One Hundred Five: You Can't See Smoke At Night

You gotta love the ordinary guy in the north woods. Well, maybe "you" don't, but I do. I am up here at our lake place in northern MN, where I would dearly love to retire to, but being a married guy, that is not in the cards right now. Maybe in another decade when I am much less able to do the stuff around which either needs getting done, or I really like to do. But that's another blog story.

I was talking to a local guy about burning down my old cabin, which has been rotting away back in the woods. After a particularly wet summer and early fall, the structure is quite water logged, and I remarked that burning it would be next to impossible. The local guy said: "Tell you what we'll do. I've got some old tractor tires back at my place. We'll fill em up with diesel, stick em in the cabin, and light a match to her." I remarked that the tire and diesel would create black smoke which would be seen for 50 or 70 miles. The local guy said, "You can't see smoke at night."

This is the kind of can-do spirit that the pinheads at the EPA will never understand, or for that matter, squelch.

One Hundred Six: Financial Crisis - My Take

The "Financial Crisis of 2008" or "The Great Recession" or whatever you want to call the most recent natural economic reaction to excess leverage and excess consumption has now been over for at least one year. At the apex of the recession, we saw Warren Buffet purchase an entire national railroad (UP) and the federal government take over another major chunk of the economy (health care). The U.S. economy was able to digest a national pullback of maybe 30%- 40% of real estate equity. Sam Zell made out like a bandit on real estate, but unfortunately, for him, put his money in newspapers. More than 90% of homeowners continued to make timely mortgage payments on their homes and credit cards. The ten percent who didn't, were exposed for the deadbeats they are, and they are now supported by friends, families, and taxpayers. So, not much has changed.