B-Large

I don't know WCIP, people of all makes and models get a green tint in their eyes and drool over the fast money that can be made (or perceived can be made), so I don't know if it is some conspiracy between the Banks, CEO's, the Romneys, Kochs, Buffet and Walmart...all to bilk the middle class man out of his earned income paycheck, house and dignity. I had freinds who cashed out retirement accounts so they could buy a bunch of of real estate during the boom.... I am not sure of one that didn't get taken to the cleaners in one way or another, but hey, thats capitalism.... sitting here today I could be seeing my friends with tremendous wealth and wishing I wasn't a slow and steady type investor... but in the end, its worked for me and my family... Warren said: "when other are greedy, be scared... when others are scared, be greedy"- thats makes alot of sense to me, even though its hard to train the brain to think that way. A very, very wealthy patient of our once told me "There is no easy way to make money, none"- its true, its often hard work, careful study and persistence... and takes time to make money... As in anything in life, you are repsonsible for yourself and the money in your pocket. If you don't understand Stocks (and I really don't, I get the concept of stocks and the stock markets) don't buy them. If you don't understand leverage and fluctutation in illiquid assets, don't buy real estate. I emptaize with people who get burned because they are into someting they don't get, but I still point the finger at them

The Racists.... its the !@#$ing Racists....

I'd venture to guess cleaning up balances sheets and cutting cuts as deep as they can has helped deliver on estimated earnings, but without top line growth, that probably doesn't bode well for long term sustainability... I assume outside of instutional investors even dumb scrocks like myself look at my 403B, Roth, ETF accounts and see that is has rebounded and performed quite nicely in the last 90-180 days and that makes the average guy a little more confident that the economy is on the a sustained mend, evening considering employment issues. Heck, housing prices are heading back up in Denver proper, heck I might just finish the basement and sell my castle if this continues...

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall during the Kim and Dennis outings... between Kim's penchant for bizarre alternate realties and Dennis inability to produce a coherent rational thought, I'll bet it was exciting...

Yeah, the days of house visits and inviting your doctor over for dinner seem to be long gone. Honestly, providers here are hustling to produce RVU's to cover the salaries and benefits, so they are focused on volume and will atest they have lost that freedom really spend time with a pateint and really deliver the care they thought they would be when they sought out to practive medicine. The providers in private practices are screwed, they cannot keep up with Academic Medical Center and Big Hospital Systems, too expensive and far too many hours for the payoff... its sad

lol.... yes, you are correct, that is a free market solution... I tdink that is why I've always liked the high deductible plans as an approach to healthcare payment. One of the issues right now is the is no direct Pain when most people get medical services... sure a $40 copay is annoying, but premiums are taken out like income taxes, so you don't really feel them acutely, even though you know they are being deducted from the paycheck. If you had to cover $10,000-$15,000 of an illness, you have to bet most people would be making hard decision to what that care is worth... on the flip side, there are people who might forgo treating their diabetes, so in the end that kind of delayed maintenance could be more costly to the system over all... Its complex, its inefficient, and we all know it isn't inexpensive....

I am beginning to believe Healthcare has no true "free market" solution like many other industries. In tradtional markets, people bow out of a market and pursuit of an item/ervice when the cost outweighs the benefits of acquiring the good or service... in healthcare, there is lterally no cost to high to most people in saving their lives, they won't question treatment options, they won't question lab tests, they won't question how many nights they stay inpatient... they have gotten sick not by their choice, but sure as heck want to stay alive... people desire the best no matter the cost or length of travel, so what other market works like that? None, that is the issue...

I would have been fine with that scenario from the start, in fact, I thought John McCains platform for Heathcare in 2008 was better with high risk pools, HSA's and regulatory and legal reform.... Republicans had many chances to address the Healthcare issue, they didn't, we got what we got.. I am not a cheerleader for the Affordable Care Act, as much as you want to believe so, at this point just glad for 2014 and the ability to buy insurance without having to work at a job with group insurance.. Being a prisoner to some job just to have Heath benefits isn't freedom, it's pathetic... Public option only if it has he ability to negotiate with providers directly, drug companies directly, rehab/ durable medical goods directly, etc..... No more of this "drug companies exempt from negotiation" crap.... Medicare pays so low because the private insurers make up the difference, on top of private insurers 20 percent cut for overhead and administrative burden.... For a country that prides itself on how innovative and forward thinking we are, we sure fail in Healthcare finance...

Sadly, so many innovators and business starters never venture because of the issue of health insurance... You have to wonde if people were not terrified of not having health insurance, would we have more job creators rather than drones going to jobs just for benefits...

I kind of respect the fact that he put this together, got it passed and put it on the line... where I think Obama failed here is that the amounts were kitty..... if he has set-up sequester cuts at 15-20% of the Federal Budget, then that is a very scary way to execute spending cuts, but perhaps then btoh sides would be able to come together because they stakes are so high... there is just is no real sense of urgency at 2.5% except in political posturing, the blame game and chest pounding... but it solves nothing really.. I mean, honestly, 2.5%... its kind of comical... heck, its laughable and everybody deep down inside from citizens to poltician knows its true... there was no meat to the cuts, thats why they came to pass...

I am too tired from drinking last night to articulate a reponse to what is probably and well thought out post, instead I underlined some of my favorite portions....

Its a great article, I would suggest everybody read it first word to last. There is really nothing untrue in the article, but I found myself knodding with agreement as what I see everyday coincides with what is in the text.

Yeah, but its soooooo entertaining.... the sequester is a good start, sadly when it apparent that these cuts are drop in the bloated bucket and the US doesn't collapse under the 2.5% cut, most people won't translate this fact into "wow, we could do without 85B, I wonder what else we could do without?.... but it won't, most people will lose focus, tune back into their favorite partisan news sourcse and continue to revel in the finger pointing....

At least now people can't accuse the President of not cutting spending..... To be serious, the Sequester is a joke... not only is it a crumb of the Federal Government outlays, it doesn't even touch the programs that will likely bankrupt this country, Healthcare related Programs.... we continue to spend much, much more that other developed Nations for worse outcomes and boondoggles of inefficiency... this government is not serious about the problem, not at all...

In a normal country, the politicians would try some new moves. For example, if they agreed to further means test Medicare they could save a lot of money. Democrats would be hitting the rich. Republicans would be reforming entitlements. Its what I have remarked on for a long while now with regards to Medicare and SS... let Rich people lean on their own retirements and pay for their own healthcare in the insurance market or self-pay.... in the long-run the costs of the programs would go down significantly even if short-term those Rich people get screwed a bit foregoing what they paid in... those programs might finally become what they were ntended to be, safety net programs intended to help the truly needy... Its no different than Vouchers for school. What if achievement went up and public education costs a ton less at he same time? Democrats get their "for the good of the kids" speech and R's get their reductions in cost...

Government Spending is getting Cut (well at least slowed a little), Republicans should rejoice with the Sequester. The problem is they are saying the same things as the President, that they cuts would be bad.... but they won't, 2% of the bloated Federal Budget is not crisis mode, heck 10% isn't either... Repubublicans should cite the Cuts as a win and stick to their guns...

My wife and couples friend of ours are going to be in NOLA for the Storming of the Sazarac in September, I was hoping to catch a Saints game with my buddy, even better if it were a Bills/ Saints Game. We will probably be back down for Halloween, so maybe if the game is close we'll go. God, I love that city.

I may have read that article wrong, but isnt the State issuing the restricted license because people are here on a Federal Law that lets them be in the country as they work toward citizenship... to me it makes sense to issue licensing to someone who desires to work and follow the States/ Federal Laws.. now if there are here illegally, are not eligible for DACA, and they are still getting a license, that is wrong... Cinthia Marroquin, a 22-year-old Raleigh resident awaiting approval for a DACA permit, said the longer the license issue is delayed, the longer it will take for her to get a job and drive herself to work. Even if she is able to get one, she is worried about presenting a license declaring she has "NO LAWFUL STATUS" at a police roadblock or while writing a check at the grocery store

I don't know, am not a conspiracy guy. I'll admit, I know nothing about Tesla, I assume he had a different technology that would have drastically changed the energy game? Its probably no different than in Healthcare, there is a always a conspiracy theorist who believes the AMA and Drug Companies supress natural therapies that cure heart disease, cancer, alzheimers, etc... but how is it these therapies never make it to market, even when a wealthy investor could make a fortune on them? I find it hard to believe with all the money to be made that everyone influential is in on an elaborate scheme to keep drug company profits up artificially... from what I have observed, the prople who get medical treatment for cancer have a fighting chance, people who take vitamins and supplements to fight cancer die....

well, I can very well have them pissing and shitting in my G-Ride....

Rich, to me is not how much you make, I have house/car broke freinds who make twice what I do... rich to me is how long can I live in my assets without working, how much overall wealth have a I accumulated.... I can tell you, I can live a great existance on 75K as well as 500K... difference being how much I "own", and how much money I have in the bank for a rainy day....

Maybe the black students were just too lazy..... my mother-in-law knows damn well they slow down intentionally while walking infront of your car at a crossing, and wear very dark clothes at night on purpose...

Because fuel has been fairly inexpensive, and there is no incentive the change the technology.... at $10 a gallon you better bet 30 miles to gallon would become an outrage.

There is no free lunch in this country, and really anywhere on this planet. I don't know, I know money and politcal influence is dirty, but I just don't see a vast conspiracy for subduing a technology that even if you were the one to come up with it, chances are you could still make money off it some way shape or form. The conspiracy to suppress reweables is better known as not cost effective yet and they know it.

Solar and wind still remain prohibitively expensive and not viable for general use as are corn and wood chips to fuel cars... Until Oil, and the refined product Gasoline hit a price where they are no longer competitive with renewables, renewable will be a heavily subsidzied, inefficient, pet-project money hole being pushed by Government. Look no further than $.30 cent increase in unleaded here in Colorado as evidence- all of the sudden the news station have the "pain at the pump" segment where they interview a bunch of dipshits who claim that an extra $10 a week in the tank is gonna put them on the streets.... I assume this represents a pretty large portion of middle class people, do we really think anytime soon these people are going to pony up huge out of pocket cost (even with tax credits) to buy the next generation of energy product before it is absoultley no chioce? When the time comes and said energy type get too expensive some billionaire investor will put their money on the line and create new products to replace the old... its the way it works, always has, always will.