The Reston Story

Not your typical suburb.

Alternative plan for I-70

Tear down the freeway and put a tree-lined parkway there instead.

I-70 in Denver

Global Currency Demolition Derby

G50 Stock Index

The G50 is my stock market index of the world's biggest companies by market capitalization. I have done this in the past for the top 30 stocks. Here is the list as of 3/18/2016.  (I would do it for 12/31/15 but it is hard to get historical data for market cap).  About half these companies are in the Dow Jones.  I intend on updating this about once per quarter, and replacing the lower tier companies as needed, without retroactively revising the total.  I have removed BP and BHP Billiton from the list because the prices on these have dropped substantially.

G50 as of 3/18/2016
			In	Shares (M)	Price	Total (M)
Rank	Symbol	Company	DJIA	03/18/16	03/18/16	03/18/16	Notes
1	AAPL	Apple Inc	X	5540	105.92	586,797
2	GOOG	Alphabet		688.31	737.60	507,697	****
3	MSFT	Microsoft		7910	53.49	423,106
4	BRK-A	Berkshire Hathaway		1.647	213,330.00	351,300	****
5	XOM	Exxon Mobil	X	4150	84.20	349,430
6	FB	Facebook		2933.333	111.45	326,920	****
7	JNJ	Johnson Johnson	X	2760	107.50	296,700
8	GE	General Electric	X	9330	30.92	288,484
9	AMZN	Amazon		470.84	552.08	259,941
10	WFC	Wells Fargo		5080	50.54	256,743
11	T	ATT		6150	38.56	237,144
12	NSRGY	Nestle		3080	73.90	227,612
13	CHL	China Mobile		4100	55.01	225,541
14	PG	Proctor Gamble	X	2700	83.15	224,505
15	JPM	JP Morgan Chase	X	3660	60.48	221,357
16	VZ	Verizon	X	4070	53.24	216,687
17	WMT	Wal-Mart	X	3200	66.95	214,240
18	RHHBY	Roche Holding		6820	30.13	205,487
19	KO	Coca Cola	X	4330	45.60	197,448
20	BUD	Anheuser-Busch		1610	121.55	195,696
21	TCEHY	Tencent		9310	20.52	191,041
22	BABA	Alibaba		2450	76.25	186,813
23	CVX	Chevron	X	1880	97.69	183,657
24	PFE	Pfizer	X	6190	29.45	182,296
25	V	Visa	X	2400	73.78	177,072
26	ORCL	Oracle		4200	41.48	174,216
27	NVS	Novartis		2370	72.68	172,252
28	HD	Home Depot	X	1270	131.35	166,815
29	TM	Toyota		1540	106.60	164,164
30	DIS	Disney	X	1630	99.20	161,696
31	RDS-B	Royal Dutch Shell		3200	50.09	160,288
32	INTC	Intel	X	4720	32.68	154,250
33	PM	Philip Morris		1550	98.17	152,164
34	PEP	Pepsico		1450	101.29	146,871
35	SSNLF	Samsung		145.94	1,000.00	145,940
36	MRK	Merck	X	2780	52.25	145,255
37	CMCSA	Comcast		2430	59.76	145,217
38	CSCO	Cisco	X	5030	28.33	142,500
39	BAC	Bank of America		10330	13.79	142,451
40	IBM	IBM	X	960.88	147.09	141,336
41	TSM	Taiwan Semiconductor		5190	26.04	135,148
42	C	Citigroup		3060	43.54	133,232
43	HSBC	HSBC Holdings		3920	32.63	127,910
44	UL	Unilever		2840	44.96	127,686
45	GILD	Gilead		1370	90.27	123,670
46	PTR	PetroChina		1730	69.96	121,031
47	UNH	United Health	X	950.67	126.72	120,469
48	MO	Altria		1960	61.54	120,618
49	MCD	McDonalds	X	901.61	124.08	111,872
50	TOT	Total SA		2330	47.82	111,421
						10,282,181
	Notes: ****	The way the market cap is calculated is unknown or
		inconsistent.

Update (4/6/2016):
I intend to have a rule that companies stay on the list unless their value drops below $100 billion.  New companies are added only if their value exceeds $120 billion.  It looks like Total should soon be replaced by another company.  Keep an eye out.

The $2 bill

Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering

Sunset Boulevard

Judge Jeanine destroys Romney

The April Curse continues - Hillary ordered the massacre at Waco

Another conspiracy theory that might be true.  It's not new, but I've never seen this before:

Hillary Ordered the Final Massacre at Waco

Hillary, not Bill, not Janet Reno, not Webb Hubbell, not Vince Foster was the one who ordered the final assault. Final death count: 76 Branch Davidians, including 21 children and two pregnant women.

Hillary was the one who ordered the FUBAR final assault on the holed-up Branch Davidians in Waco on April 19th, 1993. The final death count from this disastrous fiasco was 76 Branch Davidians, including 21 children and two pregnant women. The appalling disaster at Waco was what motivated Timothy McVeigh to participate in the terrorist-type bombings in Oklahoma City, two years later on April 19, 1995.

The Factory Building The World's Tallest Prefab

Virtual Rome

Modular Apartment Buildings

Currency in Circulation and Excess Reserves

I think that Currency in Circulation is a pretty good measure of the real economy.

Rich people don't need cash.  They just pull out their Amex Platinum card even on the golf course to tip the caddy who has an app for that.  Then they have their accountant pay off the bill from a trust fund.  Your middle class debt slave has his salary automatically deposited to his account, and his mortgage and car payment automatically deducted.  Once in a while he might take out cash for a night on the town.

But their is a whole other underclass of working class people who don't trust or use banks at all.  As soon as they get a check, they convert it into cash.  And they pay everything in cash, and if cash doesn't work, a money order.

So what are the numbers?  Exhibit A, Currency in Circulation.

The right hand axis is percent  change times 100 to try to make these similar sized.  As you can see, right now, the cash is at about $1.4 trillion, growing at about 6% per year.  The growth tends to decrease until a recession starts and then it skyrockets.  Another indicator that we are not yet in a recession.

Exhibit B - Excess Reserves

The excess reserves steadily decline, except during periods of quantitative easing.  The excess reserves are of no benefit to anyone. (Except maybe the government, because the Fed collects extra interest in the range of about $100 billlion per year, which it then turns over to the government as a stealth tax and to insure the government's gratitude to their owners, the monied class.)

So my quick analysis of this is that the real economy is growing at about 6% per year.  And quantitative easing had absolutely no impact on that at all, and may have even had a negative impact by making interest rates drop.  (Remember that old prudent people would like to live off the interest on their savings no matter what the crazy Keynesian scientists want them to do and if they are earning less interest they will cut back on spending).

In my opinion, the Fed should engage in quantitative tightening and start draining the excess reserves, starting with the shorter-term notes.  This will cause interest rates to rise naturally, which is a good and healthy thing, which shows respect for the currency, and this will actually help the economy.

The End Game

Stepping Out

Looks easy

Credit Card Hacks

Macedonia vs the ravaging horde

http://www.balkanalysis.com/macedonia/2016/02/10/macedonia-to-seal-southern-border-employ-unconventional-methods-ahead-of-anticipated-migrant-surge/

"Germany and Greece are in a secret alliance over the migrant issue; they are opposed by the Visegrad countries, which constitute the core of a second and rival European alliance. Macedonia, therefore, has become the front line in a struggle between much bigger powers, owing to its strategic position- as in several wars of the past."

Immigration Crisis

$19 trillion national debt

The national debt just reached $19,012,827,698,417.93 on 1/28/2016.

It reached $18 trillion on about 11/27/2014 or about 14 months ago.  The pace seems to have increased, so I expect it to reach $20 trillion on about 2/1/2017, right after the new president is sworn in.