patrick.net

Just seems tacky to me.

I'm truly sorry. I make *plenty* of typos, so should not be one to cast stones.

Malcolm,

With that incredible keyboard pugilism you demonstrated in this thread in your battle with those econ heavyweights, I think we can forgive a mispelled word.

I did not catch DS's intent either. I thought maybe "viamently hee hee" was some sort of Aussie giggle.

Anthony,

If you agree that FED is just an extension of the government, then we all know what a government is most concerned with: social stability, which means employment rate. Be it aristocratic, totalitarian or democratic, a society with very high unemployment will upset the very foundation of a government, which is an organism with its own self-interest.

FED has painted itself into a corner. It really doesn't have much of a choice. Dollar's status as the world's reserve currency has been waning since the 60s, it is just a matter of time that as we keep going down this path, USD will just lose its dominating power, so it is not a scenario that the Americans are entirely unprepared for, psychologically. We were at a crossroad choosing between inflation and deflation, but so far, the signs are clear, we are choosing inflation. The real inflation rate, for anyone who shops at grocery markets and drives a car to work, is far beyond the published "core" rate. FED is no dummy, the last time I checked, the FED governors are living in the same country as I do, so they know what the real inflationary picture is.

The most ideal case for America is to devalue slowly, 5% a year maybe, so as not to upset the financial system in general, and bring on the impact of a cheap USD to the US public gradually, while alleviating the real debt load of Americans. Let's face it, we are a debtor nation, each household in Amerca carries an average $9.8K credit card debt, much more in mortgage, and has a negative savings rate. We have a huge medicare and social security gap in the wake of baby boomer retirement. No democratic government is going to do anything (aka, choosing deflation and defending the dollar) to jeopardize the interest of its main constituents - debtors.

However, history has shown us that soft landing is hard. Landing in itself typically means hard landing. So while I recognize it is the wish of the FED to manage a soft landing for the dollar, I don't buy this scenario. Once the landslide starts, it is difficult to hold back and the market always overreacts in the short term.

If you believe in a seriously weakening dollar, parking your money anywhere outside of the dollar will benefit. While I am big on Euro, oil, agriculture, and gold as shorter-term bets as things are sorting themselves out, I am more bullish on US companies that will benefit from a weakening USD in the long-term. A weak dollar will rejuvenate lots of home-grown industries and most FBs and welfare deadbeats off their butt to start working again. I see a collapsing dollar as an essential step in the healing process.

Breaking news on the Virginia Tech shooter:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/18/vtech.shooting/index.html

CNN also learned Wednesday that in 2005 Cho was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice, who declared he was "an imminent danger" to himself, a court document states.

In another part of the form, Cho was described as "mentally ill and in need of hospitalization, and presents an imminent danger to self or others as a result of mental illness, or is so seriously mentally ill as to be substantially unable to care for self, and is incapable of volunteering or unwilling to volunteer for treatment."

Interesting to note that Virginia actually has some fairly stringent background checks on handguns compared to most other Southern states:

http://www.bradycampaign.org/legislation/state/viewstate.php?st=va#bgnd

BACKGROUND CHECK AT STATE LEVEL
Do state police perform a background check in addition to federal NICS check? Yes

State law restricts gun-trafficking by limiting the number of handguns that can be purchased at one time. No more than one handgun may be purchased by a person within a 30-day period. This restriction on bulk-buying of handguns helps prevent gun traffickers from buying handguns at gun stores and reselling them on the street to criminals.

Basically, aside from banning firearm possession for people who have been declared mentally ill in the past but have no prior criminal record, I don't see what else the State of Virginia could have been expected to do to prevent this.

Headset, I was thinking the same thing. I typed in confrontation mode for about 3 hours and I have some clown pick out one misspelled word from the whole thing to ridicule?

But Harm, thanks.

Malcolm, you have my permission to pounce the next time I post a misspelling or eggcorn.

It's not you that irritated me. We're cool.

I misspell all the time. But I am also able to brush off "attacks" against me easily.

Malcolm Says:
Nice Harm. Criticize a typo from this morning. I’m the only one I know.

I did it, it was me. Probably just my take on the preceding discussion full of sound and fury...

Probably just my take on the preceding discussion full of sound and fury…

It signified nothing. :)

Guys it's not that big a deal, I just had a moment of irritation because, like I said, we had a hell of a discussion this morning and if all that comes out of it is scrutiny of one horrific spelling error that it is a small slap in the face. We're all ok, I didn't mean to overreact.

Now royalties are a true passive income stream.

surfer-x,

I am also income challenged (less than six figures). My mortgage is around the same as what you are looking at, and we get by okay. You should do fine (5.6%, yep, that's "free money"). What is your current rent in SB for those of us who are curious?

a_k1947

Sounds almost like you knew Mikhail personally! I did not know the Soviets granted patents to individuals. I thought the manufacturer would own the patents, and that would only apply to exports.

Different Sean, you have touched on what I was basically saying. I started out questioning if MLS was a monopoly and made the point that even if they are it is not necessarily illegal to be a monopoly. All of your examples are straight from any business textbook. Where Randy made a great point was in bringing up exclusionary practices which may be illegal under the Clayton Act IMO. I know for sure that you can't force a client to buy other specifc items from you to maintain the right to do business with you, but I am honestly not sure if an exclusivity agreement can bar other listing services. On that I honestly just don't know the legal answer.

a_k1947,

You may want to correct this Wikipedia article:

"Despite estimates that there are around 100 million AK-47 assault rifles in circulation, General Kalashnikov claims that he himself has made no money from the sale of these weapons and that he only receives a meagre state pension. He even has a share from a company which produces Umbrellas. And recently, he has said that he wished he had invented the lawn-mower instead."

I heard somewhere that the AK-47 holds some record for the largest number of human deaths.

I think a_k's remarks are some kind of confabulation...

DS,

Cool term, maybe we accuse those who disagree as "having a confab moment"

"I heard somewhere that the AK-47 holds some record for the largest number of human deaths."

Possibly for a single type, but the Soviet army lost 100,000 a week for four years during the Axis invasion in the Great Patriotic War. This was several years before the AK-47 was invented.

HARM your understanding of intellectual property law is pretty accurate. That is in fact how licensing agreements work.

Thanks, Malcolm. Just curious, do you work in a field related to corporate/IP law?

As a Virginia Tech Alum, I just like to pass this on:

Virginia Tech family members across the country have united to declare this Friday, April 20th, an " Orange and Maroon Effect" day to honor those killed in the tragic events on campus Monday, and to show support for Virginia Tech students, faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, and friends. " Orange and Maroon Effect" was born several years ago as an invitation to Tech fans to wear orange and maroon to Virginia Tech athletic events. We invite everyone from all over the country to be a part of the Virginia Tech family this Friday, to wear orange and maroon to support the families of those who were lost, and to support the school and community we all love so much.

Headset, I think that is the record, the weapon with the most casualties. Just something I heard, maybe confabulating.

It's been in just about every war for the last 50 years.

BTW, to add to support Randy's point. You do not need to be a monopoly to be found to violate anti trust. All businesses are bound by the three main acts.

Skibum, do you remember under Clinton when they decided there were too many doctors graduating so they tightened medical school admissions to protect the livelihood.

Any job that requires no specific training, education, or anything other than paying a fee to get in and taking a joke of an exam is not a profession.

I would have to agree, the agent who sold my house last time was totally incompetent and was engaged in borderline illegal activities. She made a lot more money than the law firm that did my green card application.

I would think a knife or a spear actually holds the real record for killing people.

I know it's a tragedy, and people died, but more people died in car accidents that day than the Virginia killings.

I would think a knife or a spear actually holds the real record for killing people.

Fate is the #1 killer of all times.

I’d venture to guess even Realtors ™ would be reluctant to call themselves professionals in the strict and narrow sense of the word - “def: engaged in one of the learned professions” as in lawyers, doctors, etc.

skibum,

You would be wrong to assume that, sir!

http://www.webhomeusablog.com/2007/03/real_estate_con.html

Although we Realtors see ourselves as Professionals, like Doctors and Lawyers, we've never gotten our due from Hollywood with Doctor Shows like ER, General Hospital or Scrubs; and Lawyer Shows like LA Law, Perry Mason or Law and Order.

Lets not confuse, purposely or otherwise, monopoly. patents, and licensing

Monopoly is designed to restrict competition for the sake of restricting competition, usually as favors for the politically connected

patents and royalties are designed to encourage innovation by allowing the developer to recoupe costs and make a profit for a specific period

licensing is designed to insure competence in a profession

Just because all have in common the restriction of trade does not make them equal.

I just want to short circuit the "patents are OK, and they are a monopoly, thus monopoly must be OK, and since monopoly is OK, gov monopolys must be peachy also" brand of tortured logic I see coming.

I know it’s a tragedy, and people died, but more people died in car accidents that day than the Virginia killings.

I know. But people perceive things differently.

I guess it is not politically correct to say that it was an acceptable consequence of life.

Skibum, do you remember under Clinton when they decided there were too many doctors graduating so they tightened medical school admissions to protect the livelihood.

They never "tightened medical school admissions." I'll agree that there is always the impetus from the AMA to limit the number of MDs practicing to keep the profession a premium - that's what all professional organizations do. The Bar exam does it for lawyers, for example. However, technically, standards for admissions have not changed significantly for decades. They increased the standards of accredidation for medical schools themselves, thereby causing a few of the sub-par ones to close. Same end result, but in some ways good because some of the crappier schools went out of business.

Headset, I guess your concern is founded but as someone with a business background I try to caution against the opposite, which is that monopoly is a bad word and is always wrong. I remember a conversation I had with a CEO of a compnay I worked for and I made the comment, 'that patent will give you a nice monopoly on that technology.' The idiot actually tried to correct me. This is a typical PHD who must by definition know everything about everything.

Any job that requires no specific training, education, or anything other than paying a fee to get in and taking a joke of an exam is not a profession.

It's all relative...

HARM,

Thanks for the link. Hilarious. I don't even know what to say to that. I'm dumbfounded.

"Although we Realtors see ourselves as Professionals, like Doctors and Lawyers, we’ve never gotten our due from Hollywood with Doctor Shows like ER, General Hospital or Scrubs; and Lawyer Shows like LA Law, Perry Mason or Law and Order. "

Shows how they rate. Even the Taxicab "profession" had its own show and a movie.