It doesn’t stop there though, we found some great hand crafted knives that my son would have loved to have since he’s a scout but we passed on that too because we figured the TSA would confiscate this “dangerous” weapon.   Why not order online?  Well that’s what we generally do but some states restrict wine sales across state lines but the real problem for us is having to have someone home to sign for the wine when it gets there which is a difficult thing to do with my constant travel and my wife’s other daily activities.   Lately, thefts of deliveries has been up in the area as well and I would rather not have those items stolen so if something isn’t confiscated by some government bureaucrat, it’s getting stolen by some petty thief and then we expect to grow this economy?

On the flip side, I went to an electronics store to buy some old rabbit ears antennae since I’m dropping my cable subscription this week and found some interesting ones that didn’t look like rabbit ears at all.   The electronics retail price was $49.99 and I used Amazon’s price check app on my iPhone 4s and saw it on Amazon.com for half the price and pay no sales tax to boot!  So I clicked and ordered it online and will get it in a couple of days at my door and saved $25.00 in the process.    I am convinced that retail is dying a slow painful death and most of it will be gone soon which is probably why Sears and Kmart are shuttering stores, the retail model doesn’t make any sense anymore.    We went this weekend to Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy an outdoor table cover for some patio furniture and the sales clerk told us to look online as they didn’t carry  that in the store.  WTF?   What’s the point of going to the shop at all if it’s all online?

With 80 million boomers heading for smaller homes, wheelchairs, and lower consumption of goods, how will this economy survive?

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Problem #1 – Normal Distribution fantasyland – Academic professors preach normal distribution theory as the solution to all problems.   There hasn’t been a financial class that I haven’t taken where normal distribution formulas are used to guesstimate what will happen next which is completely absurd when it comes to financial instruments because those numeric valuations are based on human thinking activity, prejudices and greed not innate characteristics such as height, weight, hair color, etc.

Problem #2 – Head in the sand  attitude – Academic professors are under constant pressure to make a name for themselves and their university by coming up with some new theory that will transform the world so the obvious net result is the head in the sand problem where academic theory is justified and rationalized despite the clear and apparent failure of such theory (see problem #1 for example).   I took an international finance class whereby the professor insisted that stock charting, technical analysis, fundamental analysis, etc really worked.   I argued helplessly for the entire semester and ended the argument with a simple question:  if these systems work well for making money then why aren’t you a wealthy billionaire baron?  (Discussion ended).

Note: I’ve read a few articles where well known egghead Ph.D’s were brought in to devise these bundled crap mortgages and if you haven’t guessed by now, normal distribution was used as a basis to guesstimate the default rate.  Hmm…it ended up being completely wrong, how did that happen? (for answer see Problem #2).

Problem #3 – If everyone else is doing it, it must be right.  My biggest criticism and complaint of my MBA program is that it isn’t unique.   I checked around and the curriculum is pretty much the same as most other universities and I think this is a huge failing.   We need to get to a point where more “niche” education is taking place around specialization around certain fields of study but there is wide reluctance to do so and I’m assuming because it’s probably viewed as too risky.  I would love for each university to develop “ecosystems” around specialized learning just how Apple built their iTunes model for music, video and entertainment then simply build on it.   Here are three areas universities should build niche’s around:  energy, health care, technology.

I am personally debating hard whether the investment in time and money has been worth it.   On the one hand, the MBA program has validate much of what I already knew and the confirmation will be the piece of paper I get at the end of the program with “Degree” stamped on it.   On the other hand, I spent a great deal of time doing pointless research largely so professors can find the next big thing (I have no doubt some professors skim off of their students) research and ideas and made too many sacrifices along the way.

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I guess this is why cable operators are now scrambling trying to offer al-la-carte TV channels after decades of fighting it.

Cable operators are privately working on a plan to force programmers to unbundle their networks and allow customers to subscribe to channels on an individual basis.

As consumers,

• We used to buy whole albums and now with iTunes we simply buy the songs we like.
• We used to have to take whatever bad food airlines served but now they offer a-la-carte menu items.
• We used to be stuck with book publishing cartels and retail book outlets but we can now download books al-la-carte.

The days of mass subsidization seem to be coming to an end.   I never liked the idea of paying to subsidize hundreds of channels I never watched (20+ cartoon/Disney channels, 40+ ESPN/sports channels, Opra Network).   Seriously, how much TV do cable operators think we can watch and subsidize?   At some point, something had to give and here we are, that day has come.    The next evolution will certainly be around health insurance with a whopping average charge of $15,000 per year for health insurance, it isn’t sustainable by businesses nor consumers.

The 2010′s will be known as the al-la-carte generation and hopefully it will engulf education, health care, and government institutions because they are no longer sustainable in their present forms.

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To be fair, financial confidence actually happened sooner with a nice vacation to the east coast this summer but it’s interesting that financially prudent people really don’t dive into big expenditures until cash reserves and emergency reserves are fully replenished before taking a plunge back into the consumerist lifestyle.    Things are very different for me though because I’ve paid down almost all debt including mortgage and now have excessive cash reserves so it’s seemed appropriate to spend some cash.

This year I’ve taken two nice vacations, purchased an iPad and iMac and just purchased another iPad as a gift for someone special .   So where does that leave us now?   If we do hit another recession or dip deeper into more malaise then there possibly can’t be any economic boom until at least late 2013 or even 2014.  In the meantime, cash keeps tumbling in on my investment activity so I’ll keep chugging along.

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The optometrist is getting the same bad habit as the dentist: upsell, upsell, upsell! The dentist now has me coming over every three months instead of six for my own benefit of course. I got a letter today reminding me I still had $1200 in dental benefits left on my insurance for the year.

Sustainability has been a buzzword in American life recently and American life is anything but sustainable with costs of everything becoming insurmountable. Three dollars for a gallon of gas, hundreds for health insurance, and on and on.

I have grown so weary of volunteering, charity requests, and handouts everywhere! Something needs to change….change we can believe in…

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In every situation, it started off innocently enough, retired baby boomer gets bored and decides to do some volunteer work at AARP center, hospital or other charitable venue.   The charity work is so fulfilling that some decide to continue on in that role with greater and greater hours so where’s the rub?    The rub is that they are doing it for FREE!y

That’s right, these guys are opting to not take any pay.  Perhaps the intention is good, they want to help the charity out but if we soon have 80 million baby boomers or just 10% of them working for free, it’s going to have a detrimental effect on the already poor job market.

To be fair, the paid baby boomer consultants are getting paid but only for the hours work and since they’re on Medicare or Medicaid they certainly don’t need health insurance so that effectively makes them way cheaper to hire than a regular employee.

I’m not sure what the solution is here and to be honest, I know of at least one boomer that is getting paid but not in money but in food stuffs at a charitable event.  Hmmm…..that’s not exactly taxable income is it?   I guess the debt crisis will continue on to infinity…..

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If the US does default on its debt, the interest rates would climb astronomically which would make borrowing more expensive BUT it would also make savings more attractive. I’m getting a paltry 1% return on my savings right now but if interest rates exploded then they’d go up to 5% or maybe even 8% and guess what…that means more income for me!

It would seem that borrowers would be the big losers and savers would be the big winners. How is that a bad thing? Personally, I WANT a default, the sooner the better because if it’s not now it’ll be in a few months or a few years and if a default would be bad now then how bad do you think it’ll be 2 years from now when it’s 18 trillion instead of 14.5 trillion?

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That’s the Achilles Heel of Groupon, they offer too much garbage or things I have zero interest in day after day.  Seriously, how many times does Groupon think I go do my nails?  ZERO!

I don’t know why Google wanted to buy this garbage but I think Groupon’s days are numbered if they don’t do something drastic.   I would suggest “marrying” groupon with an ipad app like UrbanSpoon or AroundMe to get “instant” discounts when I’m in an area but aside from that it’s totally useless.

Speaking of useless, the web page is becoming obsolete and restaurants that continue to use flash heavy (bloated) websites are behaving like dinosaurs.   My computing experience is now 30% cell phone browsing and 60% ipad app and I honestly hate opening a webpage to try to find a restaurant or other brick and mortar through the web.    The web is great for text (e.g. blogs) and other content but businesses need to act mobile!

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In my MBA studies, the vast majority of my professors or people teaching the class have been Chinese or Indian.   I recently went at got a massage to get the kinks out of my sore back muscles…guess where the massage therapist was from…she was Chinese (born here but of Chinese descent).    The girl that cuts my hair: Vietnamese.   The gas station at the corner where I get most of my gas is owned by an Indian dude.

The last couple of times I went to the grocery store, I had an Indian check out girl and a Chinese check out girl.    As I travel more and more places, I am seeing more and more Indians and Chinese.

I recently read that San Fransisco has hired a Chinese firm to build a bridge, I guess there’s no one in America that can do the work as we now have to outsource bridge building to China!   I guess this is progress….

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We had two adult entrees, two kid entrees and an appetizer. The non alcoholic drinks were nearly $10. What really interested me though was that the restaurant wasn’t as busy as it was about a year ago (which was the last time I ate there). It was an interesting experience because while there were large graduating parties there were still plenty of tables open.

Coincidentally, the day after I needed to fill my gas tank and the tab was nearly $70. I immediatetly wondered if people across America were making a choice between gas or dinner.

I also wonder if how bad things will get now that all the government tricks have essentially failed… I don’t think it will take long to find out.

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