At a quick glance.............

I'd call this a portrait of failure for a generation.  Through our
prime earning years, it looks like us baby boomers skimped
on the savings side of the ledger.  Probably counting on that
real estate to always go up in value. Heads up, kids!

click to enlarge, or go here

Oooops..............

A calamity.................

"A little learning, indeed may be a dangerous thing, but the
want of learning is a calamity for any people."
-Frederick Douglass

A poem for Monday..........

Whatever happens,
those who have learned
to love one another
have made their way
to the lasting world
and will not leave,
whatever happens.

 -Wendell Berry

I'm thinking this is about right...............

"A little known law of physics postulates that the number of
books you have borrowed and failed to return equals the number
of  books you are owed. This law is known as The Conservation
of  Literature."
-Martin F. Kohn

Coolie to coolie in four generations?

WRM worries about the consumption versus production ethos of our current economy.   He suggest that a change in philosophy would be a good thing.  Full post is here.  Excerpt here:

Definitive statistics on savings rates of the very wealthy are hard to find.............. But as this New York Times article from 2006 calculates (citing a Moody’s economist), the ultra-wealthy don’t seem to save very much at all, and are at the vanguard of the consumption society that has transformed America. 


 On the one hand, this should give leftie economists pause. From a Keynesian point of view, if the rich really are spending every dime, then raising their taxes will slow economic growth by reducing consumption. Shifting income from wealthy fat cats to poorer folks is supposed to stimulate the economy because the poor (allegedly) are less likely to save their income. But if the rich are already spending it all, nothing economically is gained by redistributing it. 


 And there is some good news.  If the rich keep spending it as fast as they make it, then we don’t have to worry about the rise of a new plutocratic aristocracy.  They will waste all their money on shiny toys and their kids and grandkids will have to earn their own piles.

Well, sort of anyway...........

Sunday's verse.............

26.  And He was saying, "The kingdom God is like a man who
casts his seed upon the soil;

27.  and goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed
sprouts up and grows - how, he himself does not know.

28.  "The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then
the head, then the mature grain in the head.

29.  "But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in
the sickle, because the harvest has come."


Mark 5:26-29
The Holy Bible
New American Standard Open Bible

Always available............

The Tao doesn't come and go,
It is always present everywhere,
Just like the sky.
If your mind is clouded, you won't see it,
but that doesn't mean it isn't there.


All misery is created by the activity
of the mind.
Can you let go of words and ideas,
attitudes and expectations?
If so, the the Tao will loom into view.
Can you be still and look inside?
If so, then you will see that the truth is
always available, always responsive.


-Verse 31
Hua Hu Ching:  The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu
Brian Walker

Early banking...............

P. W. Huntington

My grandfather was a young country bank president when the stock market crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression soon followed.  By the force of his personality, and some very prudent and prescient lending practices, he safely steered his Chester, Illinois bank through the crises. Because of this background, and because borrowing money plays a fairly significant role in our real estate investing model, the thoughts of bankers have long fascinated me.  The most recent Columbus Business First magazine has an interesting article about Pelatiah Huntington, the founder, in 1866, of what would become Huntington National Bank.   A few excerpts:

"Clair Fultz, himself a former CEO of the bank, wrote that Huntington refrained from "temporal enthusiasms."


    "McCullough warned a group of Columbus bankers that, among other things, 'the capital of a bank should be a reality and not a fiction,' and 'splendid financiering is not legitimate banking.  And splendid financiers in banking are generally either humbugs or rascals.'
     In his book Fultz writes Huntington took the words to heart and adopted as his creed: 'Credit is a subtle thing,' stressing that lending money should be scrutinized and approached very carefully."


"For the rest of his career, Huntington would ensure his bank's capital reserves were strong and the institution remained in a liquid position.  He once turned down a $500,000 deposit from the Hocking Valley Railroad to administer it payroll, a common practice at the time, commenting that the amount was 'more money than we should ever owe anybody.'"

On gratitude...............

"Gratitude focuses our attention on the good things in life.  
It takes our blessings and multiplies them.  When we joyfully 
express appreciation, it opens our hearts and allows us to 
experience more love."


"Throughout the day, say the works thank you either silently 
or aloud.  Led God know that you are happy to be alive and
 participating in this experience called Life.  Say thank you 
to yourself, others, and the world. Let the attitude of 
gratitude spread."

-Daniel T. Peralta

Four friends playing music......

The Highwaymen..............................The Last Cowboy Song

 

On surrender.............

"The right art," cried the Master, "is purposeless, aimless!  The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede.  What stands in your way is that you have a much too wilful will.  You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen."
-Eugen Herrigel,  Zen in the Art of Archery

Thanks Jeff

Tell us how you really feel.................

"Bernanke took over the Federal Reserve from Alan Greenspan, a 
bloviating mumbler who couldn't tell a financial bubble from a 
Quonset hut."
-Malcolm Berko, from his Business First column On Stocks

Friday night............

The Green Wave won the District crown last night.   Even
the casual observer would have to marvel at their team defense.
They are truly fun to watch.  Go team!

Uh-oh..................

thanks nan

Informed or cultivated......?

"To be well informed, one must read quickly a great number of merely instructive books.  To be cultivated, one must read slowly and with a lingering appreciation the comparatively few books that have been written by men who lived, thought, and felt with style."
-Aldous Huxley

Sales the old fashioned way........

Nice to know that we're not the only ones using napkins.......

From Coy Davidson's The Tenant Advisor blog:


"The great problem solvers understand that face time with the client is critical because context is important.  I am as much of an early tech adopter as anyone in my industry, but technology is about efficiency not enhancing problem solving skills or developing a culture of collaboration.  I may be able to communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime, but stuff still gets done on the back of a napkin over a cup of coffee."

About perspective.............

"Although most of us have five senses, two additional ones have special significance:  a sense of humor and a sense of perspective.  Out of these grows a natural outpouring of gratitude.  If we lack perspective, we also lack humor; we may become upset about small disappointments, broken expectations - about the imperfections or mistakes of others."


"Perspective also leads to a profound kind of humility, not in the sense of meekness, but in appreciating our place in the larger universe and the opportunity that live represents, whether or not it happens to be going well at the moment."


-Dan Millman,  Gratitude:  A Way of Life

On comfortable dysfunction.......

"What is normally considered to be power is not real power at all.  Chasing money, glamour, sex; wanting control over others - political and military power - all are manifestations of the ego.  They're often glorified forms of showing off; they dwell in the currency of the ego, and they often appeal only to other egos, so they're subject to people's whims.  A person can be rich and successful and still be very weak.  Money doesn't give you real strength; it just keeps you comfortable while you experience your dysfunction.  The world of the ego is brittle, fragile, and insecure; it never feels really safe, and it has no lasting worth.  The ego's world dies.  More often than not, it self-destructs."
-Stuart Wilde,  Silent Power