The Mondi Post

Irrational Ideas or Philosophies

1. People must love or approve of me
2.  Making mistakes is terrible
3. People should be condemned for their wrongdoings
4. It’s terrible when things go wrong
5. My emotions can’t be controlled
6. Threatening situations have to keep me terribly worried
7. Self-discipline is too hard to achieve
8. Bad effects of my childhood still have to control my life

I think my generation is more susceptible to fear. We were born to dreamers and achievers. Men and women that dared to break the status quo and make more for themselves. Commendable people that opened the path for the rest of us, but also made deadly mistakes along the way that we weren’t able to predict because we were too young but that are now shaping our future. Things like ignoring the warnings from concerned environmentalists. Or giving corporations human rights without human responsibilities. Things that are not so easy to fix or reverse. And now, we have entered what are supposed to be the funnest and most exiting years of our lives in a rott. With a nasty job market, low wages, deplorable economic projections and an energy and environmental crises in the back burners. So, yeah, we are allowed to be afraid and disappointed, but we can’t afford to be weak. Shit happens. The only thing we can do in the face of adversity is fight. So, toughen up, and next time you find yourself slowing down because of these Irrational Ideals, look at yourself in the mirror and growl. Because this, too, needs to pass.

In April of last year, Forbes contributor, Gordon Chang, wrote an article on the potential insolvency of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). Among other things, Chang pointed out the sleazy “hidden liabilities” that the Chinese central bank is backing and how, once we add these to the books, the sovereign obligations of the country can add up to as much as 160% of their GDP. Alone, this is not a reason to panic. But concurrently to the propensity of unaccounted debt instruments, the People’s Bank of China’s holdings of foreign currency (mostly dollars, euros and yens) has increased to over $3 trillion and these currencies are rapidly depreciating. So far costing China tens of billions of dollars every quarter. To top it all, for some mysterious reasons, the country is arming itself with gold, tons and tons of it (over 725 tons since ’10) - and paying cash for it (Forbes).

Sure they can always print more money to meet their obligations, and they will, but I hope they have a more elaborate plan to deal with the inevitable liquidity issues that are going to arise from these fiscal moves. Because as convinced as I am that China is not going to become the ‘next superpower’, we still need them to provide stability in the international economic arena.

Anyway, interesting times we live in. 

Here is to the future. These might be tough times, but not as tough as us!

Free Markets - A Necessary Evil?

Yes, free market policies work to promote economic growth; lower marginal tax rates encourage higher incentives and production. In addition, less government involvement usually reassures investors that their money will be returned, so long as they invest wisely.

Marginal tax rates are defined as the tax rate applied to the last dollar earned, essentially determining how much a producer is allowed to keep out of what they produce. At a 25% tax rate the producer keeps 75% of their production, and so on. Thus, the lower the tax rates the higher the incentives for production, job creation, business expansion, higher wages…  As a consequence, a tax cut reduction of, lets say  $100 billion, does not affect the economy by just $100 billion because this reduction affects every dollar (or unit of currency). It affects every future economic decision regarding whether to invest in America, create new jobs in the country, and even move from abroad to work here (like yours truly). These decisions will be based on such tax rates.

For these reasons, lower tax rates promote economic growth (if paired with sensitive government spending, of course). Such was the case in the 1920s, 60s, 80s, and through the mid 2000s.

Lastly, we need to pay attention to the implementation of monetary policy to keep the dollar stable to avoid depreciating the currency and scaring off potential investors and entrepreneurs. Failure to do this, as President Bush taught us, undermines the success of economic growth. Bush and his senseless Treasury Secretaries implemented a carefully designed cheap dollar monetary policy in the 2000s, backed by “Helicopter Ben” Bernanke who felt über comfortable dropping dollars out of a helicopter in order to “speed up” economic growth. And Man, Oh Man. Did that NOT work out, or what!

So, as much as I’d love to hate on the free markets (which deep down I do because it means I gotta work harder) I can’t help it but stand for it. Because the opposite is really not that good of an option as of right now.

As such, it seems a little scary that President Obama neglects to acknowledge this. I mean, for peet´s sake, at least acknowledge it. Instead, this is what he said on Dec 6 speech in Kansas on his Obamanomic. “The market will take care of everything, If only we cut more regulations and cut more taxes – especially for the wealthy – our economy will grow stronger. Sure, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everyone else. And even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, they argue, that’s the price of liberty.” Oh, really boss? That sounds fun argument to add more bureaucracy and governmental waste. Now, tell me, what do you think of the free markets? “It doesn’t work. It’s never worked. It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible post-war boom of the 50s and 60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade.” Kennedy begs to differ: “A rising tide lifts all floats.” And me too: Fighting the free market oriented monetary and taxes policies is only going to raise the hill ahead of us, we need economic growth. All due respect Mr. President, I do like you, but we need economic growth NOW. 

But, don’t take my opinion. I beg of you, form your own. And the share them with me, I’d love to hear your thoughts about it. Because between all of us, we can figure this out.

1. Morgan Stanley: Because when you lie you get caught.

2. Bob Greifeld, CEO of Nasdaq: For screwing up an already nasty, hostile take over of the New York Stock Exchange.

3. Bank of America: Because to be a bank you need to treasure financials.

Merry Christmas to my Christian loves!

2011 has been a tough year, at least for me. I’ve struggled with myself and felt my fair share of growing pains but it is over – for now; and while I know that it is not the end of an era per se,it sure feels like it. 

To be true to The Mondi Post, I shall note that 2012 is not going to be any kinder to the economy. Unemployment in the United States is very likely to remain high. While the percentages might drop juuust a little bitas more Americans give up/are forced into retirement/unemployment benefits run out/etc. the reality of it, in terms of millions of people, is that close to 15 million of them (us) are, and will continue to be unemployed. But, in comparison with other countries, we are not doing so bad just make sure to buy American. In the new year, we might see Japan stumble with their energy policy and consumption; China’s foreign relations could (will?) take a turn for the uglier as the as they loose bargaining power in their shrinking exports industry and tensions over the South China Sea grow; Europe will hopefully recover somewhat as the leftist governments begin to crumble; and for the rest of the world, stay tuned.

As for my beloved politics, I’m just going to go ahead and say that if I could vote - which I can’t because I am only a resident, not a citizen - I’d vote for Ron Paul. It’s true. I always liked Ron Paul but lately he has been really winning me over and I’ll tell you why on my next post. Because this one was supposed to be a personal(ish) one.

So it goes like this. From the very beginning of the year, and I am talking NYE party, I knew 2011 was going to be a challenge, I could just feel it. And sure enough, despite all the great things that were supposed to happen, and did happen, this year, it really has been plagued with growing pains at every turn. But ey, challenge accepted; if character building is what was in my cards for the year then there is not gain in letting it go to waste.

I got to it and this is what I have learned, or at least the ‘opportunities for growth’ that I have identified: 1. We, as people, are bound to have to talk about our feelings so the sooner we (I) learn to do it the better (I guess…). But it is true though, I have realized that no matter how uncomfortable or unnecessary I think a conversation is going to be, feelings don’t just disappear they transform into other feelings. For example, friendship can become love which then becomes affection/hate, discomfort can turn into dislike which becomes acceptance/hatred, annoyance can turn into anger which can turn into the conversations I need to learn to have/resentment. So that’s the first lesson I’m owning up to. 2. Sometimes the damage that we create in our relationships when we think we are protecting ourselves is not worth it. And I think this is really for most of us, we are strong cookies, as long as we remain calm and open minded enough to be able to identify what really originated the issue and why, it is better to back down and simply go to the root and fix it from there than to be right and continue fighting and hurt a person and a relationship in the process. I guess what I am trying to say is choose your battles wisely. 3. Before giving up/judging people try to see where they are coming from and what language they speak, and I don’t mean what foreign language but what language their personality understands best. For me it is facts, if you can explain it to me in a factual way, with tangible maybe even numeric terms that I can wrap my head around, chances are you are going to captivate my attention and get a response out of me no matter the topic; other people might speak in more conceptual/abstract or artistic terms, you see what mean? I think this is the trickiest to learn but it’d probably help us all better communicate with each other.

Anyway, that is my personal note, my lessons. And just like that I become another unemployed, recent college grad. But, for some reason, I have a really good feeling about 2012 so I’m ready; senior, outdated politicians/businessmen need to bring their A game, and mentors need to step up because we are about to change the world.

The first of many (hopefully). Courtesy of Mr. Tim Baughman Jr., who writes one of my favorite blogs, Introspection. 

At Saturday night’s GOP debate in Iowa, Mitt Romney tried to make a ten thousand dollar ($10,000) bet with fellow presidential hopeful Rick Perry. While Perry chose to decline the bet because “he’s not a betting man”, something tells me this wager was well within both Romney and Perry’s spending cash limitations. I began to wonder though…what would $10,000 pay for? The answers may surprise you.

• 50 Kindle Fires
• 10,000 Dollar Menu items at McDonalds
• 9 brand new Les Paul Standard guitars (at retail price)
• 1429 pairs of christening socks (roughly)
• A 193” projection screen
• I could pay off approximately 1/3 of my student loans (grad and undergrad loans combined for this total)
• 1379.31 hours of salary for a minimum wage worker in the USA. This equates to roughly paying the worker for a 40 hour week from January through August.
• 62,500 packages of ramen noodles (give or take a hundred packages depending on where you live)
• 1.3 of my car, a 2001 Oldsmobile Intrigue, which I bought for just under $7,000 in 2008
• 33 football autographed by Tim Tebow
• Five years ago, you could rent Tara Reid for a party visit. I’m pretty sure you could get her to blow you for a tenth of this now.
• 3,058.1 gallons of gasoline (based on average national cost of $3.27 a gallon for 12/11/2011)
• Most of all…you could have $10,000 to invest

Like most Americans, I don’t have $10,000 in money to randomly throw around on a bet. It’s a shame individuals seeking to represent the common American are flaunting their money the way they are. It’s almost as if politicians really don’t care about their constituents…wait….

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