Stomach Flu and Economic News

The Pimpernel and friends have all had the stomach flu for the past week. For my part I made sure that I drank lots of water and we all slept more than usual. It also made me feel more hungry than usual which I find odd. I was sort of dopey because of it all for the past couple of days. As a consequence I have not paid attention to the news as much as I usually do; but, I do have some interesting articles that I came across.

Yahoo - A Remote Control For The Body. I don't know about you; but, I don't like the idea of having somebody remote controlling my body. I was in the hospital once and they wanted to check my heart by giving me what is called a stress test; but, they didn't want me to stress myself by walking on a treadmill so they chemically induced by heart to speed up and slow down. It was strange knowing that the nurse had control over my body. A very strange experience.

Mail Online - Buying pizza? Expect a healthy reminder from Tesco: Supermarket giant will use loyalty card data to see who is eating what
. It should be so obvious where this is going to my long time readers. I have written about this a few times. Lets say you want to save money on healthcare and food subsidies for the poor. You simply track what they buy and make healthy and cost saving suggestions. This will come to America very soon.

CNBC - Texas Counties Set Example for Retirement
. Now here is another repeating of the big lie. The article states that cities and counties did not meet their obligations to put more money into public pensions; but, the fail to mention that the cities and counties couldn't because during the boom, the pensions were overfunded and they were not allowed to be. The response in many municipalities was to stop making their contributions and increase retirement benefits. There was no need to increase benefits.

CNBC - Reuters - Congress returns to U.S. public pension battle with new bill. At the bottom of the article it mentions a group called the "Governmental Accounting Standards Board" or GASB. GASB makes recommendations for how state and local governments do accounting. A few years back they changed the way pensions are reported and that change makes the pensions appear to be in trouble when in fact they are not. The trick is simple. How much money do I need to make a year to buy a house? Lets say if I make $50,000 a year I can buy a $100,000 home. My debt is $100,000; but, the total amount I will pay in mortgage payments is $300,000 because of interest and amortization. I don't show that I owe $300,000 when I go to buy a car; but, that is how they show it when discussing pensions.

Now lets ask a question. If there is no problem then why the story and spin. Look, San Bernadino declared bankruptcy and said they couldn't pay their pension obligations; but, when Calpers investigated it turned out that they could pay the costs and were hiding the money. They don't want to tell the truth, the truth is that people on average are living longer and we need people to therefore work longer.

ABC - Last Living Man Born in 19th Century Likely Has Genes to Thank. I post this story because of something that happened to me long ago. I was in college and lived in a raggedy studio across from the school. I actually slept on a cot and when I turned on the oven would watch all the cockroaches leave it. Anyways, I was sitting there one night and across the way could see the college library where there was one person reading a book in the window. It made me wonder what if you were the oldest person in the world, the last person from a long gone generation. You would have outlived all of the people on the earth that lived here when you were born. Everyone on earth changed around you and you remained relatively the same.

Detroit News - U.S. urges states not to allow general use of self-driving cars. The question is what will the regulations be. One is that you have to be behind the wheel, will biometrically identify yourself be next?

The Telegraph - No saviour in sight as world credit cycle rolls over. Here is the short on the article; but, I recommend you read it anyways. The short is that if you have high yield and high risk investments, you are going to lose big time. The economies of the west are unsustainable.

NBC - Reuters - Wealthy benefit the most from top tax breaks, government study shows. It is not about tax rates, it is about deductions.

Fox News - Could bitcoin go legit?. The blueprint for future government backed electronic currencies is being written and as you read the article notice how it says that you have to prove who you are to use the trusted bitcoins.

Mail Online - After death of cheques now CASH is in the firing line as figures show Britons did 10% less shopping with coins and notes in 2012. I never read an article which talks about why we should keep physical money. We will end up with an all electronic currency, you will not have a choice.

Now enjoy some fun stuff. Firstly, a young lady that knows how to play the guitar.

YouTube - Tina S - Van Halen cover- Eruption.

YouTube - JACK CARROLL - BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT 2013 SEMI FINAL PERFORMANCE. I just love this kid, he is hilarious.

YouTube - Owen Campbell - Angry Busker - Australia's Got Talent 2012 audition 3 [FULL].

YouTube - Anna Graceman, 11 ~ America's Got Talent 2011, Atlanta Auditions. She reminded me of someone else, she reminded me of a young girl a very long time ago who sat on my stage and sang the saddest song, she moved the whole audience and I was fortunate enough to light her. This is the song she sang. YouTube - Carly Simon - That's The Way I Always Heard It Should Be - 1971
. I saw a 13 year old girl sing that song and you could feel her pain. She sang it the same everytime, every show and every rehearsal. I didn't know her well, just another performer on my stage; but, I knew she knew the pain she sang about. She found the perfect way to express it and use it.

Now some old school fun. YouTube - The Sweet - Love Is Like Oxygen ( HQ 1080p HD Upscale ).