Debt Ceiling for Dummies(ok to read even if you are not a dummy)

So apparently 44% of Americans or some such number, are opposed to raising the debt ceiling and as always this just means on any given topic 44% of Americans don't get it (cough ios 7)

(Editor’s Note : We would appreciate it greatly if no cheesy credit card analogies were used )

So here is what is hilarious though. I’ve spoken to a few people in the last week or so, people who otherwise can be thought of as reasonably well informed, and each and every one of them suffers from a misunderstanding of the debt ceiling, essentially variations on how “the debt ceiling” is the same as “the debt” and raising the debt ceiling means you are taking on more debt (this at a time when the deficit is falling like a rock)

So let me see if I can explain how this works without using a credit card or dumbing it down.

So every time congress passes a law, it is possible, that it will cost the Govt. Money (from Medicare benefits to appropriations that allow the NSA to read this as I type it) many, many laws have the effect of driving up spending from govt.

Now when the govt needs to spend money to meet its legislative obligations (this is the key part though IT IS NOT OPTIONAL, TREASURY HAS TO MEET THE OBLIGATIONS THAT LAWS PASSED BY CONGRESS CAUSE) it asks the treasury to “make it so”

Now this is where the fun( Editor’s Note: we apologize for this particular usage of the word fun , the author does not get out much) starts, because treasury you see needs to borrow money to pay for the laws passed, and in just about every other country on the planet this is not an issue, if the legislative branch of govt passes a law requiring govt. to spend 100 bucks Treasury can just borrow a 100 bucks to pay for it; since passing the law is TANTAMOUNT TO SAYING YOU FRIGGIN HAVE TO (repeat after me) HAVE TO PAY FOR IT!!!!

But this America land of the exceptional home of the dysfunctional and so naturally we do things differently here (yes that’s right the switch turns on the other way too).

Here we have a limit of how much treasury can borrow to pay for laws already passed and this limit is called (thank you, thank you) “The Debt Ceiling”.

So every time this limit is reached , treasury has zero interest in borrowing more money, however congress just keeps plugging away and working hard (well not this congress obviously but you know in the past) and the bills keep piling up , which of course means treasury now needs to borrow more money but it can’t … BY LAW !!

Therefore from time to time  treasury will ask congress to pass a law saying something along the lines of

“you know how we said you could only borrow 1000 dollars, just kidding you can borrow up to 2000 now, since you know we passed laws requiring the additional money”.

This clever piece of legislation is known as “Raising the debt ceiling” (pay attention now, it’s not raising the debt, that already happened)

In the past, prior to the tea party metastasizing into the cancer that it has become, congress would always raise the debt ceiling (once again if you are upset about govt spending then the correct time to have that argument is when laws are being passed that incur spending) without too much fuss because everyone understood how the debt ceiling actually works.

But all that of course was before the stupid wing of the stupid party suddenly decided that “debt ceiling” was two words, and that was just too hard, one word at a time as Jesus always said (or would have if he thought about it) so let’s just stick with “Debt” and why on earth would we want to “Raise the Debt” (ceiling omitted™ )

Hopefully you now understand this little piece of governmental trivia (explanation via analogy pending)

 

Todd Starnes is an asswipe and that’s OK

There is a parallel universe (in the sense however that it is the same one as mine) where beauty Pageant type things keep happening with monotonous regularity (and hilarity). For those (who rightfully) have no clue about this world,  recently someone called Nina Davuluri  won the Miss America thingy and a bunch of Americans got to show the world  why

• Twitter will never make any money
• they should never breed and produce offspring
• how cruel evolution is
• why geography and fiction are interchangeable in the minds of many
• some idiots think how Ms. Davuluri is not “American” enough

Todd Starnes  (some sort of moron on fox in some way) on the other hand is unlikely to be as completely ignorant . And predictably Indians hither and thither have all gone on and on about how ghastly racist and self-centered and ignorant the Americans are.

At this point we take a little detour in my tale before I may end up making a point (Editor’s Note: You don't get paid unless you make a point, you do know that yes)

So way back in 2002 ( ish )  I was in  a meeting at MSFT. Present were about 7 to 10 people and like many meetings at MSFT they were all Indians.

So naturally this struck me as funny, and I cleverly made some spectacularly witty quip ( as I often do ) about everyone being an Indian . After the laughter and applause died down, one of the people in the meeting cleared her throat and with considerable vim and vigour pointed out the she was an American, thank you very much!!!! (I think she was born in jersey and yes even though snookie has ruined it all, to be fair yes jersey is technically American)

<Back to the present now yes, yes almost certain to make a point now >

As such the story has no meaning to it (one person did not find something I said funny, it’s not like I am keeping score or anything hahaha) on the other hand it has always stuck with me and even though I am hardly the first person to realize and point this out, all it means to be an American is to want it and say it . That's it!!! (ok fine immigration will get involved once in a while, yes ok more than once in a while, yes fine a lot !!  ) which if you think about is just amazing. I am not aware of any other country where this happens. You can stay in India as long as you want as a white person but you will be gently laughed of the stage (while some kindly stranger calls the local asylum) if you start insisting you are Indian.
I am fairly certain my chances of being Japanese or Chinese or Papua New Guinean are slim to none irrespective of how long I stay there or how much I integrate into their societies . Every once in a while it behooves us to marvel at this sociological thing this amazing amazing fact of life about the US.

Nina Davuluri would be hard pressed to be Miss <insert country here > anywhere except the US. It could happen once in a while I suppose but in this case I am genuinely not surprised, Ms. Davuluri is an American and she convinced some people she was best qualified for a competition. That's all there is to it.

Rather than bemoan the twitter chatter from people clearly stuck in Darwin’s waiting room we should be really happy that here in this country something like this is possible. I have zero interest in pageants and yet I find this pretty uplifting all in all

As for Mr.  Starnes and his ilk, ironically by insisting there is an archetype for “Americans” (cough Christian and white ), they are in fact being the very thing the oppose viz completely Un American

Besides this is nothing new, a 100 odd years ago people like him were screaming “the Irish need not apply” or “who wants these damn Italians” and so on and so forth. Asswipes will be around forever and you know what that’s ok asses need wiping after all !

MBA Case Study Part Deux

Last time we dealt with some excellent issues around risk arbitrage . This time lets us move on to the wonderful topic of interpersonal relationships

 

You have just been promoted to manager of a fairly non prestigious product unit. (Your parents still seem to think you would have been better served by joining the IAS ). In your first staff meeting you conclude that two members on your team ( P and K ( A,B were taken ) ) have the following issues ; P is stupid, K only asks stupid Questions.

Please answer the following questions ( Note to students : The twitter text restriction is currently not in effect )

1. In the event  of a natural disaster which team member would you assign the job of calling Emergency Services.
2. If you had no choice in the matter who would you rather  harass sexually
3. What would you do of you had a choice !
4. Predict what will happen if K asks P a question
5. Take a moment to reflect on the futility of your life
6. Why did you not join the IAS
7. Which would you prefer Promoting P and listening to K’s questions about it or Promoting K and listening to his questions about it . Consider your answer  in the context of your own recent promotion
8. Who in your opinion is better suited to star in Thicke’s next video ( provide your answerer as an anime )
9. You and Miley Cyrus are both homo sapiens sapiens . How would you explain that to P. How does it make you feel