Wednesday, August 31, 2011

A Cold Detroit

Today's economic vocabulary lesson is about two terms or phrases that every good economist should know;



Brain drain and capital flight.



As you know your Captain left Minnesota and he left for two reasons. He left because of the harsh winters (15% the reason) and left because of Minnesota's knack for being consistently liberal (85%). He would have liked to have stayed, his friends were there, he had a nice little bachelor pad, but in short the overall environment was becoming too hostile and too parasitic for him to tolerate. He suffered bouts of depression and literally felt trapped as where he really wanted to live (out West) just didn't have the job base the Twin Cities did.



Now, leftists can go ahead and complain and say I'm a cry baby or "good-riddance," but none of that changes the fact that I did indeed leave because the political climate was too liberal. That was my choice and those were my reasons. You have to deal with that.



But the left may want to hold their criticisms and mockery for just a little bit, because as this short little piece points out, something is wrong with Minnesota. Its housing market is not recovering as fast as the rest of the country. Matter of fact, it's ranking with states like California, Michigan, Nevada and Florida. All of which were notorious for having property bubbles, unlike Minnesota.





Now people will speculate and opine and theorize, and if you are on the left you will give no real serious consideration as to the genuine causes of this problem. You'll simply blame the Tea Party or George Bush or Pawlenty or what have you. But, again, why you might want to hold your criticism and mockery of me, I have an uncanny track record of being right on all things economic. So maybe you could mute the "hey hey, ho ho, capitalism has got to go" sophomorities and listen, because I may just be right once again.



Understand Minnesota and Minnesotans PRIDE themselves off of having a disproportionate amount of fortune 500 employers. They boast 3M, General Mills, Best Buy, etc. etc. And in the olden days when you could go to the U of MN, major in chemistry, pick up a job at Medtronic and all would be well, that was fine. And although Minnesota has more or less consistently voted democrat due to its Scandinavian heritage, back then people abided by the honor system. You didn't go on welfare unless you needed it. Education WAS key to your success and we invested in it heavily. You had the church or your family take care of you. And a stern amount of Norwegian shame was brought upon you if you stayed on the dole too long. And everything work until (as with what happens with all nice socialist utopias) not so honorable people started taking advantage of the system.



People moved in from other states where their welfare benefits were not so generous. The next generation decided they would get an education, but not in things 3M, General Mills or Polaris needed. They voted for more and more social programs and touchy feel good stuff. They built atrocious buildings for government housing such as Cedar Riverside and other eyesores. The cities decided to start spending more money on non-essential items to the point today they were about to spend $50,000 per drinking fountain to promote "art." The U of MN no longer served the students and jacked up tuition much higher than inflation. And the students might have complained, but they were told it was evil republicans that were cutting their spending. But it didn't matter anyway because Jimmy was just going to major in sociology which didn't cost as much as a degree in "computer science." Besides, that "math stuff" was for Asian kids, not good ole suburbanites from Bloomington and Eden Prairie. And mercy me almighty, did we not invest in the "chilllldreeeeen." Always more money for public schools. Never enough. But that was good because they were our future. They were going to become future teachers to teach future children who would in turn also become future teachers to teach future children, because children were the future and apparently teaching held merit unto itself and never needed to be translated into genuine economic production.



The ultimate result, Minnesota government spending went from 6% GSP to 12%. And even that hides the true costs as municipalities regularly increased property taxes at multiples of the inflation rate (your Captain had the honor of having his property taxes increase by 300% in 10 years in Minneapolis). But the larger point is that public sector grew at the expense of the private sector.



Now, normally your Captain would go on and cite this as the cause of the lack of economic growth and the decline in property prices. But that would be only half fair. For you have to understand the public sector pulls from the same pool of people for its employees. And what the Captain is finding out as he gets older and pulls more data, it isn't necessarily the public sector that is the core of the problem, it's the quality of the people. After all, whether you work in the public sector or the private sector, this still is a democracy. And Minnesotans, dutifully and regularly voting in higher taxes, more government spending and with the help of the always-willing-to-indoctrinate University of Minnesota, a very anti-corporation, anti-American, anti-capitalism psychology. It didn't matter where you worked. Minnesotans with regular consistency kept voting to shoot themselves in the foot.



Of course, if you're pulling from the same pool, that meant the private sector was also as incompetent and corrupt and the public sector. And mercy was it.



Yeah, US Bank might have hired you back in 1965 (when it was First Bank) if you graduated from the U of MN. But by the 1990's not ONE investment banking firm would consider you unless you went to an Ivy League school. Sure 3M might have hired some local chemical engineering majors in 1968, but not now. Most of their growth and expansion has been done outside Minnesota. And of course you could land a job at the second largest private firm in the country, Cargill if your name was Smith. But now, unless you are a Cargill or know a Cargill or know somebody who works at Cargill, good luck. In one generation, Minnesotan employers had gone from hiring people based on skill to hiring people based on connections.



But forget nepotism and cronyism. Let's just assume there still are companies out there who just want to hire a good ole Joe and don't care about who they are or who they know. Certainly the average Joe working his way out of lower-middle income Fridley stands a shot at getting a job was Wells Fargo downtown. right?



No no no.



You see, we can't be hasty. We can't just "hire somebody." We need to follow rules. Procedures. Policy.



We need HR.



Though not unique to Minnesota, HR has played a vital role in ensuring the average Joes and Janes of Minnesota don't make it. The connected networked ones can simply by-pass HR. But no you middle income types from Richfield! Oh no. No, you have to go and answer stupid questions that would never have been conceived of back in 1957, AND coincidentally have no right answer and have proven not to have any predictive value in you future performance as an employee (though they have proven to give power trips to power-hungry 20 somethings who found accounting and finance to be too difficult of a business degree to attain).



And even then the decay within the private sector isn't fully accounted for. And that's the precise word to use. Just general "decay."



For as the quality and caliber of Minnesotans tanked, is it any surprise you would have amoral people not only working in the ranks of corporate America, but soaring through those ranks? And gee, what industry is historically prone to attract scammers and schemers who are always looking for a short cut and may have no moral qualms about the economic ramifications of their actions? Could it be...hmmmmm..... BANKING?????



Hate me if you will.



Think I'm arrogant and cocky (which I am).



Call me every name in the book.



There is one simple fact, conservatives and liberals, democrats and republicans, Minnesotans and non-Minnesotans all have to accept about me;



If I was in charge of the banks in Minnesota (if not the nation)



Minnesota (and the nation)



would



not



have



the



housing



and



economic



problems



it



has



today.




You wouldn't be facing 9% unemployment, perpetually dropping housing prices and a stagnant economy. You wouldn't have your property taxes jacked up 300% in a decade. You wouldn't have had your tuition jacked up 10,000% since last week. But of course, me theorizing about what I could have done if "I were king" is a pointless exercise. I was never in such a position of power, I wasn't even close to being in an influential position of power. I too was the average Joe from Fridley. So what's a guy to do? The only thing he can do.



Leave.



But here is where the point comes full circle, and permit me just another few ounces of arrogance.



Is it a good thing one of the few guys who could have stopped the housing crash in the state is leaving? I know some of you are happy I'm leaving. These are the same people who cannot explain why we just can't "create more government jobs" to get Minnesota out of its economic malaise. But politics aside, is it in the best long term interests of Minnesota to have people like me leave? And the corrupt bosses who are to blame for the crash stay (because they know to work the system).



The reason I ask is it's not just me. It's others.



Anecdotally, I know many friends that have left.



Nick, arguably the best cell phone salesman you could ever meet. Hard working, honest. Not only would he have made a great employee (and he did), he would have made a great husband. He's in Kansas now.



Chad, another friend of mine who took its IT genius to North Carolina and never looked back. Brought his wife with him and they now have not just a nice house, but a nice computer business.



Dustin, hard working statistician. Got fed up trying to find reliable employment here. Headed again to Kansas.



And forget these guys. I know tons of people, all in their 20's and 30's who just want out of Minnesota. They can't find jobs, and if they did find jobs, they run into the corrupt, inefficient, bureaucratic BS that didn't exist in Minnesota in the 50's and 60's.



But all my anecdotes are irrelevant. If you want to look at the state demographers data or census data, look and see how many of the youth are sticking around. And we're not talking welfare recipient youth who are just going to stay around, spit out some future welfare collecting youth and demand more taxpayer money for the "chillllldreeeen." We're talking the GENUINE economic future of Minnesota. The STEM-educated 20 and 30 somethings. The ones who will work. The ones with purchasing power. The ones who, even without a degree, just want to work. And the veritable geniuses who could have prevented things like economic collapses. They're leaving (you look up the data, I'm too tired right now).



Of course the stewards of Minnesota have failed to keep the state up as a viable economic entity. And while at the age of 18-22, we may have been sold on how "cool" it was to go to "Uptown" or how awesome it was to attend "the U," in the end when we want to work, produce something of value, buy a house and not be taxed every step along the way let alone embark on the impossible lottery of maybe catching the HR representative in a charitable mood or bumping into Tad Piper, why on god's green earth would we stay in Minnesota?



And now you understand our two vocabulary terms of today.



Brain drain is when your smartest people leave. Either because their employment prospects are too low, or they know that at the income they'd make you tax them too high, they leave. And they take not only their production with them, but their spending, their tax base dollars and (quite honestly) their exemplary law-abiding citizen behavior.



Capital flight is when money flees out of your country, state or city in search of better returns. 3M's CEO may have said something about this, but I'm sure you MPR folk chalked this up to him just being an "evil greedy capitalist" and cannot understand why 3M has expanded overseas and not here.



In both cases, you now have the key to understanding why housing prices in Minnesota are more reflective of Detroit and Las Vegas than it has been in the past.



You're losing your producers. You're losing your contributing members of society.



And how that translates economically (and I'm really trying to make this simple so you understand) is that you have less dollars chasing after homes which drives their prices down (of course the banks of Minnesota flooding your market with housing didn't help either, but eh, don't listen to that stupid kid from a non-Ivy league school).



In the end I fear we can look to Detroit as the ultimate outcome for Minneapolis. You would think the citizens would realize how anti-business democrats, anti-corporate policies and suffocating EPA and environmental regulations soon enough to prevent the utter destruction of a town, but apparently not. Apparently the propaganda of socialism tastes so sweet and is so intoxicating you are completely oblivious to it destroying your neighborhood around you. You are completely oblivious to how it destroys your life and your family. And it is so powerful, you can't understand how anti-business, anti-capitalism, anti-individual policies suffocate, if not, eliminate growth.



But for some people that connection is very clear. And those are the people with the brains and the capital. Those are the producers and innovators. Those are the entrepreneurs or just plain ole hard workers who are willing to support themselves and produce something of value. And for all you Minnesotans who are those people, do yourself a favor.



Get the hell out before it becomes a cold Detroit.



And of course, enjoy the decline!

You Go Califnornia

You just can't make it up. How do you people elect these morons?



I guess a better question is how do you people in California not connect this to your double digit unemployment rate and general economic decay?

Revisiting the Fatty Diets & Diabetes Study ~ How to Make Mickey Fat or Fattier


In her piece over at MDA on the How Fatty Diets Cause Diabetes, Denise Minger spent a bit of time discussing the strain of mouse used in the study.  That being the not-uncute fella you see pictured here:  A C57BL/6J mouse.   Denise describes these mice as:  "uber-susceptible to obesity, high blood sugar, insulin resistance, leptin resistance, and all that other fun stuff plaguing modern humans."  This didn't really square with my memory from when I blogged on a study involving this critter.  Took me a few minutes to remember what that blog was ... Of Mice and (Wo)Men.  That post dealt with a calorie restriction study using this same mouse.  In looking for info on this mouse, I had come across this paper:  The High-Fat Diet–Fed Mouse.  Since I was mostly looking for info on lifespan and such at the time, the subtitle didn't "hit me", that being:  A Model for Studying Mechanisms and Treatment of Impaired Glucose Tolerance and Type 2 Diabetes.  The paper describes this mouse's propensity towards obesity (and IGT and T2 diabetes) when fed a high fat (58%) diet vs. a standard low fat (11%) chow.  However, in the calorie restriction study, these mice did not become obese on standard chow (11%F, 69%C, 20%P, Teklad Global 2016).  Therefore I think it would be more fair to say that they are susceptible to diet-induced obesity (DIO), but not obesity per se on a more appropriate diet.
Read more »

Because I'm Not Larry Ellingson's Son

But who gets financing and for what frivolous and stupid venture?

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Klaus Kinski

I knew it was him.



I was watching "A Few Dollars More" last night over a bottle of Rumpleminze. The hunchback in the movie had a very unique look to him and then I realized who it was.



Klaus Kinski.



Very interesting background.




On a related note, you youth (heck, my age) would recognize a very familiar score from the original "Red Dead Revolver" the theme song of which comes from a movie Klaus was the hero in.







I guess the 70's did produce something.

The Granny State

Well, when you bring up one generation so poorly, what did you think was going to happen when they started bringing up the next generation?

"I Didn't Think Their Lies Could Win"

Well, when you have such an ignorant and spoiled society, yes their lies can win.

Why Insulin Levels & Lipolysis Do NOT Dictate Weight Loss ~ Part I

I'm really rather amazed that at this point we're still having to discuss this topic.  As a good friend of mine once said to me in an email (paraphrasing):  One would expect these sorts of myths to persist back in the 80's and 90's.  But in this day and age of information availability on the internet, it seems impossible that enough people continue to be influenced by such easily debunked notions.  Low carb Wiener anyone? {grin}

In any case, it seems that no amount of demonstrating the lack of any correlation between fasting insulin levels and weight loss will convince some people.  I really would think that the scatterplot (weight loss v. fasting insulin), discussed in this post,  would be impossible to explain away, and yet many just dismissed it from their minds.  It's that proverbial black swan all the Eades Popperites (or is that all you can eat (Eade)sous vide popper-bites?) constantly seek.  

Read more »

I'm Slamming the Teachers, Not the Kids

Teachers unions very much like taking any criticism directed at them and deflecting it to the children. That if you slam the teachers or the teacher's union for being incompetent, overpriced and indoctrinists, then you are by default a child hater and against education. It is cowardice at its worst and is why I make this clear distinction before I rip apart "education majors" and "teachers" for what they (typically, but not all of them) are.



Just more proof of what your Captain has been telling you this entire time. The reason I'm so adamant about pointing this out or if it seems I have an vendetta against teachers, it's because I remember these people when they were going to college. I remember the types of people, from my generation, who are now teachers. You don't want them teaching your kids. They were the ones who readily admitted they were too lazy to pursue real, hard, STEM studies. They partied, they drank, and they usually didn't bother working to put themselves through college. And without fail if you asked them why they were going into education "3 months off" was regularly cited as the number one reason.



Now of course, it takes them a nano-second to grab a kid and use it as a shield when fiscally sane people start to question whether we're getting a bang for our taxpayer buck. Oh, then they become really altruistic real quick.



I just wonder if others are able to discern between teachers and children or if they are not going to appreciate my marksmanship in who I'm precisely targeting.

Why are Economists Leftists?

I didn't know this. I always thought if you studied economics, then you would be a conservative or libertarian. And the only way you could be a "leftist economist" is if you willfully choose to ignore empirical data and shill yourself out like Krugman to capitalize on a market of ignorant people who want economic rationales as to why socialism works.

Ketones Fuel Cancer?!

Ketones and lactate “fuel” tumor growth and metastasis


Previously, we proposed a new model for understanding the “Warburg effect” in tumor metabolism. In this scheme, cancer-associated fibroblasts undergo aerobic glycolysis and the resulting energy-rich metabolites are then transferred to epithelial cancer cells, where they enter the TCA cycle, resulting in high ATP production via oxidative phosphorylation. We have termed this new paradigm “the Reverse Warburg effect.” 
Here, we directly evaluate whether the end-products of aerobic glycolysis (3-hydroxy-butyrate and L-lactate) can stimulate tumor growth and metastasis, using MDA-MB-231 breast cancer xenografts as a model system. More specifically, we show that administration of 3-hydroxy-butyrate (a ketone body) increases tumor growth by ~2.5-fold, without any measurable increases in tumor vascularization/angiogenesis. Both 3-hydroxy-butyrate and L-lactate functioned as chemo-attractants, stimulating the migration of epithelial cancer cells.  Although L-lactate did not increase primary tumor growth, it stimulated the formation of lung metastases by ~10-fold.  thus, we conclude that ketones and lactate fuel tumor growth and metastasis, providing functional evidence to support the “reverse Warburg effect.” 
Read more »

Monday, August 29, 2011

Canadian Intervention, California Is a Great Place, Welcome to Spinsterhood, and More!

I wish we had this.



California is in such great shape this is the worst of their problems.



Another aging female Gen-Xer realizing there might have been a consequence to playing mind games with the boys in her teens and 20's.



The 60's are to blame for today's economic problems, not big oil or George Bush.



Choices have consequences, even for liberals!



And when you destroy the division of labor, what do you think happens to production?



Finally, scientists prove (of all things) the bleeping sun causes global warming. Who would have thought?

Fat Metabolism in Formerly Obese Women: Part I Resting Metabolic Rate

Wow!  Many recent events and blog posts about the web have hit a lot of my deja vu "memory nerves".  This has had me going to the draft bin looking for what it is I'm reminded of.  This one was sparked by being linked to a series discussing hunger and satiety over at gnolls.org.  I'm going to link you to Part IV as that is where the paper I'm discussing in this post/series is cited, but J. Stanton  has links to other installments.  

So, most of this current post has been in my hopper since February!  But this article/study has actually been "on my plate" longer still, as the PDF was downloaded to my HD back in June 2010 after reading James Krieger's  piece on the ease of regain.   I'm going to break this up into three parts:  
  • Part I dealing just with resting energy expenditure and its contribution to our overall "metabolic rates".  

  • Part II will deal with the resting metabolism in terms of contributions of fat and carbohydrate

  • Part III will address expenditure and substrate usage during and after exercise.  




Read more »

And Bachmann Blows It

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Name the Captain's New Sidekick!

Stopped in at Hill City, SD today. The great thing about the general Black Hill's area in late August is the vendors are trying to unload all their Sturgis crap they couldn't sell during the rally. Ergo something that was $50 (like a leather vest) is now $15.



Then I saw this little guy;















Now keep in mind, a fair amount of motorcycle riders don their motorcycles with a stuffed buffalo as kind of a "guardian angel" sort of thing to protect you from spills, crashes, teen age girls and their 30-40 something soccer moms yapping on their cell phones while obliviously driving their SUV in and out of three lanes of traffic.



The only question is what do we name this little shaver?



He is a FULLY DEVELOPED buffalo, he does have FOUR LEGS and a tail, they just seem like stumps. He's just a little small, that's all.



Any suggestions for the name?

Thank You Sidewinder77

Looked at my stats and said, "what in Hades is going on here?"





Many thanks to Sidewinder77 for posting to reddit.



This is a reminder that the Captain fully endorses his Lieutenants to forward, mention, e-mail, post to Reddit, etc., any of his articles, postings, books or papers. And even though Reddit is basically more or less a 20 something leftist site, any traffic is good traffic.



Plus, how else is the Captain going to attain Drudgereport-like status so he can sit on a beach and write far far away with Jennifer Aniston serving him Rumpleminze as we converse with each other;



Captain - "Dear, isn't it wonderful living off of my wise investments into Aussie dollars?"



Jennifer - "Yes, my sexy, libertarian stud muffin, it is. I just find your ability to predict and yet at the same time, enjoy the decline enamoring. Another shot of Rumpie?"



Captain - "Why yes my darling. Wait, isn't that the same bikini you wore last week? And how do you manage to walk in the sand with heels?"



Jennifer - "Oh, I practiced before you picked me up in your personal F-18 Super Hornet. I think I have it down. Can I pull out the 60" LCD screen, the surround sound stereo system onto the beach, rig it all up and throw Kelly's Heroes in the DVD for you?"



Captain - "Oh sure, what the heck."

Where do triglycerides come from? Part III

If you haven't done so already, you may want to read Part I and Part II first.  Part II, especially, discusses the sources of fatty acids for VLDL triglycerides manufactured by the liver and two secretory pathways - an immediate one and a delayed one.  In this part I'll discuss the results of that study:



This group uses different radioactive tracers to identify the source the fatty acids in VLDL-triglycerides.  This study differed from the study in Part I in that it looked at prolonged triglyceride levels - fasting and postprandial - rather than just fasting.  For one week prior to the study all subjects were provided a standard diet (outpatient basis) of 50% carb, 35% fat, 15% protein*, at weight maintaining levels.  I would note that this would mean the obese study groups were likely ingesting significantly more than the lean controls.  The study diet followed for 5 weeks essentially replaced 20% of fat energy with carbohydrate energy for approximately 70% carb, 15% fat, 15% protein*.    It was noted that caloric content was similar, simple sugars were the same as a percentage, but absolute simple sugar intake was almost 40% more on the high carb diet.  The high carb diet also contained 50% more fiber and almost 90% less cholesterol.
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Saturday, August 27, 2011

My Tutoring Is Not SWPL

I like the reference to "SWPL" tutoring (warning, crass language, but good link)



When I taught college econ I also ran the tutoring lab for the college. I was not SWPL. I was blunt and direct alpha.



Of course that offended the soft, eggshell-strong sensibilities of the kiddies who "didn't like math" and "didn't need to know none of that stuff" because they were all going to become great chefs or travel agents or entertainers or poets.



This was of course when I still cared about educating the kiddies and improving their futures. Of course, after getting lectured by management for making tests too hard and not passing the 89 out of 92 students who plagiarized their term papers, I learned to give up on that and just shut up, pass them, incorporate Halo tournaments into the curriculum, collect a pay check and let real life teach the kids the real lessons for me in the future.



The good news is that today I do private tutoring, primarily MBA students who (laughably) think it will improve their chances of finding gainful employment. But it's much nicer to tutor adults who care about their education than 18 year old "adults" who are still effectively children.

Recession Medicine

Friday, August 26, 2011

The Economic Lesson of the Day

I shall make this as short and simple as possible, because it really is that simple.
Labor force participation shows the percent of the population that CAN work, that actually DOES.


You will notice the dramatic increase after about 1968 which is 100% due (look it up, please dont' question me) to women entering the work force.



You will then see the dramatic decline since this latest recession began which is about 95% due to men leaving the workforce (look it up, please don't question me).



Ergo, I have this simple question to ask.



If more and more women entered the work force, this should then increase the economic growth of the country (which it did). If economic growth increased, then government revenues should have gone up (which it did). Thus, in theory, with "twice" the amount of the population working, yet no need to double infrastructure, double military spending, and other public goods, then government spending as a percent of our total output should DECREASE.



But it has not.



Matter of fact it has more than doubled.



Now, fellow junior, aspiring, deputy, official or otherwise economists I ask you the simple question...



why?



I know the answer, but the question is whether YOU know the answer.



And the answer is two fold.



It is also a very TRUE answer, which will make it an incredibly politically incorrect answer. But since we're in an economic crisis, methink the people are starting to realize the economic costs of being politically correct at the expense of being truthful and living in reality.



Answer away.

The Captain Predicts the US' Economic Future

As you know the Captain holds classes regularly on stock valuation and a basic introductory course on investing. And every once in a while, through the online discussion boards, a student or the Captain himself will write something that is Cappy Cap worthy. Ergo I present to you a quick prediction of what I believe will happen in the future;



Well, it is my humble opinion (and nobody can predict the markets) that inevitably the stock market will crash as Americans fail to generate the economic production that is necessary to provide the profits necessary to drive up stock prices.



I also believe, slowly, but surely, Americans and institutional investors will start to realize the huge bubble retirement programs have formed and when the baby boomers start drawing their money out of the market, this will cause a general downward pressure on prices.



I doubt the federal, let alone state and local governments, will ever balance their budgets and it will lead to an inevitable collapse of the dollar (which has more or less happened anyway) further crashing the stock market.



Gas will shoot up to $5 easy, and will cripple discretionary spending, but only for those who are lucky enough to be employed, the remaining 10% "officially" unemployed and the other 40% "underemployed" will just suffer in limbo in "working poor" status or "lower middle income" status.



China will get REALLY mad at US and will stop buying US treasuries, and not until we all have a "Come to Jesus Meeting" and we realize we can't just prop up stock prices let alone the economy with puppies and unicorn talk, will any of this get fixed.



Of course to convince 300 million Ameircans about the severity of our economic problems is laughably impossible, but I think when bread lines start to become longer than they were in Soviet Russia, people might have the time to ponder what economic events led us to this.



You and I will probbaly be very old, if not passed away by the time this economic epiphany hits the general population, but thankfully, in the end, I believe people will be watching less "Jersey Shore" and more "Fox Business" by this time. In the meantime, based on my numbers, the Dow Jones should really be trading at around 8,000.



But again, that's just my short 1-2 take on it.

He Will Never Be Ronald Reagan

What did I tell you about housing starts?



Trust me guys, you don't have to worry about the economy all of the sudden "exploding" and Obama winning a second term.

Bloggo Science ~ A Hypothetical Post II ~ The Plots thicken

The following plots come from actual data from a real study.  In my hypothetical, however, I'm assigning the x-axis to be original hair length -- representing one variable measured in the real study -- and the y-axis will be (-) hair growth (e.g. it's vertically flipped from the original data set) -- representing the other variable from the real study.

My hypothetical study included 12 participants, 6 each with light hair (L) and dark hair (D).  Hair growth was measured for a period of about 20 weeks, but due to scheduling, the actual duration of the study varied between subjects.

Hypothesis:  Hair growth is inversely related to initial length.  Shorter hair grows faster than longer hair.
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Thursday, August 25, 2011

When Governments Replace Fathers and Men

Just for the record, and so all of you lefties and feminists out there know, the government will never be able to replace fathers or husbands.



Never.



And you will find that out regardless of how much Sex and the City you watch and how much Maureen Dowd you read and how much government money is funneled to you.



And sadly, you will find that out when it's too late and your chances at having a real husband and a real father and a real family are long gone.

We Elect the Worst of America to Lead It

In my super awesome piece "Why You Have Bad Government" I linked the cause of bad government to the fact that the people who typically go into government have the following traits;



1. They did not have to work for a living.
2. They did not care to work for a living.
3. Because of this they majored in worthless subjects.
4. Lacking any real world experience and only knowing how to spend their parent's money, their solution is simply to spend more of other people's money.
5. They are the epitome of greed because they put themselves first ahead of society in that they ultimately do not care whether they have the wisdom, experience and morality to lead. They just want a job to make themselves feel better about themselves. I have termed them "Crusaders" (which if you want to pour yourself a martini you can watch the whole seminar on Your Tube).



I proved this by creating a pie chart of the majors of the congressional members of the Minnesota house of representatives showing, at the time, most of these people are worthless and possess no real skills or experience that would be useful to the rest of society.



Now another piece just on the national level confirming what I, your Captain knew a long time ago.
All this behooves one simple question;



Will anybody ever realize the Captain's super-awesome economic genius, or do they need to wait until markets crash and societies collapse before they have the same epiphany?

Bloggo Science ~ A Hypothetical Post

One of the, well-deserved, knocks on Ancel Keys is his cherry-picking of evidence.   A little while back Chris Masterjohn  posted a bit of an admonishment to those who might fall prey to Keys' error.  In that post Chris presented the "evidence" of Keys' cherry picking from  Uffe Ravnskov's The Cholesterol Myths.

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Absurdium lo carbicus

The image below is currently featured on a low carb blogger's blog.  It's not the first time I've seen it, indeed I know for sure one other blogger who has featured this picture.  This graphic embodies what is wrong with the "LC movement" these days.

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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Krugman Has Lost It

Honestly, and you people on the left have no idea why the economy isn't recovering;





Ignore That Deficit Behind the Curtain

It really is a daily fight against the amoral old timers in the established MSM. And as time goes on I have a growing and intensifying hatred for the people in the "fourth branch of government" who have not only failed to do their job, but purposely advance an agenda that is against the best interests of the people by misinforming them about the all-important issues of economics.



Today's latest example comes from CNBC where they manage to put a positive spin on a $1.28 trillion deficit. Which is of course like trying to put a positive spin on Ebola or Nirvana.







So once again, your Captain fires up his P-51, replete with drop tanks and ammo and takes off into the sky to shoot down this latest assault from the mercs that are on ZeroPrez's payroll.



Below are the deficits as a percentage of GDP for four countries. Australia, Norway, Greece and the US. Remember, we are told we are able to bail out Greece, we are no Greece, why Greece could never happen here. When in reality we are now officially running higher deficits than Greece. I simply threw in Norway and Australia to show you what an EVIL OIL rich country looks like and what a functioning western society SHOULD look like.





But, again, to quote Michael Savage,



"No, no, you don't want to hear about this. YOu want to hear about some guy who hits a ball over a fence."


Ergo, I present to you guys hitting a ball over a fence.

Yep, It's S&P's Fault

Just like Katrina was Bush's fault.



And how the Tea Party (which is advocating a balanced budget) is also to blame for our financial problems.



Methinks when the markets open me little dollar short positions should be doing just fine.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Jobs Creation in Illinois





I learned to charleston in Illinois. Met Mel Gibson when he was filming "Payback" there. Had my first Pot Belly sandwich. And it was the only time I spent 45 minutes looking for a parking space.



And that was about it.



However, in an effort to maintain something the majority of my lefter leaning counterparts simply refuse to (intellectual honesty), I will note that the chart's Y-axis is HEAVILY skewed to make the drop look way more dramatic than it actually is.



Such trickery is unneeded when using data and statistics to point to the merits of capitalism.

Your Daily Dose of Dalrock

As I have been in the middle of moving, unpacking and then off to western Wyoming for fossil hunting, I have been thankful to have other people write allowing me not to...err....allowing me the time to share relevant and timely pieces written by other highly talented writers.



Dalrock, as you know is one of them.


The reason I like linking to him is I don't have to add anything. I mean, I'm pretty lazy and all it takes is a copy paste and I'm done.


So for the lazy blogger I highly recommend another succinct and complete piece by Dalrock.


This particular piece calls for you to pour yourself a drink and enjoy watching those who brought about the decline suffer under it.

How Fatty Diets Cause Diabetes

How Fatty Diets Cause Diabetes

This was the provocative title of the Science Daily piece that made a minor splash across the LC web recently.  Perhaps overshadowed by the AHS drama and fallout, but nonetheless picked up on by a number of people.  The article begins with:
Newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics tend to have one thing in common: obesity. Exactly how diet and obesity trigger diabetes has long been the subject of intense scientific research. A new study led by Jamey D. Marth, Ph.D., director of the Center for Nanomedicine, a collaboration between the University of California, Santa Barbara and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), has revealed a pathway that links high-fat diets to a sequence of molecular events responsible for the onset and severity of diabetes.
Read more »

Monday, August 22, 2011

Epic Fail

So I'm out west, decided to stop in Casper enroute to Kemmerer which is reported to have fish fossils. And I happen upon a nice little funeral home;







Ah the west, no state income taxes, great fossils, and cheap gas, but some pretty interesting people.

Addressing Andreas (and Taubes): On Relevancy, Reality, Inconvenient Facts, and Internetiquette

OK ... Just so you know, dear readers, I thought a bit on whether Andreas Eenfeldt's response to my post was worthy of responding to, and on the best way to do so.  To respond to comments on his blog or a separate post here.  As you can see, I chose the latter, largely because he has allowed his comments to devolve with various and several scurrilous accusations of stalking, questionings of my mental capacity and stability, etc.  To engage in this environment is not appealing to me, and shame on you Dr. Eenfeldt for publishing such disgusting commentary on your blog.

I'm hoping this will be the last post on this particular topic, but who knows ... It seems a blogger's work is never done trying to debunk LC mythology, and for now Andreas is the only (somewhat?) credible voice speaking up in Taubes' defense.
Read more »

Intracellular Fatty Acid Metabolism ~ Background Discussion

Before some of the recent commotion around here, a blog post entitled Let's Play Concentration caught the eye of Paul Jaminet over at Perfect Health.  His commentary then inspired me to write Glucose and NEFA: From Dysfunctional Metabolism to Toxicity.  

In the comments section Paul and I got into a discussion about free fatty acid (NEFA) clearance from circulation.  It seems that this is a subject of a lot of uncertainty.  Indeed when I first started looking into this stuff, way back when, I kept coming across statements like that insulin was required for fatty acids to be taken up by fat cells (three guesses where that traced to and the first two don't count ...).  My inner geek was prompted to look back into this.   This topic is of interest to me as my regular readers are well aware of my near-obsession with NEFA.  {grin}
Read more »

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Today's Word is Agorism

FSK with an insightful post in response to my theory on how to privatize governments.

Grey & Kipnis ~ Hyperinsulinemia and Diet Paper

It appears that the website that formerly hosted the full text PDF of the Grey & Kipnis study I cite quite frequently here has been taken down.  I'm sad to see this.

I've linked to that hosted copy so many times it would be impossible to go back and change them all at this point.  Instead I'm posting this up if anyone ever needs to find the reference in an older post, and I'll use my new Google docs host link in all future posts.  

Here it is:

Taubes Watch Ticker

Have you heard?  Gary Taubes' had a bit of a public meltdown at the Ancestral Health Symposium.  I decided to set up this ticker to remind folks of how long Gary has remained silent with respect to recent events.

Let's have a little fun counting the elapsed time until when and if Gary responds.





It has been approximately this long since "the shot heard round the LC world":





I approximated this to be around 2:30pm PST 8/5/2011.  The ticker works on UTC so this would be 10:30 pm.  If anyone has a more exact time, I'm a stickler for accuracy and will fix accordingly!

Quotable Quote: Frank on Science

This one is just so perfect, it was made by here by Frank .
Indeed, science has no good reputation lately.
And it's true that there are some (big) weaknesses to science.
But once you know the science and its weaknesses, it's much better to do things with science and its weaknesses than without science at all.
So true!  Kudos Frank!!  (yes, I fixed the grammar a bit)  

Saturday, August 20, 2011

The Scientific Method 101

OK ... I'm about at my wits end with some of these discussions about the net.  It's as if basic logic is not enough for some folks.  The scientific method for testing hypotheses is not difficult folks.  You don't need a genius IQ or even a high school diploma to "get it".  

Let's say, hypothetically that based on my observations, I propose A causes Z.  Others propose B, C or LMNOP cause Z.  I design my experiment.  Realistically it's impossible to control for all possible other factors -- called confounding variables or simply confounders -- but I make a good faith effort to do so.  In other words, I consider that B or C etc. may be the actual cause and merely occur concurrently with my beloved "A".  
Read more »

A teaspoon of this ... A quarter teaspoon of that.

One thing that the recent Taubes meltdown at AHS has done is elicit the reappearance of the LC Kindergarten Cop in comments sections far and wide.  Yes, I'm talking about the hopelessly mired in parroting LC dogma Fred Hahn.   He's pulling back out the "teaspoon of sugar" schtick to proclaim that carb consumption is evil.  It just so happens I had addressed this in a recent post:  Let's play Concentration!

In that post I did the calculations on the circulating levels of the form of fat we burn at any given time.  For a normal person, this comes out to around 0.5g fat.  Using more elevated levels we're still talking at most about 1g fat.  Using even a low end density for oils and butter, 0.8 g/ml, we're talking 1.25 ml.  What's that in teaspoons?  One-quarter of a teaspoon.    (One eighth teaspoon for normal individuals, and knocked down to around one thirty-second of a teaspoon after a meal!)
Read more »

Cry Baby Municipalities

I am so thoroughly enjoying the decline.



S&P finally decides to grow a spine, call them as they see them, and downgrades several municipalities and counties. And what does S&P run into????
But what is better than a perfectly grilled steak served to you by Jennifer Aniston is the reaction of these municipalities. They shoot the messenger and "fire" S&P.


So to all of you in LA, San Mateo and all the other municipalities that are nearly insolvent, permit me one simple question;


"How does "firing" S&P help fully fund your pensions?"


That decline is coming whether you idiots like it or not. And your arrogance and ignorance just makes it Hershey's syrup on the ice cream.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Won't Somebody PLEEEEASE Think of the Children!

I'm sure there's no consequence to this.
Hat tip (and analysis) to the always insightful Dalrock.

Guyenet v. Taubes: Is There a Working Hypothesis for Obesity?

In re-reading this I realize there are a number of redundancies and it is hopelessly long.  I don't really have the time/desire to chop it down to a more concise version, so posting it up as is with apologies!

With his English language blog, appearances at various conferences and LLVLC events/cruises, and the apparent rise in popularity of low carbing in Sweden, Andreas Eenfeldt is a rising star promoting low carb diets.  Therefore, I think his comments on Stephan's recent debunking of Taubes Wrong Insulin Carbohydrate Hypothesis Of Obesity, TWICHOO, and the post on his blog about same deserve some attention.   One of the things that is disturbing about GCBC and Taubes' presentation of the science is that he frequently says "we don't know XYZ because the experiments haven't been done".  The "Diet Doc" seems to have taken this to heart as he views TWICHOO as a "working hypothesis" and he seems unaware of the state of knowledge possessed by researchers on various obesity related topics.  

Some excerpts of Andreas' first comment in response to Stephan's debunking:
First of all: You state that low carb diets do indeed work well for weight loss most of the time, and that you see that as a fact. Kudos to you for acknowledging it. However, you can't say for sure why they work, if not through insulin, so maybe we should not rush to conclusions yet.

Read more »

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Here's How to Enjoy the Decline

You think I jest, but if you think about mortality, you will realize how important it is you enjoy the decline.

The Father Could Not Be Reached for Comment

All this mentions of mothers and grandmothers and yet no father. Spurious correlation I'm sure.

Guyenet v. Taubes: Random Thoughts on the Reaction

Now that I've weighed in with my thoughts on Stephan Guyenet's disassembling of Taubes' "Carbohydrate Hypothesis", I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on the reactions of others to his posts (including the first one responding to the "drama at AHS").

First, although clearly many still (as well they should and hopefully always will) hold Stephan in high regard, the mere fact that he addressed the altercation at all has drawn the criticism of some.  I found the seemingly well-meaning-sounding comments of Andreas Eenfeldt to be especially bothersome in this regard.  Honestly folks, how many of you have been in a situation where you were caught by surprise by something only to think later -- gosh, I should have said that!  Or perhaps, I wish I had the time to look into that for a better response, or merely had more time to respond period.  Don't get me wrong, Stephan did well in that exchange.  But clearly he had more to say in response to Taubes' questions and/or wanted to share more thoughts with his readers.    For the life of me I can't see what's wrong with that, nor do I see what is so wrong with the "people who live in glass houses" written/online response vs. the "thanks for the advice" live one.  I thought the live one was witty and cool, but the glass houses one is actually more to the point as it calls Gary out on his hypocrisy -- much needed to say the least.  Why is it a one-way street for so many of these LC promoters?  Why was it OK for Gary to offer that advice, even if he apologized, and not for Stephan to essentially stick up for himself and point out that Gary is guilty of his charges?  Is it that somehow any who disagree with LC dogma are expected to take some stratospheric road all the time while these guys (and gals) muck around in the trenches ruthlessly abusing anyone who doesn't agree with them?  Oh ... and it is sooo funny when they do it too, right?
Read more »

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

I'm So There

Galt's Gluch has become Galt Island.
And finally all those stupid evil rich people will leave this country and leave you all alone forever.

Guyenet v. Taubes: Thoughts on Stephan's Demolition of the Carbohydrate Hypothesis of Obesity

I've been laying kinda low on Stephan Guyenet's disassembling of Taubes' "Carbohydrate Hypothesis" and just sort of soaking in some of the responses.  However as the mood hits, I'll be sharing some thoughts on the reaction in the coming days.  

This post, however, relates to his blog post.  As I said in the comments on his blog:  Well done!  Most of the arguments he makes are not new to this blogger, but I think these things need to be stated by as many bloggers as many times as is needed -- and judging from the reactions the work in this regard may never be done!! -- until the following acronym becomes as common in LC circles as acronyms like ACE, OWL and CCL are to Atkins dieters. When Taubes' theories become known as Taubes' Wrong Insulin-Carbohydrate Hypothesis On Obesity - TWICHOO.  It kinda rolls off the tongue!
Read more »

GCBC Reference Check ~ Part VI of ? ~ The Massa

With full attribution to Stephan Guyenet:



Northern Cameroon, 1980s.  The Massas tribe (also spelled Massa) is known for its overfeeding ritual called Guru Walla, which Taubes describes in GCBC:
The Massa tribe of northern Cameroon fattens their males using both milk and a porridge made from sorghum, a corn-like grain that provides sweet syrup from the stalk. One man gained seventy-five pounds on a ceremonial binge. The average weight gain tends to be fifteen to twenty pounds using milk and porridge.  The Massa are cattle herders and their staple diet is primarily milk. This fattening comes about by the addition of carbohydrates (sorghum) almost exclusively.
Read more »

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Privatizing Governments

If I remember my corporate history correctly, I believe it was the Walton brothers who approached Ben Franklin (the dime store chain, not the man) about their idea for what would soon become Wal-Mart. They were shot down and if I still remember correctly, they approached other stores and chains, only to be shot down again. Ultimately they had to head out on their own, and now I don't think I've seen a Ben Franklin store in over 20 years.



Dr. Seuss was rejected reportedly 27 times.



And the creators of Trivial Pursuit had to go to a different country to find backers for their game.



Of course we all come up with good ideas (or at least we'd like to think so), but it is an issue of finding somebody to financially back it into reality. And ironically, it's the most revolutionary ideas that are least likely to get backing simply because it disturbs the blissful ignorance of the status quo and forces people to think outside their comfy little box.



Enter the Captain's crazy idea.



It not only disturbs the status quo, it just blows it right up.



I came up with this idea about 6 years ago and have alluded to it in the past. I never came outright and said what it was because;



1. I didn't want the idea getting out

2. I was debating whether to actually pursue it.



I tinkered with it, toyed with it, and soon it just wouldn't go the frick away. I knew I would have to at least give it a shot otherwise it would just gnaw at me for the rest of my life. And so over the summer when I had some time, I pulled a ton of data, ran some charts, made some financial projections and put together a 20 page business plan.



The idea?



How to fully privatize governments.



It's actually quite a simple concept, but a revolutionary one because I believe I have found the optimal form of government, or at least the "next stage" of governmental evolution. An improvement upon democracy, or perhaps a better way of putting it, democracy on steroids.



Under this new concept, government would be inoculated against corruption, greed, theft, graft and all other ailments that have ailed democracies since they were created. Politicians would not be able to wield the power over the people like they do. Rich or influential people could not override the desires of the people (or perhaps shall I say, brainwash them with propaganda and mass media into voting against their own long term interests). And economic growth, to paraphrase Brad Pitt from Inglorious Basterds, "would be a-BOOMIN'!"



It also is about the only silver bullet that could genuinely save the US (and all of Europe for that matter) from the financial problems we face today and keep them going as a viable economic entites.



Oh, and it also wouldn't hurt that it would easily make me and any major investors the world's first trillionaires.



But you all of course know where this story is going.



As expected, after spending the better part of a week on research and drafting a proposal and after spending cumulatively another week trying to get investment banks or VC firms to take a look at the proposal, all I managed to do was waste two weeks of my summer at an opportunity cost of enjoying the decline. What was particularly irksome was not the fact investment banks, financiers of different sorts and VC's shot it down, it's that they just plain wouldn't return the damn phone call. That you could easily spend 20 minutes on the internet and one the phone trying to locate the right person to call and when you leave them a voice mail, they never call you back. And in the rare instance you actually got to talk to a real live investment banker they would dismiss it on frivolous grounds having nothing to do with the idea.



It's too much money to be raised.

It's too little money to be raised.

We're not in that industry.

We were in that industry, but not this time of year.

We might have interest, but now right now with this market.

We only do private placements.

We only do public placements.

It's Tuesday.

It's not Tuesday.

You're wearing blue socks and we have a policy against investing with blue sock wearing people.



I literally told only 2 people about the actual idea. One was an investment banker who was at least sporting enough to entertain the thought. And the other was Peter Theil's "Founders Fund" who actually requested an abbreviated 12 page Power Point presentation I put together. The rest of the time my idea was dismissed without them even hearing about the idea, and not ONE business proposal was sent out.



Naturally the curious person by now would want to know, "Well, what precisely was this great idea? How do you fully privatize a government and make trillions of dollars from doing so? Let alone, how do you make government "corruption-proof?"



And seeing how it is more or less impossible this idea will ever get financing, the next best thing would be to go public with it. Ergo, I am happy to announce the business plan's publication now available on Kindle.







Yes, I am charging for it, because I spent a lot of time on it and some of you will notice how the posts this summer have been more linkage than Cappy Originals (in part because of developing this business plan and also in part due to moving).



Regardless you can find it here for $5.64 (the reason for the odd price is I tried to price it at $3.99, but Kindle likes to add odd fees - will be tweaking the price in the meantime). Sorry, only available on Kindle, but for the price of a glass of beer you will be rewarded with infinitely more than $3.99/$5.64 worth of intellectual stimulation. And yes, no doubt there are going to be some of those endearing grammatical errors or typos that my English-nazi readers love pointing out.



In the meantime, enjoy the decline (which will probably be the title of the next book).



POST POST-Some of you have expressed interest of just mailing me $4 and me e-mailing you the MS Word Document, which is kosher too.



E-mail me at CAPTcapitalism (at) yahoo (dot) com, click on the Rumpleminze and make a donation to my paypal account. Or I can send you a safehouse address to mail $4 bucks to.

Carbs or Cals for Weight Loss? Another Shai'ster shoots himself in the foot

Presentations from the Ancestral Health Symposium are up.  I'm a bit bugged by the fact that they focus on the speaker and don't show the slides.  It makes it hard to follow.  But beggars can't be choosers.  There are also slides up elsewhere, but not for all the presentations, and as of this posting there are none for the subject of this blog.

So who am I calling a Shai'ster this time?  Dr. Mike Eades, that's who.  Yeah yeah, it's not nice to call names but loosen up a bit if your loin cloth or edible pemmican panties just crawled up your butt ... it's a play on words folks!  

Eades AHS presentation was entitled  "Nouvelle Paleo: Caving in to Carbs?", and at the 20:45 mark, he begins to "discuss a couple of studies" that are going to explain why he's playing hide-the-middle-aged-belly behind the podium.  I'm thinking many of  my readers are as distracted as I am by this.  I know I just can't help myself from wondering if he's got a mirddle on under there, because he sure hasn't been following his artificial sweetener laced dairy protein so-not-Paleo cure of late.  But I digress ...

Read more »

Glucose and NEFA: From Dysfunctional Metabolism to Toxicity

This post started out as a comment in response to Paul Jaminet's mention of a post on this blog in his Around the Web post yesterday.  It got rather long so I decided to move it here.  In the interest of more rapid publication, I'm not going to be doing a whole lot of referencing in my discussion here, but if you're interested in a particular statement please indicate so in the comments section and I'll try to track down the reference(s) I have in mind.  Paul writes:
Every once in a while someone writes to ask me if they should fear a high-fat diet because of CarbSane’s writings on lipotoxicity. I reply that lipotoxicity only appears after metabolic syndrome has developed and, while it may drive the transition from obesity to diabetes, it is not a cause of obesity, and not a danger to people who don’t have metabolic syndrome. Also, the implications for diet are not obvious, since carb intake suppresses NEFA clearance from the blood and enhances glucotoxicity. The literature commonly speaks of “glucolipotoxicity” to describe this compounded toxicity problem. CarbSane hasn’t always been clear on these points, so it’s good to see an excellent post from her covering the basics.
Thanks for the shout out Paul!

Read more »

Property Taxes By County



I am kind of doubting the chart a little bit given Minneapolis and St. Paul fleecing their citizens, but here is the link.

Let's Chat! Adrenal Insufficiency

Hi all!  Over in the comments on Stephan's blog, Dallas from Whole9 made the following statement:
Furthermore, I've observed a trend among long-term low-carbers (Paleo or otherwise) that seems to suggest some degree of adrenal insufficiency (which is worsened by large doses of high-intensity exercise). I'm not convinced that LC is generally healthy for a lot of folks, unless it's viewed as a limited-time corrective strategy to "offset" a long personal history of a HC diet from sugar and processed, nutrient-poor foods.

This seems to be a common knock against long term low carbing, and I often hear the term "adrenal fatigue" bantied about.  So I got to thinking what it actually means to folks expressing it, etc.  When I do a Google scholar search on "adrenal fatigue", I get a book by the owner of this website, and other articles on various health websites.  Therefore this catchphrase seems more of a medical pop-cultural thing.  I found a bit more on adrenal insufficiency, including this article:

Adrenal Insufficiency 

I am hoping we can get a discussion going here on what this means to folks.  Have you experienced it?  Do you have any citations indicating how VLC might cause this or contribute to it?  Etc.  Any more lay-friendly links/articles you care to share and discuss?  

I've made this an embedded Meeting Room topic so if we get a discussion going it should be easier to follow (thus comments are off).  I hope you'll join in!
Read more »

Saturday, August 13, 2011

All Bush's Fault

Morons.







But it's "Bush's fault" right?

Cutting Off the Flow

For all the monetarists out there who know prices of all items are simply a function of supply and demand, and who also know velocity is transitory, I found this chart interesting. For the first time since the series has been tracked, real estate loans have dropped. And not only have they dropped, they have dropped significantly.







Now I know there is a plethora of reasons why banks are reluctant to lend money. The economy, the housing bubble, new regulations effectively turning off the spigot, etc., but until that valve is turned on again, your housing prices won't recover.

Lessons from my cat ...

I was feeding my low carb house carnivore this morning and a couple of things occurred to me in light of the discussions on what causes obesity.  Many of these theories are based on the knowledge of a presence of an energy homeostasis mechanism and how something goes awry with this.  

My kitty eats about 1.5 cans of food per day.   I put his food out a full can at a time and when the plate is empty I put out another can.  Therefore there's really no fixed time when a fresh can gets put out and sometimes he has to wait.  This morning was one such time as he was low on food last night before I went to bed, but since I want him to finish the old stuff I won't put out a fresh can.  So this morning he greeted me meowing at the plate and as soon as I put the food he went to town.  I'd say he ate about a third of the can and walked away.   He knows where the food is and that it will be there all day, but he probably won't go back for more until noonish.

Read more »

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Let's play Concentration!

While I was writing the Essential Carbohydrate post, I got to thinking about another canard often bantied about in low carb circles.  That being that our circulating blood glucose amounts to only about a teaspoon of sugar.  Here's how that calculation goes:


Another way of looking at this is that for a normal person, a "glucose spike" to 125 mg/dL amounts to an increase in dissolved circulating glucose of perhaps 2g (85 mg/dL - 125 mg/dL) and a glucose intolerant person might see 10g dissolved glucose in circulation (200 mg/dL)  following a meal.  This small amount compared to the "large amounts" of carbohydrate in even a small serving of pasta or rice is often seized on by low carb advocates to foster carbophobia.
Read more »

Property Values Down, Property Taxes Up

A neato little chart that actually surprised me which shows property tax revenue for the state overtime. You would think with the collapse in property values, property taxes, which are BASED on property values would go down. Hoo ho ho! You foolish boy;







I knew Minneapolis would keep jacking up their property taxes, but I didn't know the state as a whole would too.



And people wonder why property values keep dropping.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

No Capital Gains Without Profits

and no profits without economic growth.



I will say it again for the cheap seats. The Dow should be trading at around 8,000.

Red Meat Induced Blog Traffic Spike ...

I'm flabbergasted that (before even Stephan posted his comment here)  Blogger registered a "spike" in my traffic (and we're talking the "instantaneous" 2 hour hits kind) worthy of the blood glucose curve for Wheat Belly consuming 5 bowls of battery acid.  Stephan's comment has obviously been linked to at www's far and wide and generated more, but this is something *different* here, even given my penchant for those Gary Taubes exposes seen as provocative.

In the three days since the Wonder what he said post was published, it has rocketed up my most viewed posts to be #2 ALL TIME and as of this post, half the page hits of the long standing #1 GT email post.  

What does this say folks?  
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Creative Input Request

In the very near future, My Carb Sane-Asylum will be branching out onto YouTube!  I have some ideas for the name of my YouTube Channel, and slogans, etc.  But I thought I'd cast a net out there to y'all as I think my readership is very creative and witty.  

So.  Name, logo, slogan, music, format (keep in mind initially these will not be live videos of moi, it will be narrated slideshow type vids), effects, etc.  If you've got an idea you'd rather share privately, the Inbox is always open: carbsane at gmail.com.

Thanks!

Vintage of Divorce

Much like some charts showing the "vintages" of the various "tranches" of MBS or CDO's and their varying rates of default, Dalrock has once again done his digging and come up with a similar chart, but for that of divorce. In other words depending on what rough era you were married, how quickly did it take to get divorced?







To this day I am amazed at how the 70's just continues to be the worst decade on so many different socio and economic fronts.



A lengthier and longer analysis by Dalrock located here.



Link to Dalrock repaired.