Fiscal Responsbility: Is It Catching On Around the World?

I'm not as convinced as Irish filmmaker Phelim McAleer. I see a lot of knee jerk reactions from politicians right now based on fear and self-preservation, but I don't see a wave a true fiscal reform sweeping the globe yet. But I'm looking forward to the day when it begins to happen in earnest.

My 2010 Book List

Distinguished

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
The Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson - Joseph L. Ellis
The Investor's Manifesto - William Bernstein
Common Sense on Mutual Funds - John Bogle
Dien Cai Dau - Yusef Komunyakaa

Excellent

Flight - Sherman Alexie
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing - John Bogle
Enough - John Bogle
Liberty and Tyranny - Mark Levin
The Four Pillars of Investing - William Bernstein
The Investor's Manifesto - William Bernstein
Facts About the Moon - Dorrianne Laux
Smoke - Dorrianne Laux

Very Good

The Basketball Diaries - Jim Carroll
A Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008 - Louise Erdich
The Bogelheads' Guide to Investing - Taylor Larimore
The Bogelheads' Guide to Retirement - Taylor Larimore
God's Silence - Franz Wright
The Lies About Money - Ric Edelman
Native Guard - Natasha Trethewey

Good

Taboo - Yusef Komunyakaa
The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets - Peter Schiff
Fortune - Joseph Millar
The Book of Nods - Jim Carroll
One Foot in Eden - Ron Rash

Fair

Warhorses - Yusef Komunyakaa
Void of Course - Jim Carroll

Poor

Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert T. Kiyosaki

Fama on Financial Reform

Gene Fama, one of the fathers of Modern Portfolio Theory, expresses his view on financial reform. Personally, I've seen little evidence that regulators are capable of regulating the industries they are supposed to police, and don't place much faith in the financial reform bill in Congress. I think 1,400 pages of law is way to complicated and unenforceable. The new bureaucracies that are created will be just as ineffective as the old bureaucracies. The bill itself should be much simpler and rely on much higher capital standards to enforce discipline. The implicit promise of bailout nation needs to come to an end, and companies should be allowed to fail based on their own foolish decisions and miscalculations. The failure to address Fannie and Freddie in this bill is a major shortcoming, and until those companies are wound down, or sold off and detached from the government and mortgage standards raised we still live in a world exposed to irresponsible underwriting.

Authors@Google: Burton Malkiel - Timeless Lessons for Investors

One of the giants in the area of personal finance and investing. Professor Malkiel is the author of the classic investment book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street. He has also authored several other books, including the recently published The Elements of Investing.

Quote of the Day: Thomas Sowell on The Real Public Service

It was Thomas Edison who brought us electricity, not the Sierra Club. It was the Wright brothers who got us off the ground, not the Federal Aviation Administration. It was Henry Ford who ended the isolation of millions of Americans by making the automobile affordable, not Ralph Nader.

Those who have helped the poor the most have not been those who have gone around loudly expressing "compassion" for the poor, but those who found ways to make industry more productive and distribution more efficient, so that the poor of today can afford things that the affluent of yesterday could only dream about.

~ Thomas Sowell

Grouch: The average American today lives better than the Kings and Queens of a hundred years ago could even imagine.  This is primarily due to the risk taker, the entrepreneurs, the inventors who created things like electricity, the telephone, cars and airplanes, washers and dryers, refrigerators and freezers, radio and TV, the computer and the internet, central heating and air conditioning, etc.  Not to mention the jobs these innovations have created... all leading to a higher standard of living.

YeZ concept car to inhale CO2 and exhale oxygen into the atmosphere

This concept car developed as a joint venture by SAIC and GM looks like a leaf on wheels, and it is designed to function much like a leaf.  It will get power from the natural sources of energy. The rooftop of the car will be equipped with solar panels and small wind turbines located on the wheels.  YeZ will also feature an advanced system that will inhale the CO2 from the surrounding air and exhale the fresh oxygen back into the atmosphere, in a fashion very similar to plants. The energy generated from all these means will be stored in the batteries that will further conduit it to the vehicle when on the move.  Whether this will actually turn into an affordable production vehicle remains to be seen, but the concept is interesting to say the least.

Bureaucrats vs. Taxpayers

I'm sure this video will anger some of my friends in government, but Dan Mitchel makes a number of good points that Americans should pay attention to. The level of benefits and salary many have become accustom to are not sustainable. To quote Mitchel: "Government workers have now become a cosseted elite, with generous pay, extravagant benefits, lavish pensions, and ironclad job security. In exchange for this privileged status, they reward the politicians with millions of dollars of support and a host of in-kind contributions." Mitchel make the case that: 1) bureaucrats are vastly overcompensated; 2) debunks the myth that bureaucrats are underpaid compared to the private sector; and 3) makes the libertarian point that most federal bureaucrats should not exist in the first place. I'm sympathetic to his point of view and believe that for the long term fiscal health of the country the bureaucracy needs to be trim, and federal needs to be frozen or actually decrease to reduce our deficits back to a more manageable level. Right now, the government seems to be headed in the opposite direction, and trillion dollar a year deficits as far as the eye can see will turn the country into monumental financial disaster that will make the European mess look like chump change.

The Guatemalan Sink Hole

This image is almost otherworldly.  Reminds me of some of the computer generated special effects in Hollywood movies.  Unfortunately, it also sums up my feelings on the current state of the stock market (especially my euro denominated assets), but I'm sticking with my asset allocation strategy rebalancing periodically.