Lots of things go bust quickly. Enron and various other stocks have gone down the tubes instantly, as soon as their nefarious goings on were exposed. One rumor or newspaper story, can finish a stock quickly, costing stock holders many millions of paper dollars. Auto accidents can happen quickly, and with no advance notice. Trains […]

We all went through it, didn’t we? Our loving parents spun the yarn about good old St. Nick, who traveled through the sky, being pulled by his trusty reindeer, with a bundle of presents for all the good little kiddies. He came down the chimney, ate the cookies and milk you left for him, and […]

Paper, paper, paper. We’re being buried with paper. There are paper cups, plates, dresses, money, and now paper gold. That’s correct. There’s always someone trying to scam you out of your paper money…with different paper. Will it ever end? Papers showing the ownership of gold? What for? Why would anyone want to own a slip […]

First things first, OK? Politics aside, it is economics, which governs everything, and especially governments. The Constitution, that most wonderful of all documents, says nothing about a “Federal Reserve” central bank. Rather, in Article I, Section 8, it says, “The Congress shall have Power to coin Money, regulate the Value thereof…” In no place is […]

My 6th grade teacher once gave me the best definition of a preposition I have ever heard. He was a WW II pilot, so maybe that’s where he got it, but here it is: “Anything an airplane can do to a cloud.” At any rate, the preposition “over” can be used in any number of […]

When I was growing up in DC, there was no such thing as a nursing home that I was aware of, anyway. My Grandparents and Dad died without their existence being known to them. My Mom died in one, in 1981, and it was a place I didn’t like to visit. Nursing homes came into […]

There’s one section of legal tender, which constitutes one of the great frauds of all times, and that is: SOCIAL SECURITY When FDR got Social Security started in 1933, there was supposed to be created a “trust,” into which the 1% deduction for the rich was supposed to be placed, for the benefit of future […]

That “omnibus spending bill” which I mentioned last week, exceeded even my wildest expectations. The final bill, had thousands of pieces of fat in it, was over 3600 pages, and was 14″ thick. Naturally, no one read it before voting on it, and the politicos indeed did bring home the bacon. Another nail has been […]

There are three definitions of “tender,” and we will take the second, which is, “To offer in payment of an obligation.” So one can be tender with one’s wife or gal, treat something tenderly, tender a resignation, or tender money for payment. A boiler tender is one who cares for a boiler. “Tender” then, has […]

About a hundred and fifty years ago, a budding young entrepreneur in Philadelphia was looking for a gimmick to sell his product. He racked his nubile young brain, and finally had a brilliant idea. He decided to place the garbage from the manufacture of his product into the product itself, and tell everyone it made […]