Todd P Paul

A day at the office

I thought I would share a little about my day. It has been amazing in Chicagoland the last few days and this afternoon I decided to get out and enjoy it a little. I worked from home this morning, but it was too nice to be inside. After lunch I decided to head to the park to work from there. I was behind on a little reading and needed to do some thought work. What better place than the park down the street. Sam and I decided that this is the way to spend a work day.
She surveys the park and I work on the Blackberry. Despite my love/ hate relationship with the device, it is pretty nice to be able to work from anywhere. I worked out two real estate deals setting right there. Not bad.
Best of all, I got to walk home (in under an hour), open the refrig and enjoy a nice beverage. Yesterday, I brought a 30 pack of beer for under $13. Yes, that is .43 cent a beer. I was snobishly sticking to the PBR bottles, but in light of this new discovery I may be a convert.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a work day. I just wish I could figure out some way to make everyday like today.

This is Priceless

This is GREAT!

HT: Big Picture

Clean Coal?

Dr. James Reese does a weekly economics podcast, Radio Economics, and this weeks is on clean coal and U.S. policy. I thought it was worth pointing toward your direction. You can find it here. Enjoy!

When in Doubt..... Regulate

Why do we feel the overwhelming need to protect people from themselves? Seat belts, helmets laws, SOX, etc... Why is the response, regulate? The WSJ has a free article, today that says private economist think there should be more regulation of hedge funds. Why? Are their people out there investing in hedge funds that do not know they have an above average risk? Is the added volume and market presents in equities that bad?

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my mom a few months ago. My parents like riding motorcycles. A few months ago, we where talking about people not wearing their helmets. The state they live in does not regulate helmet wearing on a motorcycle. My mom thought they should be wearing helmets and I respond to her with this.

Think of it as evolution. Let the people who don't want to wear helmets have their fun. When they kill themselves because of their actions, it means more social security and scarce resources for the rest of us. Maybe a little insensitive, but true?

Renting vs. Owning: Conventional Wisdom?????

Barry over at the Big Picture has an interesting post on renting vs owning a home. People are making some interesting comments. Having been a home owner for the last three years and a renter for much longer before that, it is becoming clearer to me that renting is a better idea than owning. Conventional wisdom has always told us to buy houses. The common reasoning has told young people to owning and stop pissing away money renting. Well, that wisdom overlooks a lot of investment alternatives and added expense. The compounding value of a home has not kept pace with the compounding value of money in the equity markets. Home as investment is very questionable. The other reasons for home ownership are less quantifiable, and very well make owning the best option, but ownership is still more expensive.