Where was this curious place that guaranteed healthcare and social security?

I am reading a book called Psychiatric Slavery, which is about psychiatry more than anything else, but it has an absolutely classic quote in it.

In 1950, Dean Russell wrote

Many present-day Americans are trying to avoid this personal responsibility that is freedom.  They are voting for men who promise to install a system of compulsory, government-guaranteed “security” — a partial return to the slave laws of Georgia that guaranteed all slaves “the right to food and raiment, to kind attention when sick, to maintenance in old age…”  Just as the law once guaranteed “adequate” medical care for American slaves, so a law to guarantee medical care for all Americans is being demanded today.  And who will determine what is adequate medical care for a person?

The definitive Schweser post

There’s lots of debate on analystforum.com and elsewhere about schweser for test prep versus other sources vs. the curricula.  I have some very strong opinions about it, and I’ll let them all out here.  First though, know that the only prep I have ever tried is Schweser, so I can’t comment on the others.

First, the CFA curricula is terrible.  It’s not even a textbook in the true sense of the word.  It’s just a bunch of articles strung together from various publications.  I guess it’s better than it used to be, but it still sucks IMO.  Probably 1/4 of the curriculum is “commented out,” i.e., non testable, which demonstrates the lack of editing that took place.  It’s awful.  If you have all the time in the world, maybe it would be worth going through it, but I refuse.  I went through it in detail for the first time in LI, failed, and didn’t even crack it for LI retake or LII (which I passed first time).  It’s the pits.  I guess you should use the end of chapter questions out of the curriculum (I didn’t) but other than that don’t bother.

Now imagine someone took the LOSs from the CFA institute, put them in order, and then succinctly stated the full body of knowledge in a logical format.  That would be the Schweser Notes pack.  It takes the curriculum down from 5 fat books to 5 skinny books, but more importantly uses a format someone could actually use that has shit to do other than study all day.  I go through all these once.

Now imagine someone condensed the logically presented notes down into actual summary “notes” which only feature the high probability/hard to remember stuff.  That would be Schweser’s Secret Sauce.  This book is so key that I believe you could easily pass any level studying only secret sauce.  However, ironically, (probably since you wouldn’t need the notes if it came out earlier) Schweser only releases the notes for you in March.  This book comprises 75%+ of my studying.

Schweser’s Quicksheet is essentially a six page summary of the key-est formulas and concepts.  Good for studying at redlights, in the can, in lines at the store because it’s somewhat discreet.  Make a copy in case you lose the original.

Schweser’s practice exams– more than being good test prep, they go over the key-est concepts again, presented somewhat trickily.

BOTTOM LINE:  GET SECRET SAUCE, if nothing else, and you will pass.

That is all.

from a list I read regularly…

A posse ad esse non valet consequentia

“the possibility does not necessarily lead to materialization”

How true!

Republicans retake state Senate, aided by renegade Democrats : Home: The Buffalo News

Republicans retake state Senate, aided by renegade Democrats : Home: The Buffalo News.

Now this is green shoots!!!

Ubersite – Anal Leakage

Ubersite – Anal Leakage.

Just a hint of how hilarious this is…

Day 7:
My guts are so smelly even my intestinal bacteria are trying to escape. I only have to climb a flight of stairs, and the impact of each foot landing releases a loose wind that causes a bunch of kids within a 2 mile radius to slam to the ground clutching their throats. I reduce the dose to 9 grams per day.

NIRP! negative interest rate policy

I don’t know what to think about this… the negative interest rates or the tax on held wealth…

NYT article on NIRP

speaking the truth…

Sometimes I read something like this, and I wonder if I would agree with them on all issues.  Sometimes, though, they speak with such clarity that I find it hard to believe that I could disagree with them on anything.  This makes a lot of sense to me.  In fact, I feel like it documents a lot of feelings I’ve had that I’ve never been able to put into words as effectively as this guy.

Shut the Door. I Feel a Draft. | finem respice.

United Sociaialst States of America

Matthew Yglesias » Why Not Arbitrary Limits on Executive Pay? .

What if we had a 95 percent marginal tax rate on income over $10 million? What dire consequences would flow from this? Perhaps a certain outflow of top-flight baseball talent to Japan. But I don’t see this leading to any kind of economic calamity. Producers of certain classes of supply-constrained luxury goods would lose out as their prices go down. But my strong suspicion is that at the end of the day most of the super-rich would ultimately find it a relief to get off the treadmill of status-competition and the not-quite-so-rich would be thrilled to see their betters cut down to size.

I can’t even express how terrifying this is.  This sort of thought is progressing from wingnuts to average joes in this media fueled disaster.  I think it’s time to start looking at other places to live.  America is jumping the shark.

lease strategist and future admissions consultant

I just finished reading about Representative Laura Richardson’s $1300 a month Towncar you pay for.  Actually I just finished trying to figure out how you can lease any car for $1300 a month.  I thought that was the deal– you could lease a lexus or something for about $500 a month because they give you a good deal in exchange for throwing your money away.  Evidently she allowed the taxpayer to overpay for the privilege of not owning the car.  Auto stimulus!

Anyway, I browsed over to her website, to see how she’s keeping busy when she’s not negotiating abysmal lease terms.  Evidently she’s not spending much time being concerned with the service academy selection process.  As a Naval Academy grad, I took a look out of morbid interest, and discovered that she has managed to wholly botch the one part of her website (aka primary communication tool with her constituents) I bothered to look at.

Now, I’m not an academy apologist– in fact, I am not a fan of my alma mater at all– but I do find this pretty distasteful.  Maybe I’ll call 555-1212 and give her office a piece of my mind!

don't forget to fix the boilerplate

the ripped-off tabs are what get me

the ripped-off tabs are what get me.

I agree… the tabs are pretty funny.