Go Phils!

I hate to look to secular causes for hope, since I know true hope comes only from the Lord. But man, if the Phils can win the big one, anything is possible.

Buy-Buy-Buy!

You may hate me, but it ain't no lie, baby. Buy! Buy! Buy!

If there is anything I have learned in my investing studies so far, now is probably the best opportunity to buy American equities that will ever exist in my lifetime. I just wish I had started learning about investing, and socking away my cash, about a year earlier than I did. Now is the time to up your 401k payments, now is the time to fully fund your Roth IRA!

And the real estate market looks ripe for the buying too...

The Plunge

As you can see, I have taken the crazy plunge into... AdSense! With the loving support of my wife, I'm going to see if I can generate a little revenue from this publication. I'm planning to keep up the frequency of posting and maybe open an Amazon shop. Please consider clicking on the Ads if they offer something worthwhile and let me know if they offer offensive or inappropriate items. I'll eliminate the Ads if needed, but I'm hoping to learn how AdSense works and filter the content as needed.

Oh yeah, I've also taken the plunge into fatherhood again, too. I'm taking more plunges than the stock market.

I'm not very good at the subdued announcement.

H...I...J...Y!

I just noticed in my Men's blogroll that I had only reached the tenth letter of the alphabet, fortunately I have just added Yeoman Farmer to remedy that situation. I think he may be my hero: farmer, small businessman, author, and blogger. I guess one out of four is a good start.

I'm an Editorial

I find it highly ironic that I am thrilled to be listed as an editorial review of Passport. I usually detest editors as highly biased and overly educated but here I am, unpaid, among their ranks. As to bias, I swear to serve the Truth which is a bias in only the most reductionist sense of the word. I freely admit to the over-education which modern society has deemed necessary to get a J.O.B. At least I hope to break that shackle soon with my entrepreneurial ventures into actually learning how the world really is. Until that glorious day, I shall revel in small accomplishments.

This Way Seems Compatable with His Way

Book review of The Warren Buffett Way

As I have been exploring economics from a variety of perspectives, it seemed only natural to read a book about one of the greatest investors of our time. I was pleasantly surprised by this book to learn that investing well was a rational and intelligent process and not just random chance.

Obviously, there are those who dispute that statement but I believe that the weight of Mr. Buffett's success is a powerful argument against them. I also believe that his value investing strategy is highly compatible with the Christian life. As his recent buying spree proves, value investing helps out companies, and consequently keeps thousands of people employed, when they are down and it punishes investors that artificially raise stock prices by selling companies that get too expensive. This process of buying at undervalued points and selling at overvalued points moderates the growth of a company, consequently reducing instability and maintaining a rational environment for the securities market. Given the recent market plummet, I'd rather let billionaires keep the market afloat than my tax dollars.

Network Marketing and Subsidiarity

As I embark on this brave network marketing journey, I encounter repeated arguments against it but very few arguments in favor of it. I want to write some of my thoughts on these issues, both arguments in favor of network marketing and responses to some common arguments.

My first argument in favor of network marketing is that it meets the principle of subsidiarity as I understand it. The bulk of profits goes to the people who do the bulk of the work, people at the lowest level. There is a tremendous culture of support of those at the lowest level since each person up the chain depends upon the success of the newbies. There is a small contingent of people "at the top" and they can be a problem if the compensation package is not structured properly, just like Enron or Fannie Mae. I particularly appreciate the minimal overhead, such as the lack of a gigantic marketing group that generates "buzz" by flooding the media with pictures of scantily-clad women and/or celebrities getting paid millions of dollars to pretend they use the product in question. Paid endorsements just give more money to rich people. I much prefer an organization that lets normal people work for a normal profit.

Why I want small government

I really don't want this to become a political blog. So I will do my darndest to keep to economics which is the topic that makes me interested in the current financial hullabaloo. Here is a great article from 10 years ago that describes exactly how we got into this subprime fiasco. In short, when you lower the requirements to get a mortgage, you get more bad loans. I think it is atrocious that the government forced this situation through well-intended legislation. Lenders have every right to discriminate against people with poor credit scores.