Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Preppers and the Entitlement Problem

Charles began talking to people on prepper forums who had lived through Hurricane Katrina. Their stories from the storm only strengthened his resolve. 
The most harrowing story he was told came from a prepper, who in the run-up to Katrina, urged his neighbors to buy emergency supplies, food, and water. Few listened and, when New Orleans flooded, they came to him for help.
He gave out supplies initially, but, when the neighbors returned with a crowd, he explained that he needed the rest for his family. The crowd turned antagonistic. The man scared them off with a shotgun, but it wasn't long before they returned throwing bricks through his windows in retaliation. He left soon after with as much of his emergency supplies as he could carry.
Stories like this, according to Charles, happen often when "sh—t hits the fan." One prepared person warns others in the run-up to a potentially dangerous event and others don’t listen, expecting someone — the government or a friendly neighbor — to provide during a disaster. It’s what Charles calls “the entitlement problem,” a phenomenon talked about ad nauseam on prepper blogs and websites.
Many preppers believe modern society has conditioned people to depend on others (the government, companies, neighbors) to fix their problems, rather than taking the time and effort to care for their own needs. This mentality dominates during disaster scenarios, according to preppers.
The entitlement problem can make things turn ugly, according to Charles.
Everyone feels entitled to your stuff. They don’t prepare and they look to the people who did."

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

I'm just a Bill



Cute.  I've never seen it before.

Monday, November 24, 2014

La Rebelion

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Top Cities #29

Top Cities #29
Influenced by number of FaceBook Likes.  Compare to Top Cities #28.  I arbitrarily added the last 7 cities to make it 100.  This is quite a bit different from the first list I made nearly 3 years ago of the Top 100 Powerful Cities of the World.

1.New York [4]
2. Paris [7]
3. London [2]
4. San Francisco [8]
5. Toronto [9]
6. Zurich [1]
7. Chicago [12]
8. Singapore [3]
9. Los Angeles/Orange County [14]
10. Hong Kong [5]
11. Washington DC/Baltimore [6]
12. Amsterdam (Randstad) [11]
13. Sydney [17]
14. Seoul-Incheon [19]
15. Tokyo [15]
16. Sao Paulo [21]
17. Boston [13]
18. Dubai/Sharjah [15]
19. Milan [24]
20. Beijing [16]
21. Houston [26]
22. Istanbul [27]
23. Frankfurt [18]
24. Kuala Lumpur [29]
25. Shanghai/Suzhou [20]
26. Bangkok [31]
27. Osaka/Kobe/Kyoto [22]
28. Moscow [23]
29. Madrid [33] 
30. Dallas [25]
31. Melbourne [28]
32. Mexico City [37] 
33. Buenos Aires [36]
34. Berlin [34] 
35. Taipei [30] 
36. Geneva [32] 
37. Copenhagen [35] 
38. Mumbai [43]
39. Munich [44]
40. Oslo [38]
41. Rome [46]
42. Brussels [39]
43. Philadelphia [40]
44. Jakarta [49]
45. Guangzhou/Foshan/Dongguan [41]
46. Miami [51]
47. Shenzhen [42]
48. Barcelona [53]
49. Stockholm [45]
50. Montreal [47] 
51. Dublin [48] 
52. Vienna [50] 
53. Abu Dhabi [52]
54. Seattle [54]
55. Atlanta [60]
56. Rhine-Ruhr (Dusseldorf) [55] 
57. Tianjin [56] 
58. Cairo [63]
59. Chongqing [57]
60. Adelaide [58]
61. Vancouver [59]
62. Delhi [61]
63. Helsinki [62]
64. Manila [69]
65. Auckland [64]
66. Calgary [65]
67. Tehran [72]
68. Tel Aviv [66]
69. Johannesburg [67]
70. Perth [68]
71. Las Vegas [new]
72. Rio de Janeiro [new]
73. Bandung, Indonesia [new]
74. Bogota [new]
75. Brisbane [70]
76. Wellington [71]
77. Karachi [new]
78. Honolulu [73]
79. Doha [74]
80. Canberra [75]
81. Lahore 
82. Dacca (Dhaka)
83. Marseille 
84. Bangalore 
85. Riyadh 
86. Casablanca 
87. Lima 
88. Hyderabad
89. Kolkata
90. Santiago
91. Medellin
92. Tunis
93. Chennai
94. Nagoya
95. Kolkata (Calcutta)
96. Chengdu
97. Detroit
98. Lagos
99. Hangzhou
100. Wuhan

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Junk Bond implosion in 2016

Frank Nothaft

[Martin] Fridson rules the world of speculative bonds. In his presentation, he showed how high-yield bonds are just as good an investment (if not better) than stocks – during normal times. But times are not normal today… and Fridson is worried. He sees “the next junk-bond implosion” arriving as early as 2016, and lasting through 2019.
http://wolfstreet.com/2014/11/17/1-6-trillion-in-defaults-coming-legend-says/

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Cinco Salsa

Fur Elise in Ragtime

Monday, November 10, 2014

The Girlfriend from Hell

Stocks are up; gold is down




Gold



Look for the trend to continue.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Gold is the tell

And as the market begins to get more confidence, to display more hubris, the "tell" that we might be at a top will be found in the price of gold.
"[T]he big hubristic 'tell' will be gold," Hartnett wrote in a note to clients on Friday. "A sudden gap lower in the gold price to below $1,000/oz should coincide with the final thrust higher in stocks, both indicating capitulation of the 'stubborn bears,' the end of the 'melt-up' and the next opportunity to get tactically bearish.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/analyst-sees-1000-gold-at-stock-peak-2014-11

I think it is crazy that gold is so cheap.  When the stock market crashes next fall, gold will soar.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Greenspan on gold



This is kind of hard to listen to but worth it. He says that gold is half commodity and half currency.

See http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-07/greenspans-stunning-admission-gold-currency-no-fiat-currency-including-dollar-can-ma .  There is a transcript there but it isn't complete.

So in some ways gold acts just like copper or other commodities, like pork bellies or soybeans.  But in other ways it acts like the dollar or euro. Makes sense.  It would be an interesting paper for an economist to write.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Idilio

Monday, November 3, 2014

Malls to Data Centers

The Internet is moving to a shopping center near you.  In Fort Wayne, Ind., a vacated Target store is about to be home to rows of computer servers, network routers and Ethernet cables courtesy of a local data-center operator. In Jackson, Miss., a former McRae’s department store will get the same treatment next year. And one quadrant of the Marley Station Mall south of Baltimore is already occupied by a data-center company that last year offered to buy out the rest of the building.

Intersections for Bicyclists