Jimmy Kimmel is so funny

Well, my friend Liz thinks that Jimmy Kimmel is not funny, not funny at all. (I'll be honest with, I can't remember why she feels this way, but I think it has something to do with the Man Show) Well, I'll say this, Liz is wrong- this is crazy funny; and this is even better. Watch for all of the cameos in the second clip.

As my friends in Montreal would say: c'est tres funny. Yes, they realize that they should say tres drole (or, rigolo, according to http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/funny) but they use English words all over they pseudo-french conversations.

Later,

B

I am such a nerd

So I was listening to CNBC (on XM radio) on my way home from work last night. The show I was listening to is called Fast Money. I forget what stock there traders and the host were talking about, but I remember that one of the traders said that he still liked the stock. This trader suggested that people buy the $20 call option and sell the $22 put option; to which the host made fun of the trader for the complex trade (it isn't too complex, but, rather, more complex than the general public likes) and said, "Where did that trade come from, Chicago?" I laughed at that one, because I understood the implied joke.

Like I said, I'm a nerd.

Lower Taxes on Companies, not the Wealthy

Well, it is Tuesday, and I've been thinking about economics. One thing that my fellow conservatives always talk about is lowering taxes to stimulate the economy. I almost agree with this; however, I diverge from their thinking when they talk about lower taxes in individuals. That doesn't make sense to me, here's why: when taxes are lowered on individuals (rich, poor, or otherwise) the individual has more money in their pocket, and less to the government. (I do believe that the government should have as little money as possible, but no one wants to see their fellow man starving in the streets, either) It is not guaranteed that the individual is going to spend the money, spend it in the US, spend it on something legal, or any thing else that increases the economy.

What I think should be done is lower the taxes on companies, here’s why: taxes increase the cost of doing business to companies. From the direct cost of actually having to pay the taxes, to the indirect cost of having to hire firms, lawyers, tax experts, consultants, etc to come up with slick ways of avoiding taxes. (See a note below on how Enron used to dupe the government) By lowering the corporate tax rate from 35% to, say, 20% the overall cost of doing business will go down. This is important because the firms’ profit margins will go up. When a firm goes from a profit margin of 10% to 12.3% it makes the returns of the business more attractive, and more likely the shareholders will stay in and invest in the business. Another example of the benefits of a lower corporate tax rate is that firms will have more money in their pockets at the end of the year. Firms do not like to hold cash on hand (returns on cash investments are low), so they will invest the money, or pay it out as dividends. (Which are taxed at the personal income tax rate) All in all, it makes more sense to me to lower the income tax rate on companies more so than lowering it for individuals.

Another area I have been thinking about is how successful it has been for the U.S. economy to have a lower capital gains tax for individuals. The ability of individuals to invest the money has led to an explosion of in the Private Equity business over the last 15 years. This explosion has given us Starbucks, Google, eBay, Yahoo, multiple companies turned around, countless small to mid-sized companies, and other benefits. The corporate capital gains tax rate is set at the income tax rate for companies: 35%. This doesn’t motivate companies to take risks, invest in new tools, sell assets that have appreciated, and the other related financial activities that come with lower capital gains taxes. The explosive growth in the economy due to lowering of personal capital gains taxes more than offset the loss in revenue; and I believe that if the same is done with companies the growth engine of our economy will take off again.

Well, that is the extent of my musings on economics this week. Hopefully I will have an inspiration for next week.

Later,

B

I am so sorry for not adding the side bar when I first published this post.

SIDE BAR:

The Enron Example (courtesy of Merle Erickson's 30118 class), so Enron didn't want to pay capital gains taxes to the government. Here's how they did it using contingent liabilities. Enron creates a shell company and calls it something like FTIRS. They put $500 million in assets in the company, and the IRS recognizes that the firm is worth $500 million, and that is the tax basis Enron takes in the shell company. The folks at Enron are clever enough to know that the IRS does not recognize contingent liabilities, so Enron out $499 million worth of contingent liabilities into the shell company. You, me, and everyone else realize that the shell company is only worth $1 million ($500 million assets - $499 million contingent liabilities); however, the IRS, due to their recognition rules, still value the company at the original tax basis: $500 million. Enron finds some company to buy the shell at $1 million, AND the IRS allows them to recognize a $499 million capital loss. Thus Enron could claim $0 in capital gains (assuming they made $499 million on another investment) by claiming a synthetic $499 million loss. It was legal, the lawyers at Enron asked the IRS if this would fly, and the IRS said yes. Those guys were slick, tragically flawed, but slick.

Hearing a 'Boom' and feeling a jolt on a plane is never a good thing......

Ya'll ain't gonna believe dis shit. So I was on a NWA plane (no, not N------ With Attitude, but North West Airlines) and it was early so I was asleep. I don't how long I was asleep when I heard a large boom and felt the whole plane jolt. HOLY SHIT, I'M GOING TO DIE!!!! I jolted upright and alert very quickly, my heart was racing, I look out the window and notice that we are still at the gate. What the?.....

We, at this time, I couldn't figure out what was happening. Did the luggage people throw a huge piece of luggage on the plane? Did a mechanic slam close a access panel? Did the 'reverse' truck driver start pushing the plane back too hard? After a few minutes the people in the rows in front of the right wing started chatting excitedly and pointing at the front of the wing. After a few minutes of this the flight attendants started leaning over the passengers and giggling/smiling in shock. After a few minutes of this, the pilot got on the line and said that a baggage handler hit the plane with a baggage cart. That right, he HIT the damn plane with the baggage cart. The captain said that people from safety/engineering were going to look at the wing (the damage was on the leading edge) to see if the plane was flight worthy. Now at this point, I thought: I went to school with a bunch of engineers. Heck, the industrial engineers and the aeronautical and aerospace engineers (AAE) shared a building at Purdue. The Purdue AAE School of Engineering was the best in the nation. Based on my experiences, if this plane leaves the ground, we all going to die.

Well, they didn't let the plane fly. One of the funniest parts of the whole deal was watching the maintenance workers, supervisors, engineers, safety personnel, airline officials, etc pull up to the air plane and watching their jaws drop. Having been a maintenance supervisor at a General Motors plant, it is quite an honor when a screw up makes a veteran guy's jaw drop. The general reaction of all of the people at the scene was: Oh My God, How The Hell Did That Happen.

After they told us the plane was "down" they moved us into a plane in the next gate over. As we exited the plane, we went to the window of the gate to look at the damage. I was expecting a small dent, perhaps a gash where the cart but a deep scratch / shallow dent into the wing. I was wrong. Where the leading edge of the wing meets the fuselage there was a massive dent. Imagine if someone backed into you car and crushed in the entire from quarter panel, then you're getting an idea.

Well, we got on the new plane. We were able to successfully load, fuel, disembark, and takeoff in this new plane. After we were halfway from Detroit to Montreal I had two thoughts:

1) Damn, I should have taken a picture of the dent with my phone, and,
2) I wonder what that is going to due to the guys insurance. That piece of the wing has to be getting close the 100/300/100 limits on most insurance.

Later all,

B
P.S. I've never traveled to Montreal without having a problem on one of the legs

The Reschlys and their politics

Well, so I was bored and I googled my name (how narcissistic, right); and I found something interesting:

Here's who I donate to.

My Mom. (hippie!)

My Dad. (double hippie!)

Erica did not make any donations; however, she did get this published, whatever the hell it is.

Sara is too poor to donate, but she's been on CNN.

Luke didn't donate, but he did caucus for the human bore machine.

I think I just learned how to link in a post

Well, maybe I am behind the times. Perhaps I'm just dumb. But I think I've finally figured out how to link to another web page inside one of my posts. Try this. Cool, huh? Yeah, I thought so.

Later,

B

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

I have seen the mountain top, and it is beautiful. Today I moved into my new office at work. It has a working door, and a window. I know that there are plenty of people that have an office with a wondow; but, for me, it is awesome. I spent a few years toiling as an engineer in a cube, a few years walking through a windowless factory as a maintenance supervisor, and a few years as a financial analyst toiling away in a cube, and/or an office that closely resembles a closet; the only time I was ever in an office with a window was when I was in the big boss' office.

How great is that? Well, I'll show you:

Here is the office (Note: I had to close the blinds to get a good shot):

And here is the view out of the window:

Awesome, huh? Well, I think so, anyaway; and screw those of you who do think that this is awesomeness personified.

Later,

B

I've never seen so much snow!

So, this last week I was in Montreal, Quebec. Evidently Montreal is having the worst winter, snow wise; they've had in 15 years. It is hard to comprehend what that means; if you were to say that about Jasper, Indiana that would mean an inch or two of ice. In Indianapolis, that means, maybe, 15 to 20 inches of snow that melts within a month. In Newton, Kansas, that means maybe 6 inches of snow that blows from one end of the state to the other.

Here's what it means in Montreal, snow piles as big as a damn building; and it isn't going anywhere, ever. One would think the street department of Montreal would be world class at snow removal, and you would be dead wrong. I think that the Tampa Bay street department might be better at snow removal. Here's the kicker: it isn't going to get warm enough to melt till April or May.

I also believe that the Montreal City Planning Department spends most of its day high as hell. I have never been so lost in my life. I got lost on the damn Interstate... Interprovidence, I suppose. I got lost exiting the Interprovidence to get to the off ramp. How does that work? The fact that you have to know when an overpass is two miles, 3km, ahead so you can exit, turn two or three times on to side streets so you can finally make it to an over pass. I had so much trouble getting turned around on Interprovidence 20 that I damn near ended up in Plattsburg, NY; well, not really, but it did take me forever to get turned around.

Oh well, I suppose I should choose the Garmin GPS option next time I'm in Montreal.

The Treadmill Girl Story

I am going to preface this story by stating that I am a dumbass, and that this story is from the September to November, 2007 time frame.So a little background is needed: as you all know I am overweight. Some points in my life it hasn't been that bad, others, like now, it has needed some attention. Normally I don't care, but my blood pressure has been high the last two times I've been to a doctor; and I get winded climbing to the top of a single story of stairs. So, upon me graduating from grad school, getting a job, and moving to Indy I have decided to do something about it. I am lifting weights again AND I have been getting up at 5:30 AM to walk on the treadmill at my apartment complex. In case you didn't get it the first time: 5:30 IN THE MORNING!The story: So, yesterday morning I got up at 5:30 AM and stumbled to the little workout room at my apartment complex. I remember thinking to myself "I wonder if I will see anyone this morning."When I started the routine I remember thinking that it would be great to walk at 5:30 AM because I would have the room to myself. The first day my belief was smashed as this hot little brunette number came in at quarter till 6. Another day an overly cheery, middle aged, black, lesbian couple was using two of the three treadmills. (the exercise room has four elliptical , sp?, machines and three treadmills. The treadmills are side-by-side, as is typical) So I have come to expect to see the odd person(s) in the room when I am walking on the treadmill.Yesterday was nice, as I entered the room, I noticed that it was empty. Sticking to normal gym etiquette I choose the treadmill on the right end of the row. At roughly 5:50 AM I hear the door open behind me, and I think: great, now my quiet time is broken; hopefully this person won't try to talk to me. Out of the corner of my eye is see this blonde little thing jump on the treadmill at the left end of the row. After roughly 30 seconds of messing with that treadmill she jumps off it and gets on the one right next to mine.Me, being an engineer back in the day, thinks: I bet that treadmill is broken. That's funny, worked fine for me yesterday. I should probably take the time to fix it when I'm done walking. Now, at this point I'm just hoping that I can finish my walk without having to be social. For full disclosure purposes, I must admit that I would have faked being social as I was able to notice her at this point(I don't wear my glasses when I walk). Then the damnedest thing happened. This lady just started talking to me. Not just the normal "Hi," "Hi," "This weather we're having," "I know" stuff, but just flat out talking to me. It wasn't a great conversation, but not a bad one either.Well, since it is me in this situation (instead of Bond, James Bond) I screwed it up. I finished my 30 minutes walking and told the lady, "well, time to go get cleaned up for work." Did I ask her her name? Tell her that it was nice to meet her? Ask her anything? Nope, I just left. In reflection, the one positive thing that I can take away from this is that I will probably never miss another morning walk again.

Peace out,

B

P.S. I later found out that the lady's name is Nicole. For the 4 months, or so, that I was consistent about walking in the morning, we had a lot of good conversations. We made plans to get together outside of the exercise center, but I found out this lady's fatal flaw: she's a flake. Twice we made plans, twice she broke them; oh well