Quantitative Easing Explained

You may not know whether to laugh or cry when you watch and hear this video. Gotta love a computer voice saying things like "shit hit the fan."  

This video covers a lot of territory about what the Federal Reserve is up to and why.  And who benefits most.   Clue: it's not you and me.

Here's the video.

A Philosophy of Life

The comic strip "Pickles," by Brian Crane, is one of my favorite ways to start the day.   Besides being a curmudgeon, Earl Pickles has a very close relationship with his grandson, who lives next door.   Earl wastes no opportunity to explain to Nelson how things work and how things should be.  These strips embody both Earl's and my own "philosophy" of life.

 

Org Chart of Heaven

I mentioned in my 10/24/10 post "Organization Chart" that I once had an organization chart of heaven.  Thanks to the fact that I had digitized it at one time, I'm posting it here.   If I'd had to find it in paper form, I'd still be looking for it a couple years from now.....

I have no idea who the author is; I picked this up a couple decades ago during my work life.   The original is a full page and was produced on a typewriter (remember them?).

The Mob Mentality

I recently came across an essay broadcast on the Bob Edwards week-end radio program.   It is part of his "This I Believe" series and it put my thoughts into words very nicely.   The essay is about why the author doesn't participate in demonstrations and marches - mostly because she doesn't feel her opinions are more valid than anyone else's opinions.   I've blogged about this a bit (10/17/10, 8/24/10) regarding the flood of solicitations I received for political donations for far-away elections.  I said I was uncomfortable with the notion that "people around the country think they know what's best for other people around the country."  This discomfort is present even if I happen to agree with the candidate or group.

The author starts off by describing how she is uncomfortable about participating in a peace march in Washington, D.C.:

But the thing that made me uneasy wasn’t just the number of people gathered there. It was the mob mentality of a large group of people who feel they are right, even if I agree with them. It was the absolutism lurking in the liberal ideals. To me it felt just as scary as any other kind of intolerance

Anyway, the essay can be found here and it's worth reading or listening to the podcast.