Stop Wasting Money

For those who are interested in investing in precious metals, there’s an ETF (exchange traded fund) called GLTR. I like it because it balances four metals (gold, silver, platinum and palladium), though I might prefer a more even weighting.

I was interested in comparing the price of the ETF vs. the basket of metals a share represents, so I made a calculator for doing so. I haven’t found a way to pull live prices for the metals, so you have to enter those manually (try Kitco Metals. But I was able to pull the live price for GLTR. Let’s see how this works.

Here’s what it looks like:

And here’s a link to the spreadsheet (Excel format) so you can download it yourself. I was hoping I could embed it so you could put in your own numbers, but I guess not.

GLTR Calculator

The Libertarian Party is heading rapidly toward making Gary Johnson its presidential nominee. I’ve previously expressed concern about Johnson’s involvement with political consultant Roger Stone. That’s not the only concern.

Others have complained about Johnson’s support for interventionist foreign policy including sending and maintaining US troops overseas, which is far from the LP position. See for example Libertarian Peacenik.

According to Johnson’s April filing with the FEC, his campaign is $150K in debt. That’s a substantial sum for a campaign that raised $62K in April and spent $63K. Libertarians usually believe in fiscal responsibility, and Johnson is not demonstrating that.

But a bigger concern is the Johnson campaign’s selective use of the money it does spend. It was previously reported by others that fundraiser Jonathan Bydlak has sued the Johnson campaign. Turns out that the campaign is paying some consultants on a consistent basis, but for some reason refuses to pay Bydlak.

There are motions pending in a federal court in Virginia and those should be heard later this month. Below is a pdf of Bydlak’s motion for an injunction to keep Johnson from spending the money coming in on the consultants now in favor.

Bydlak Motion

Here are some key quotes:

“GJ2012′s precarious financial position, combined with the preferential and obscure manner in which GJ2012 has been applying its campaign funds, also provide strong evidence that the controlling members of GJ2012–Nielsen, Goodwin, and Kim Blanton–are abusing their powers as GJ2012 officers to benefit some of GJ2012 creditors (i.e., their own companies), at the expense of the rest–including Mr. Bydlak.”

“[T]hey have every incentive to ensure that their own companies are the first in line whenever it is time to cash a paycheck. Consistent with this motive, the Defendants appear to have been engaged in a course of conduct designed to minimize their own exposure while leaving the rest of GJ2012′s creditors, including fundraisers like Mr. Bydlak, to fend for themselves. This inequity is exacerbated by the fact that defendants Nielsen and Goodwin expressly promised Mr. Bydlak in April that his payment processing would receive priority, and that a portion of the contributions would be specifically set aside to make sure that he is paid on time.”

Is this what the LP really wants heading up its campaign in 2012?

Is the US the greatest country on earth? I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard politicians say this, most notably Ronald Reagan. But is it true?

We certainly have the largest economy in the world, and the largest military. But that doesn’t seem to be what politicians mean when they say it (if they mean anything at all). Reagan seemed to be talking about our principles:

Oh, there have been revolutions before and since ours. But those revolutions simply exchanged one set of rules for another. Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of government.

Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.

We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should.

Today’s America does not follow that point about government powers being limited to those granted by the people. It may sound nice but government at all levels is growing out of control, and most of us feel we have little or no say.

One might also wonder how much those who say this know about other countries. From a brief review of Reagan’s life, he never lived in any other country. I lived in Japan for a year. I thought then and still do that it’s a great place. Japan and many other countries are better than us in a variety of ways, including mass transit and conservation measures.

The Japanese manage to maintain a large per capita GDP while using far less energy, for example.

The Japanese and French have spectacular train systems. I’ve ridden both the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse, literally “train of great speed”) and the 新幹線 (Shinkansen aka the bullet train). They’re awesome, and unlike Chinese high speed trains or American low speed trains, they don’t seem to crash. Japanese people also live a lot longer than we do. I suspect that’s from a healthier diet and a lot of walking. They are usually a step ahead of us on having the latest technology for consumers, and South Korea is also ahead of us these days. Japan also feels extremely safe everywhere, which is one of our greatest failings. There’s nothing in Japan resembling Watts, the South Bronx, or Opa Locka. On the downside most Japanese homes are smaller than my garage, and most of the cars they drive remind me of roller skates.

I’ve also traveled a fair amount. I still remember, imprinted on my brain, when I was visiting a friend in Belgium back in 1989. He introduced me to one of his friends whose first words were: You’re from America? That must be great!

I got that kind of reaction from people in Japan also. So at least some people in other countries think we’re great. But of course, most of those people had never been to the US, so they didn’t really know what life is like here. Maybe they think we all live in Disney World.

In researching for this blog post I came across some other opinions about being the greatest country. For example Slate’s Joseph Stiglitz argued for the tiny island of Mauritius. Considering the small size of the country and their low GDP per capita, I think we can write them off. Michael Kinsley argued in Politico that we’re not the greatest country, but he didn’t really offer an alternative. Perhaps he meant that there is no greatest country, but he didn’t quite say that either.

I became motivated to write this post after reading a recent article in the Wall Street Journal: Canada Beats America, which argued that Canada is doing better on taxes, spending and energy. Canada’s national debt is much lower than ours as a percentage of GDP, and they appear to be going in the right direction (toward a balanced budget). If it wasn’t so cold, I’d give Canada a shot at the greatest country. Similar arguments could be made for Australia.

Some might argue for China because of its large population and strong economic growth in recent decades. Maybe that will continue but my gut tells me their political and economic system is headed for major problems.

Down the road we might see real progress in Brazil or another Latin American country. We’ll see. The truth is there are many great places in the world. I’m partial to the French countryside (but not Paris), Japan, and have a strange fascination with Costa Rica and Panama. A close friend spent a few years in Germany and he really liked it. But for me, the US is still #1. However, our fiscal and monetary policies are disturbing and we are at great risk of an economic collapse. That would have ripple effects across the world, and might make Australia look even better.

What do you think is the greatest country in the world? Why? Please post comments.

People often think government wastes money on bad programs. But what about wasting money on a program that sounds like a good thing?

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article about an NHTSA project to put alcohol detectors in cars, After the party, a car that takes away your keys.

The article has this juicy tidbit:

“Enthusiasm for the potential of alcohol-detection technology is reflected in a proposed federal transportation bill. In it is a measure that would give the NHTSA’s alcohol-detector program $24 million over two years—a sum that could allow the agency by 2013 to equip a fleet of 100 or more cars with prototypes of two types of alcohol detectors. One would measure the alcohol in the driver’s breath. The other would use touch technology to take a reading from the driver’s skin, likely the fingertip used to activate a starter button.”

$24 million to equip 100 cars? That’s $240,000 per car! And this is the proposal. As if government ever delivers anything on budget. For more on this waste of taxpayer money, see the DADSS website. If you read carefully, you’ll realize they’re nowhere close to putting this stuff in the field. See this February 12 DADSS pdf release, for example.