Michael Bloomberg for Dictator of the U.S.A.

Calm down. I haven't totally flipped out-yet. However, I had the pleasure of watching Michael Bloomberg being interviewed on "Meet the Press". I was quite impressed with his grasp of the current financial crisis. He gets it. You ask, what makes him so smart?

It's not that he is smarter than everyone. There are a lot of smart people in Washington, DC. However, unlike most of our elected officials, he is virtually unaffected by special interests. He's rich and he doesn't need their money. Hence, he can speak his mind and tell it like it is.

As for the dictator part, I really like democracy with the checks and balances in our government, but congress has sold out. They need to get out of the way.

Check out the interview (after the frigging commercial).

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26819490#26819490

Credit Crunch

Everyone should know by now that I am an old fart. That qualifies me as one of those "I told you so" people with respect to the current credit crisis the world is enduring.

You can blame the Democrats, Republicans, unscrupulous mortgage lenders, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernake, Bush (pick one or more), Bill Clinton, the investment bankers, or just the stupid people who signed all of the documents at closing without reading them, let alone doing the math on their own to determine that they could actually NOT afford their home for the term of the loan.

Well, I'm laying the bulk of the blame on spreadsheets. Spreadsheets?!! I know you think I've lost it, but people never used to borrow too much money to buy a home because you never really knew what you could afford. The rule of thumb was NEVER have a payment exceeding 25% of you monthly net pay or NEVER borrow more than twice your annual gross income. If you forgot, the bank reminded you as they gleefully loaned you the money for anywhere form 8% to as high as 18% in the early '80's. You must be thinking, who would buy a home at those rates? You're right. No one or very few did because people could not afford it...that is until Lotus 1-2-3 invented the spreadsheet in the early '90's. The housing market exploded!

Suddenly, lenders thought they could loan more money at lower rates and borrowers thought they could handle larger mortgages. Wrong and Wrong. Somewhere in the 20 to 30 years of a loan, sh.. happens and you have to have enough of a reserve fund to handle it. Hence, here we are today. Everyone was feeding like pigs in a trough. Of course, you all know where pigs end up.

Live within your means, save 10% of your income, keep six months of income in an emergency fund (not part of your savings),and be glad you live in the U.S.A., that is at least until we sell the naming rights to a foreign country that holds all of the U.S Treasury Bonds. Let's see, where will we put the sign? Ah, I got it...on the forehead of the Statue of Liberty!

Bigger is not Necessarily Better

I need to make a confession. I went to the "Oil Can" or the "Luke" for the first NFL regular season game for the Colts. My bro called at the last minute with a ticket and I was "weak".

I have to admit that upon walking up to the structure, I was a bit awed at how immense it was. In terms of sheer mass, it is the largest building I have ever seen up close. When I stepped inside, it was like walking through the back of the wardrobe in "The Chronicles of Narnia" except that it was full of rednecks instead of turtlenecks. Anyway, it was HUGE!

However, after I slapped my lower jaw back into place, I began to see what was not so wonderful about Indy's new $720 million boondoggle:
1)Finding my seat (which are all biggie-sized to accommodate the average Colts' fan) was not easy. I should have left a trail of bread crumbs to find my way out.
2)I noticed the players were smaller. Actually, they are twice as far away as in the RCA Dome. I could barely see the numbers and I was only half way up in the stands. 3)The men's room was not meeting capacity, as there was a long line vs. no line for the women. The architect must have been a chick with a small bladder.
4)Fan noise was less due to the roof being open but it did not seem to affect the sound level of the commercials that were blasted during timeouts. Conversation was nearly impossible.

Plus, the Colts got their butts kicked 29-13. On the plus side, I did get a inaugural game souvenir cup. I'm putting it on Ebay.