Sunday, March 9, 2014
Saturday, March 8, 2014
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
Friday, March 7, 2014
Federal Spending resumes its upward climb
Federal spending has been essentially frozen at $3.7 trillion per year since 2009. It will increase to $3.9 trillion in 2015, and then increase every year through 2024 when it will be at $5.9 trillion.
Source: http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/release/the-presidents-budget-broken-promises-on-spending/
Source: http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/release/the-presidents-budget-broken-promises-on-spending/
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
BHP and RDS stock
Both BHP Billiton and Royal Dutch Shell have complex stock structures. See BHP vs BBL and Royal Dutch Shell Class A vs Class B shares.
M6 up 1.74%
| M6 | 01/31/14 | 02/28/14 |
| M2 | 11017.2 | 11135.4 |
| Public Debt | 12308.1 | 12492.6 |
| Fed Owned | -2243.2 | -2273.0 |
| G30 | 6564.9 | 6772.8 |
| 27647.0 | 28127.8 | |
| 1.74% |
This makes up for the drop in January. The debt owned by the public soared in Feb, up $184 bn, probably due to tax refunds.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Tizen
This is a new OS that competes with Android. The chief feature, as long as I can tell, is longer battery life.
The Crash of 2016
by Thom Hartmann. I disagree with most of his politics, but I think he is on to something here with the year. He believes there is a major event that happens every 80 years. 1776, 1856, 1936, 2016.
Generational Dynamics for Historians
A book available at: http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ww2010.book2.htm
One interesting thing is the list of four generational achetypes:
1. Hero Generation ("Greatest Generation" born from 1901 to 1924). These are the fighters in the war.
2. Artist Generation ("Silent Generation" born from 1925 to 1942). "An Artist (or Adaptive) generation is born during a Crisis, spends its rising adult years in a new High, spends midlife in an Awakening, and spends old age in an Unraveling". The Silent Generation was those who fought during the Korean War. I'm not sure why they were called Artists, maybe Adaptive is better term.
3. Prophet Generation ("Baby Boomers" born from 1943 to 1961). "Arrogant, narcissistic and sure of themselves, they dominate society through the Unraveling period, when nothing, including the nation as a whole, is as important as the individual. Once the indecisive Artists retire, the Prophets' arrogance and rage against their now-deceased parents turns to indignation and rage against their Hero parents' old enemies in the last crisis war. With all the old compromises unraveled, the Prophets lead the nation into a new crisis war."
4. Nomad Generation ("Generation X" born from 1962 to 1981). "These kids grow up during the social turmoil of the Awakening period, and become angry, disaffected youth. Throughout Anglo-American history, the Nomads have been shown to have the highest crime rate. They spend their lives in the shadow of the powerful Prophet generation. The Prophets excoriate the disaffected Nomads, and the Nomads return the favor by hating the older Prophets. And the Nomads end up being more powerful than the Prophets during the next crisis war, because although Prophets provide the vision, Nomads pick and choose among the Prophets and decide which of their visions to implement."
The Lost Generation (born from 1883 to 1900), fought in WWI.
Generation Y (born from 1982 to 2001) are the new Heroes under this theory.
========================
So the Nomads start the wars based on the vision of the Prophets, the Heroes fight them, the Adaptives are tramautized but reap the benefits of the peace, the Prophets rebel against their forbears, and the Nomads start a new war.
Presidents Nixon (born in 1913), Ford (born in 1913), Carter (born in 1924), President Reagan (born in 1911) and Pres. Bush Sr (born in 1924) were part of the Greatest Generation. The Silent Generation was skipped. Presidents Clinton (1946), Dubya Bush (1946) and Obama (1961) are all Boomers.
========================
A comparison of the Lost Generation and Generation X. In the "Great War", as it was called before WW2, there were many upper-class casualties in Britain, robbing the country of a future elite. In the US, there weren't as many deaths, but many soldiers suffered from "shell shock", (which today would be called PTSD), which scarred them for life. ("Something was wrong. They put on civilian clothes again and looked to their mothers and wives very much like the young men who had gone to business in the peaceful days before August 1914. But they had not come back the same men. Something had altered in them. They were subject to sudden moods, and queer tempers, fits of profound depression alternating with a restless desire for pleasure. Many were easily moved to passion where they lost control of themselves, many were bitter in their speech, violent in opinion, frightening.").
Gen-Xers were those who hung out in malls ("slackers") before the malls were torn down. They rebel without a reason, but the voice of their generation, Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana, committed suicide. Gen-Xers include Jason Mewes (the vocal half of "Jay and Silent Bob") and Pauly Shore. They are typically over-educated and under-employed. This was the first generation of men to earn less than their fathers. They resent the Boomers for their sense of entitlement to good jobs and Social Security (which won't be there for them). They were hit hard by the dot-com bust and the subsequent housing crisis of 2007-2008. They are lost in the sense that they don't feel secure in the current economic situation and don't have a vision for the future.
=============================
Update: Here is another list.
Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
Generation X/Baby Bust (1965-1984)
Generation Y/Millenials/Echo Boom (1985-2004)
TBD (2005+)
See http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/03/here-is-when-each-generation-begins-and-ends-according-to-facts/359589/
One interesting thing is the list of four generational achetypes:
1. Hero Generation ("Greatest Generation" born from 1901 to 1924). These are the fighters in the war.
2. Artist Generation ("Silent Generation" born from 1925 to 1942). "An Artist (or Adaptive) generation is born during a Crisis, spends its rising adult years in a new High, spends midlife in an Awakening, and spends old age in an Unraveling". The Silent Generation was those who fought during the Korean War. I'm not sure why they were called Artists, maybe Adaptive is better term.
3. Prophet Generation ("Baby Boomers" born from 1943 to 1961). "Arrogant, narcissistic and sure of themselves, they dominate society through the Unraveling period, when nothing, including the nation as a whole, is as important as the individual. Once the indecisive Artists retire, the Prophets' arrogance and rage against their now-deceased parents turns to indignation and rage against their Hero parents' old enemies in the last crisis war. With all the old compromises unraveled, the Prophets lead the nation into a new crisis war."
4. Nomad Generation ("Generation X" born from 1962 to 1981). "These kids grow up during the social turmoil of the Awakening period, and become angry, disaffected youth. Throughout Anglo-American history, the Nomads have been shown to have the highest crime rate. They spend their lives in the shadow of the powerful Prophet generation. The Prophets excoriate the disaffected Nomads, and the Nomads return the favor by hating the older Prophets. And the Nomads end up being more powerful than the Prophets during the next crisis war, because although Prophets provide the vision, Nomads pick and choose among the Prophets and decide which of their visions to implement."
The Lost Generation (born from 1883 to 1900), fought in WWI.
Generation Y (born from 1982 to 2001) are the new Heroes under this theory.
========================
So the Nomads start the wars based on the vision of the Prophets, the Heroes fight them, the Adaptives are tramautized but reap the benefits of the peace, the Prophets rebel against their forbears, and the Nomads start a new war.
Presidents Nixon (born in 1913), Ford (born in 1913), Carter (born in 1924), President Reagan (born in 1911) and Pres. Bush Sr (born in 1924) were part of the Greatest Generation. The Silent Generation was skipped. Presidents Clinton (1946), Dubya Bush (1946) and Obama (1961) are all Boomers.
========================
A comparison of the Lost Generation and Generation X. In the "Great War", as it was called before WW2, there were many upper-class casualties in Britain, robbing the country of a future elite. In the US, there weren't as many deaths, but many soldiers suffered from "shell shock", (which today would be called PTSD), which scarred them for life. ("Something was wrong. They put on civilian clothes again and looked to their mothers and wives very much like the young men who had gone to business in the peaceful days before August 1914. But they had not come back the same men. Something had altered in them. They were subject to sudden moods, and queer tempers, fits of profound depression alternating with a restless desire for pleasure. Many were easily moved to passion where they lost control of themselves, many were bitter in their speech, violent in opinion, frightening.").
Gen-Xers were those who hung out in malls ("slackers") before the malls were torn down. They rebel without a reason, but the voice of their generation, Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana, committed suicide. Gen-Xers include Jason Mewes (the vocal half of "Jay and Silent Bob") and Pauly Shore. They are typically over-educated and under-employed. This was the first generation of men to earn less than their fathers. They resent the Boomers for their sense of entitlement to good jobs and Social Security (which won't be there for them). They were hit hard by the dot-com bust and the subsequent housing crisis of 2007-2008. They are lost in the sense that they don't feel secure in the current economic situation and don't have a vision for the future.
=============================
Update: Here is another list.
Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
Generation X/Baby Bust (1965-1984)
Generation Y/Millenials/Echo Boom (1985-2004)
TBD (2005+)
See http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/03/here-is-when-each-generation-begins-and-ends-according-to-facts/359589/
The Bubble that Broke the World
From: http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ww2010.i.garrett071009.htm
Read the following text:
"Mass delusions are not rare. They salt the human story. The hallucinatory types are well known; so also is the sudden variation called mania, generally localized, like the tulip mania in Holland many years ago or the common- stock mania of a recent time in Wall Street. But a delusion affecting the mentality of the entire world at one time was hitherto unknown. All our experience with it is original.
This is a delusion about credit. And whereas from the nature of credit it is to be expected that a certain line will divide the view between creditor and debtor, the irrational fact in this case is that for more than ten years debtors and creditors together have pursued the same deceptions. In many ways, as will appear, the folly of the lender has exceeded the extravagance of the borrower."
This is a delusion about credit. And whereas from the nature of credit it is to be expected that a certain line will divide the view between creditor and debtor, the irrational fact in this case is that for more than ten years debtors and creditors together have pursued the same deceptions. In many ways, as will appear, the folly of the lender has exceeded the extravagance of the borrower."
The above sounds very familiar. It's similar to things that I and many other people have written about the debauched use of credit today.
But this wasn't written today. It appeared in a 1932 book that a web site reader recently alerted me to.
The book is A Bubble that Broke the World, by Garet Garrett. A pointer to the PDF file for the entire book can be found on this web page on mises.org. It was based on a series of articles by the author appearing in the Saturday Evening Post during 1931.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
G30 as of 2/28/14
| Shares (M) | Price | Price | Total (M) | Total (M) | |||
| Rank | Symbol | Company | 02/28/14 | 01/31/14 | 02/28/14 | 01/31/14 | 02/28/14 |
| 1 | AAPL | Apple Inc | 891.99 | 500.60 | 526.24 | 446,760 | 469,401 |
| 2 | XOM | Exxon Mobil | 4340 | 92.16 | 96.27 | 402,739 | 417,812 |
| 3 | GOOG | 336.05 | 1,180.97 | 1,215.65 | 394,550 | 408,519 | |
| 4 | MSFT | Microsoft | 8300 | 37.84 | 38.31 | 314,072 | 317,973 |
| 5 | BRK-A | Berkshire Hath | 1.65 | 169,512 | 173,708 | 279,695 | 286,618 |
| 6 | JNJ | Johnson Johnson | 2820 | 88.47 | 92.12 | 249,485 | 259,778 |
| 7 | GE | General Electric | 10090 | 25.13 | 25.47 | 253,562 | 256,992 |
| 8 | RDS-B | Royal Dutch Shell | 3150 | 72.83 | 77.92 | 228,686 | 245,448 |
| 9 | WFC | Wells Fargo | 5260 | 45.34 | 46.42 | 238,942 | 244,169 |
| 10 | WMT | Wal-Mart | 3240 | 74.68 | 74.70 | 241,963 | 242,028 |
| 11 | CVX | Chevron | 1920 | 111.63 | 115.33 | 214,330 | 221,434 |
| 12 | JPM | JP Morgan Chase | 3760 | 55.36 | 56.82 | 208,154 | 213,643 |
| 13 | PG | Proctor Gamble | 2710 | 76.62 | 78.66 | 207,640 | 213,169 |
| 14 | PFE | Pfizer | 6480 | 30.40 | 32.11 | 196,992 | 208,073 |
| 15 | NVS | Novartis | 2430 | 79.07 | 83.18 | 192,931 | 202,127 |
| 16 | HSBC | HSBC Holdings | 3750 | 51.49 | 52.79 | 205,960 | 197,963 |
| 17 | IBM | IBM | 1050 | 176.68 | 185.17 | 192,581 | 194,429 |
| 18 | BHP | BHP Billiton Ltd | 2660 | 63.95 | 68.90 | 170,107 | 183,274 |
| 19 | ORCL | Oracle | 4500 | 36.90 | 39.11 | 166,050 | 175,995 |
| 20 | BAC | Bank of America | 10590 | 16.75 | 16.53 | 177,383 | 175,053 |
| 21 | FB | 2550 | 62.57 | 68.46 | 153,297 | 174,573 | |
| 22 | BUD | Anheuser-Busch | 1630 | 95.89 | 104.61 | 153,424 | 170,514 |
| 23 | KO | Coca Cola | 4420 | 37.82 | 38.20 | 167,164 | 168,844 |
| 24 | T | ATT | 5230 | 33.32 | 31.93 | 174,264 | 166,994 |
| 25 | MRK | Merck | 2920 | 52.97 | 56.99 | 154,672 | 166,411 |
| 26 | AMZN | Amazon | 459.26 | 358.69 | 362.10 | 164,172 | 166,298 |
| 27 | BP | BP plc | 3100 | 46.89 | 50.61 | 147,235 | 156,891 |
| 28 | C | Citigroup | 3030 | 47.43 | 48.63 | 143,713 | 147,349 |
| 29 | VZ | Verizon | 2860 | 48.02 | 47.58 | 137,337 | 136,079 |
| 30 | CMCSA | Comcast | 2610 | 54.45 | 51.69 | 144,293 | 134,911 |
| 6,522,152 | 6,722,761 |
Note: Vodafone (VOD) has been removed and Verizon (VZ) added. The total at the end of January was 6,564,927, so it is up 2.4% for the month.
I'm thinking of adding Toyota (TM) back and dropping one of the stocks on here.
Update: Toyota has about 3.2 billion shares outstanding. Only 70 million shares are held in the form of ADRs on the NYSE (about 2% of the total). So that's why it isn't on here.
==============
Update: Now I am thinking about adding Nestle (NSRGY) to the list. It has a market cap of about $234 bn and 22% of its shares are owned by US citizens.
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