ruhr (21)
27. Shenzhen (none)
28. Miami (23)
29. Cairo (24)
30. Singapore(none).

Tehran and Rio de Janiero are both gone. Singapore and Shenzhen both have better metro systems than Rio, both are ranked higher in skyline ratings and both have more billionaires.

Bus Rapid Transit in Buenos Aires

Top 30 Cities by Metro System Ridership

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_systems_by_annual_passenger_rides

1. Tokyo (Tokyo Metro, 2270 mil.; Yamanote Line, 1345 mil.; Toei Subway 832 mil.) total 4447 mil.
2. Beijing, 3209 million
3. Seoul, 2560 million
4. Shanghai, 2500 million
5. Moscow, 2491 million
6. Guangzhou, 1990 million
7. New York, 1655 million.
8. Mexico City, 1609 million
9. Hong Kong, 1600 million
10. Paris, 1541 million
11. London, 1229 million
12. Shenzhen, 914 million
13. Berlin (U-Bahn 507 million; S-Bahn 395 million) total 902 million.
14. São Paulo, 877 million
15. Singapore, 854 million
16. Osaka, 842 million
17. Cairo, 837 million
18. St. Petersburg, 772 million
19. Santiago, Chile, 649 million
20. Taipei, Taiwan, 635 million
21. Delhi, 606 million
22. Prague, Czech Republic, 589 million
23. Tehran, Iran, 568 million
24. Vienna, Austria 568 million
25. Madrid, Spain 558 million
26. Kiev, Ukraine 536 million
27. Caracas, Venezuela, 485 million
28. Nanjing, 452 million
29. Barcelona, Spain 449 million.
30. Nagoya, Japan, 443 million
31. Milan, Italy 426 million
32. Athens, Greece 407 million
33. Manila, Philippines (LTR and MRT), 405 million
34. Rio de Janeiro, 402 million

I included more than 30 because the bottom 5 have similar numbers.

Odio

Dos Locos

Thorium

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Dog Astronaut

Kai-Kun Shirato

Softbank's mascot dog is a Hokkaido. In the commercials, he is named Kai-kun (or Jiro) and is the Otosan (father) of the Shirato family, with his Japanese (human) wife Masako, daughter Aya, and adopted black son Kojiro (played by Dante Carver).

See: Otosan, Japan's top dog