What's wrong with saving more?

This weekend was actually pretty nice and relaxing. Friday night we caught up on Supernatural which was great in and of itself because we got to see Dean dressed up as a gym teacher. Then we watched BSG and I have to say it was a really good episode.

It would seem both the bad bank idea and the stimulus plan are hitting some speed bumps- but that is too be expected as it is all political in nature regardless of what either side says.

I think the whole Tom Daschel incident just proves my point that both parties are corrupt and just different sides of the same coin. Funny how the party in power is always willing to make excuses and play down the severity of infractions. I bet if I "forgot" to pay taxes and claimed I sort of, kind of remembered it and thought it might be a problem I would most likely incur a large penalty and legal bill and probably have the IRS up my ass. You can also bet I would not have my fellow former co-workers say it was just an honest mistake. I also read that Mr. Daschle got an exemption from President Obama's new, strict anti-lobbying code. SO nice to know the new regime is a lot like the old and the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Everyone seems to be worried about deflation and yet the prices paid component of the ISM today was way higher than expected. That to me with my lowly B.A. in Economics is an inflationary sign. Sooner or later it will show up when gold rips to the upside possibly getting through $1000/oz. I have to guess.

The other thing that had my attention was personal consumption lower than expected. That would mean saving is up. Saving is a good thing that the government has been busting our balls about for the past 10 years I'd have to say. Now however it is not a good thing apparently. I guess consumption accounting for close to 70% of national income means we have to stay in hock? Please. In the recession of the '90s and after the dot com bursting, corporations repaired their balance sheets and everyone was happy about it. Now that we the people are trying to repair ours it is a bad thing? It is called the business cycle people and you'd have thought we knew enough by now to know it is fairly immutable. The Fed has seriously flooded the system with liquidity but if people are of the mindset they need to save then the Fed is pretty much pushing on a string. It has to call into to question how all these companies will earn money but that is a horse of a different color.

Asia gets me a bit nervous still. North Korea seems to be intent on testing President Obama. I hope he is up to the challenge. I read about how China is starting to face some serious labor unrest. That called to mind the Mandate of Heaven I learned about in both my freshman year of high school and sophomore year of college. Just got o wikipedia and type it in and you'll see China has a long history regarding the topic and what it could imply for the government there.

Sayville was at the gym tonight- he is so freakin' hot. Lehigh was there too with his lifting buddy who the husband says is his secret lover. I am not sold on that but it makes for very fun, dirty thoughts. There was a new hottie- Yellow Shorts. There were various other sundry examples of hot men as usual but they stuck out. I also did what Mr. Barrett had told me is social suicide in his neck of the woods. I recognized a guy from a social networking site at the gym. Actually I had one set left and he tried to take the bench. I politely said I have one left, recognized him and introduced myself. Did not chat with him as I am not big on socializing at the gym. I was not quick enough taking out my headphones and mangled his name which I laughed about way after the fact but he was nice in correcting me on it. He did point out his bf and I pointed out the husband. It would be nice to find another couple in our church in town to socialize with so I shot him an email.