Monday, December 19, 2016

Unemployment & Inflation Statistical Fairy Tales:



Unemployment & Inflation Statistical Fairy Tales:
"Lullabys, Legends, & Lies"
(per Bobbie Bare song)

When Bush had good unemployment numbers, the refrain from the Democrats was 'look at the quality of jobs - people are having to have 2 and 3 jobs - the rate doesn't take into account 'underemployment'"

The same Democrats now herald their 4.6% unemployment rate - though
1) the average income is down in the past 8 years from $52K to $50K and worse when
        a) one looks at real inflation (not BS inflation) to lower which effectively reduces the income further in terms of goods and services that can be bought

        b) the quality of the jobs (selective memory)
        c) the amount of goods and services that can be bought given the fallacy of Obama care which increased costs rather than 'if you like you doctor, you can keep your doctor, if you like your insurance plan, you can keep your insurance plan, and you'll save per family $2500.'

2)So if anything, adjusted the $52,000 in terms of goods and services adjusting for inflation and Obama night mare - is what $45,000 or less a 13% decline in average standard of living - due to Obama --- SO DAMN MUCH FOR THE VERACITY OF THE 4.6% UNEMPLOYMENT - WHICH IS UNDEREMPLOYMENT RATE AS WELL....

Yet, 10,000 boomers a day are leaving the workforce - but that is way more - way more than offset by those who have just given up - such that the denominator (?) in calculating the rate without adjustment is complete fabrication UNDERSTATING the rate.. thus the quality of the unemployment rate is a figment of the administration's imagination Obama's & The Egalitarian Totalitarian Progressives' Economics Professors with Tenure (Scholar Barrens) who have never made a payroll -Lullabies, Legends and Lies

PS one further note - look at for example a Triscit(?) box or the like selling at the 'same price' - (I used Triscit not knowing or knowing they do this but have seen this with other products) so the price looks the same but the goods are less - hiding the inflation from the IYI (intellectual but idiots) on the inflation rate etc...(Talk about the violation of Torah relative to weights and measures!)

Remember all money is is goods and services (stored or consummed). Therefore the same price per box and less Triscits - less goods and services and the money is worth less - though the inflation rate may not (probably does not) reflect this game at all.

Personal Financial Planning: Managing Goals or Managing Money?

((sent to Investment News - of course, no response - oh their revelation question (no, there is gambling at Rick's Cafe??) is personal financial planning about managing money (now that the compensation from assets under management is being compressed by robo advisers?))).....



Personal Financial Planning is about managing goals NOT managing assets. Period.

Otherwise personal financial planning is merely a Trojan Horse for being an unnamed Asset Manager. Furthermore, with the emphasis on managing assets not goals being  1) if that is how one is compensation (managing assets aum) then as Maslow stated 'if all you know is a hammer everything looks like a nail' 2) the personal financial goals and their alignment to life mission/significance becomes a second rate citizen relative to attention of the asset manager masquerading as a personal financial planner.

Personal financial planning was born as a marketing ruse for the sale of product. The movement to AUM - worse  if managing asset selection directly - is just a another pretense and disguise. It's wrong headed enough (in my opinion) that asset under management compensation is inherently conflicted with managing goals - making other than asset accumulation goals (for which 'the planner' is compensated) the orphan second class citizen child. Add picking stocks and bonds - that doubles down the focus on the asset accumulation area - at the expense of other goals and led the conflict of so called planners telling clients to mortgage up to their ying yang - so there could be more monies to manage. (Real smart - playing hedge fund with the client's shelter ??)

There are always conflicts which gets to the question of full NOT fool disclosure - yet picking stocks and being compensated on this basis is in my opinion - mutually exclusive with the personal financial planning process as it is held out to be.

Final note there is a huge difference between process consulting (which is what personal financial planning is supposed to be and is held out to be) and resource consulting (an expertise on a subject or area - i.e. a product etc.). It is difficult enough to do process consulting let alone at the same time be the resource consultant on which one, what kind of particular this or that.

The great Rabbi Hillel was asked to explain Judaism while standing on 1 foot. He replied don't do unto others that which is unpleasant to you.... The rest is commentary, go study.'

Personal financial planning is managing goals (for prioritized alignment and realization relative one's values). The rest is commentary or just an imposter rationalization for resource consulting for asset management.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

The MOREon Cascade of Cain: Fear, Acquisition Self Interest, Selfishness




As a child, I remember my mother calling me ‘selfish’ – and not a few times. (Of course, my retort was, ‘you’re a mean Mommy.’
Nevertheless, in cogitating on ‘selfish,’ selfish is a derivative of the following cascade:

Fear of Extinction (sense of self identified as the body)

            Desire for Permanence, Continuity, Certainty (immortality of body
                        -Everybody wants to go to heaven- nooobody wants to die – T. Rogers)

                        Fear: Lack of permanence, continuity, certainty

                                    Strategy: Buy It (Acquisition – Cain in Hebrew –
yes, as In Cain & Abel)

                                                Substrategy of Acquisition: More
                                                            (as there is Never Enough)

                                                            Effects:
                                                                        Self interest & selfishness
                                                                        Palliation to cope, deny & deflect

            NOTE: Shaddai (meaning Enough – as in God, God Almighty, God All Sufficient, Enough – is not in this cascade. Thus, herein lies the test of faith – as Shaddai – as the ultimate Enough.

Do better, Cain
Genesis

Sunday, December 11, 2016

More, MOREons & Peggy Lee



More, MOREons & Peggy Lee

Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is
Is That All There Is sung by Peggy Lee

            When the MORE explanations, rationalizations, and justifications are scratched & scrapped off the surface ‘it that all there is,’ underneath  – the Yatzer MORE inclination – the MOREon co-dependency a derivative of acquisition. Whether genetic and or acculturated, More is a temporary palliative (usually requiring higher and higher ‘hits’ aka dosages) to deflect from, and deny ‘is that all there is,’ unless one has come to meaning IN their life.
            And even ‘Enough’ is deflected and recycled to More per the Rockefeller answer to the question of ‘what is enough?’ –‘a little More.’
            The More imperative (The Yatzer More) is but a derivative of man’s primary strategy seeking immortality via acquisition though immortality is masked in the futile pursuit of permanence, continuity, certainty (PCC before PC???). Regardless of verbal assertions to the contrary as well declarations of belief and faith in ‘the soul,’ we identity with our bodies as ‘I’ and fear it’s extinction – as ‘that’s all there is.’ (1950’s comedian Timmie Rogers made an identifying slogan to this day with his line proving the above, ‘Everybody wants to go to heaven. But noooooooobody wants to die.’
When More isn’t forthcoming or not enough (which is a little more) palliation is the typical respite of the MOREon and Yatzer More to cope –requiring higher and higher dosages. This palliatory coping mechanisms include psychiatrists (who teach what they typically have to learn themselves), psychologists (in reaction formation constantly trying to prove they are as good as shrinks), and other anesthetize with the Oprahs etc.
            (Okay I have dog – God’s emissary – chaver ((friend)) of the soul)
            More is a default cope which deflects reflective anxiety substituting action which nevertheless covers up (the hole in the soul) and ironically defers (‘is that all there is’ confrontation) but in the end increases the anxiety and the need for a fix and higher dosage of More (since there is ‘never enough.’). Thus, there is a co-dependency relationship with More: MORE, Yatzer MORE & MOREons. (The Moreonic Trinity).

            There will always – yes always be an addiction to More which is never Enough unless there is meaning IN one’s life – such that the requirement is just Enough – enough to live on enough to live for.
            Otherwise – ‘is that all there is, my friend’ then lets keep dancing’ with More.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Yoda The Goldsmith: Financial Planning’s Lamp Lighting Failure to Ignite”



 Yoda The Goldsmith:  
Financial Planning’s Lamp Lighting Failure to Ignite

            “A goldsmith had an apprentice. When he finished teaching him the craft, he wrote down for his student all the steps in the process. However, he did not write down that he had to ignite the coals before he started, because that was the main thing, and unnecessary to mention. However, the student forgot (and unable to produce results – jds)
            This parable is easily understood. The main thing (in serving G-d - & in the profane in serving the client-jds) is that there be a spark of fire that can be (or is to be aligned to  jds)  ignited.”
Ben Poras Yosef, p119b (with apologies from jds)

            Given the compounding failure to ignite effect of the MOREon acculturated personal financial planning heuristic (*) without alignment to meaning IN one’s life,  efficiency will prevail over effectiveness thus carrying ‘coals to New Castle.’  Result: the wrong thing (ineffective), at best, will be done well (efficiently).
            Things not worth doing are not worth doing well or as Burlesque Queen Gypsy Rose Lee said, things worth doing are worth doing slowly.

            And so while the MOREon personal financial planner pitches alchemy what is produced is dross (which douses rather than ignites).

(*) MOREon personal financial planning heuristic: more, better, now –ironically has a habit of becoming less, worse, later – metaphorically resulting in ‘coal in the stock-ings & bonds’).

Friday, December 2, 2016

Inheritance (‘Hereditary Privilege?’) vs Legacy, Heritage & Meritocracy



Inheritance (‘Hereditary Privilege?’) vs Legacy, Heritage & Meritocracy

            A former client spent an inordinate amount of time away from his business unlike most of the entrepreneurs I represented and yes, at the expense of additional profits. When going through his estate plan disposition according to his desires,  he explained his approach. Basically, he could give his heirs ‘more’ money – which would take additional time from the family or he could invest his time in his kids values with experiences.
            This client deliberately chose legacy over monetary inheritance.
            The client chose INside out rather than outside in
            (His kids, by the way, turned out terrific – but to protect names – you’ll have to take me at my word.)
            I can’t say that for all my former clients whose kids by way of the lucky sperm club received monetary inheritance (hereditary privilege) but not in effect the heritage of their parents.

Yitzhak (Issac) in Hebrew means ‘he will laugh, he will rejoice’

            Judaism (per a Rabbinic interpretation) is conflicted between legacy and inheritance – further aggravated by Judaism’s foundation emphasis on merit (how one lives not how one is born). This cognitive discord predates the label of cognitive dissonance.

To make money you need money
To get money you need to take a chance

            Biblically, Yitzhak was the first trust baby - the first inheritor. And while the Philistines covered up the inherited wells, Yitzhak re-opened them (his inheritance) and then developed new wells (legacy?). It is arguable that the designation legacy actuation  by Yitzhak per creating additional new wells is but and somewhat diminished by ‘to make money you gotta have money. To get money you gotta take a chance.’ Per inheritance – Yitzhak didn’t take a chance. The inheritance was more than just ‘a hand up.; Thus, designation of his actualizing legacy is at best questionable and worst – wait for it – wait for it – no “laughing” matter.
            Judaically the question  of inheritance/legacy/heritage is mitigated in part by the question of ‘is it fitting?’
           
            All things being equal, the son would get the legacy (position and or pecuniary) – versus two of equal merit because ‘he is fit.’ However, when all meet the question of competency and the son is competent but not as competent as the others – because he ‘is fit’ he gets the what appears to be an inheritance (rather than a legacy). If anything, therefore, in this case – inheritance – hereditary privilege – supersedes legacy and that of meritocracy – revealing Judaism’s inherent  conflict with itself and not to be argued away by ‘a dialectic of tension’ or ‘aspirational levels.’

Is there anything more absurd than a hereditary mathematician, or a hereditary wise man, and as ridiculous as a hereditary poet-laureate?
Tom Paine in The Rights of Man

Exploratory Well: represents a risk for the company drilling it, because it is not known, before investing in the well, how much oil or natural gas it might contain.
Development Well: is a well drilled in a proven producing area for the production of oil or gas. (The risk, therefore, is much less than drilling an exploratory well.)

            Thus, outside in, Yitzhak drilling even new wells – had an inheritance as they were development wells – not exploratory – let alone ‘wildcat’ wells tht Abraham, in faith, without seismic analysis, drilled.

            Better Abraham to  have spent more time for Yitzhak giving him a little seed capital (a hand up) to drill his own exploratory wells with Yitzhak putting up part of his allowance to have his half shekel – skin in the game. (Otherwise, more often than not ‘heir today, gone tomorrow.’)

            A hand up to develop legacy (as long as the sibling has some skin in the game) carries on a ‘heritage.’ But then what is inheritance with no skin and or without primary merit? A higher probability to heir is human and insulation hermitage. Note unlike Abraham and Jacob Yitzhak didn’t do down to go up. Yitzhak didn’t do this right of passage i.e going from Israel to Egypt or to Caanan etc. Yitzhak stayed at the hermitage, at home – restrained (Gevorah?). (That said, Yitzhak, at least, idn’t go away like today’s entitled snowflakes to college, come back encumbering Abraham with cosigned debt, and being resentful towards Abraham while still living in his basement.)

            So if anything, yes, Yitzhak was the first inheritor- but it was Jacob (especially when he also became Israel) who was the legacy – continued the legacy – the heritage – drilling an ‘angel,’ readying to fight Esau if necessary. (Though it should be noted Jacob – Yaakov (literally the heel grabber) was a trickster maybe something he genetically inherited – regardless of Rabbinic spin – from Abraham’s slight of hand rationalizations on Sarah being ‘his sister’ in Egypt. Of course, this may be Judaic karma that was unresolved further complicating the inheritance / legacy issue.).

Legacy is INculcated INside out; inheritance is bestowed outside in