Going over the 'Fiscal Cliff' may be a fear, but the debt ceiling is much scarier.
Reports are that a last minute deal is imminent. What happens if they do not agree?
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JibJab’s 2012 Year in Review Video
Oh well … crazy how fast time flies. Hopefully 2012 was good for you.
Here is JibJab's take on what happened.
via: JibJabLong Live 2013.
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Make Your Own Deficit-Reduction Plan
Clever. Try your hand at reducing the deficit with this Wall Street Journal interactive.
Unless lawmakers can agree on measures to reduce the
deficit, standing legislation will do it for them. Under the "Fiscal
Cliff" scenario, the Congressional Budget Office projects
a deficit of $142 billion by 2020, or a $1.102 trillion deficit if some
tax cuts are extended and other policies remain in effect.Try your hand at balancing the budget by selecting from some options below.
Once you do, you can see how others 'voted' (chose). Interesting.
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Some Links for Your Weekend Reading
Doomsday Planning?
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
- The
Five Cs of Opportunity Identification. (Harvard Business Review) - SpaceX's
Elon Musk: Your ticket to Mars? Half a million dollars. (LATimes) - How
IBM Is Watching How You Shop Online. (AllThingsD) - Is
Sleeping With a Partner Better For You Than Sleeping Alone? (WSJ) - Why
Do Children Think Covering Their Eyes Makes Them Invisible? (Popular
Science)
- Smart
People Can Make Stupid Investing Decisions. (Forbes) - Four
Common Mistakes about the Fed. (OldProf) - Fed
Likely to Keep Buying Bonds. To combat threats of new turbulence &
uncertainty. (WSJ) - Raging
Bulls. How Wall Street Got Addicted to Light-Speed Trading. (Wired) - Two-Thirds
of Millionaires Left Britain to Avoid 50% Tax Rate. (Telegraph)
- The
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JibJab Lets You Star In Your Own Gangnam Style Video
Gangnam Style has about a billion views, recently surpassing Justin Bieber to become the number one most-viewed YouTube video of all time.
So, of course, JibJab got in the game. They’ve launched a Gangnam Style video that you can personalize with your face (or a friend’s face). Here's what it looks like.
Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!Hope you are having a happy and fun holiday season.
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Making the Best of What Is
I had the perfect holiday gift planned. We were going to go to Cirque du Soleil's 'Kooza' show. Jennifer and Zach both missed an earlier show because they were out of town. Cirque is magical enough that I didn't mind seeing it again. So, when I saw a daily deal touting "Kazoo La La' at the Cirque Theater, I jumped on it.
On the day of the show, we got dressed up and drove downtown. Our GPS told us to go one way;
but I remembered where the show was … only it wasn't there. Since it was
approaching curtain time and we were feeling the time pressure, I followed the GPS to its destination and tried not to argue.There was a huge line, and very little organization or process (which we thought was very unlike our prior experiences with Cirque du Soleil). Nonetheless, we get to our seats, the curtain rises, and we laugh that someone struggling to do a circus act. Then we start to
look at each other, because it dawns on us that the person struggling is not a clown pretending to struggle, is truly someone who's not very good at what they're doing.To make a long story short, we bought a ticket to see Kazoo La La, which in no shape or form is related to Cirque du Soleil's Kooza.
Yes, it was disappointing, and we left at the intermission. However, we had a great time. We laughed at the show and ourselves. Then we took the extra time we had
went to
marble slab creamery for ice cream.The point is, it's not what
happens,
it's what you do.This is true in trading, in business, and in life. All you can control is how you show up, what you focus on, and what you make something mean. The quality of the experience is still up to you.
I wish you peace and happiness for the holiday season.
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Your Weekend Reading Linkfest
Lots of good stuff this week to distract you from the bad.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
- Why
it’s Not All Bad to Be Bored. (NYTimes) - Alec
Baldwin Puts the 'Fear' Into Christmas with Glengarry Christmas Spoof. (CX) - Spotify's 10
Most Popular Tracks of 2012. (TheWeek) - The Purpose Of War?
Thought provoking commentary. (ABC) - Human
Modification. Scientists are experimenting with different ways to enhance
humans. What's possible? (TheBrowser)
- The
World’s 200 Richest People. (Bloomberg) - Investors’
10 Most Common Behavioral Biases. (RPSeawright) - Market
Data Firm Spots the Tracks of Bizarre Robot Traders. (TheAtlantic) - Book
Recommendations from Nassim Taleb. (FarnamStreet) - With
Profits Dropping, High-Speed Trading Cools Down. (NYTimes)
- Why
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Strange as it may sound, U.S. Student Debt may be a catalyst to the next Crisis.
Pop Quiz! What line item is the largest asset on Uncle Sam’s balance sheet?
- U.S. Official Reserve Assets
- Total Mortgages
- Taxes Receivable
- Student Loans
The correct answer, as of the Flow of Funds report for Q1 2012, is … Student Loans.
The rapid growth in student debt has been a frequent topic in the financial press. Earlier this year the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) posted an article with the attention-grabbing title: Too Big to Fail: Student debt hits a trillion .
Student loans may be a liability on the consumer balance sheet, but they constitute an asset for Uncle Sam. Just how big? Nearly 35% of the total federal assets, over four times the 8.6% percent for the total mortgages outstanding.
The nation's total student debt load is growing at a terrifying $2,853 per second.
Here, an infographic.
Could this be a catalyst to the next market turmoil? Seems woth watching.
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The Cost of Kidding Yourself
Creating the illusion of economic growth is easy if you can print money. It’s a prank you can play on an entire country. Cut the value of the currency in half and the economy’s size will appear to double. If it doesn’t, you’re in recession (whether you know it or not).
Cavemen probably understood this concept better than America’s best economic minds.
The only way to accurately measure changes in a nation’s economy is to do so relative to the world. According to the World Bank, the U.S. represented 31.8% of the world’s economic activity in 2001. By the end of 2011, that share had dropped to 21.6%, meaning America’s slice of the world economy is 32% smaller than it was a decade ago, and getting smaller every day. Note that America’s housing bubble did nothing to boost the U.S. on the global stage.
As horrific as these results are, they’re better than Japan’s, whose “lost decade” proved only to be prologue for its “lost-er decade.” Japan’s share of the world economy fell more than 35% from 2001 to 2011 (literally worse than Zimbabwe) and has now shriveled 54% from its peak. But Japan’s real collapse did not coincide with the bursting of its stock and real estate bubbles in 1990 and 1991 respectively. The decline actually began in 1995 when policymakers allowed government debt to exceed 90% of GDP (a milestone the U.S. quietly passed in 2010).
For more on this, see Mark McHugh's full post at "Across the Street".
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Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song Video
It that time of year again. Wow, how time flies.
To my Jewish friends, Happy Chanukah.
As a gift to all of you, here is "The Chanukah Song," performed by comedian Adam Sandler on Saturday Night Live. It became an instant classic, since he first performed it in 1994.
Here is the video.
Here is the Wikipedia post about the Chanukah Song.
He has updated it since then. Here is Sandler's Version 2.
And, here is Sandler's Version 3. Hope you enjoy them … and best wishes for a happy holiday season.
