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E. OPINIONS & NEWS
8/5/2008
1. JUST CURIOUS - how y'all doing in "these uncertain times"?  Some of you in some kind of tight spot?  Well placed and doing OK?  Going to tough it out?  Looking for something to do with some money?
     I have business.  So far so good.
2. NOW THAT inflation is here and everything is more expensive I guess I can stop talking about it?  But now comes deflation as everyone runs out of money and can't afford to buy things, prices come down.  But they won't come down a lot, at least not for the necessities.  I mean, aren't we happy that gas has gone down a dime after it went up a dollar?
     The bright side is that if this goes on long enough substantial pools of derivative money will evaporate and we'll have a clearer idea of what things are really worth.
3. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY is the wrong metaphor.  It objectifies and alienates the products of the mind, binds them to a crystallized version.  Crystals are pretty and can be potent, but they are an end point in the creative process and then you have to start again.  The correct metaphor is the older usage: intellectual field.  Open in every direction.  These guys and their lawsuits are trying to keep thoughts in a bottle like they were carbonated beverage.  Doesn't work.  Give up guys.  Produce tangible product.  The new ideas grow out of the product.  They are not the product.  You sell the cow you don't own the calf.
4. OH, SHOULD that apply to spiritual practice as well?  Are the fruits by which thou shalt know them actually beside the point?  Hmm.
3. I WAS CONCERNED lest Obama be assassinated while out of country.  Sigh of relief.  Worried Willy me.  I figure if the kids vote for him he'll win, if they don't probably not.  My 17 year old is only peripherally interested.  Probably vote like his parents.  If he votes at all.  To him Obama is old.  He's off to college in 3 weeks, a little less.

7/1/2008
1. IT SEEMS TO ME that the ideal human behavior is that which is conducted without ulterior motive.  How does it seem to you?
2. I FIND IT EXTREMELY DIFFICULT myself to operate without ulterior motive.  There are all these different angles.
3. ONE OF THE REASONS things don't get done is because there's too much to do, do the easy stuff, sacrifice to some ulterior motive just a bit (because you deserve it), deal with the big stuff later.  That's with the best will in the world.  And people get distracted, they get wielded out when they make a mistake, personal stuff gets in the way, maybe even big parts of the plan are wrong.  No wonder politicians turn into creepshows.  Even the best of them.  They deal in wholesale people.  They can't help turning into what they are.
     Hmm, I guess that applies to upper management and major shareholders too?
     I mean, I kind of know every customer I have, at least to some extent.  But I put them into categories and generate stats.  I don't do that with my family.  Wholesaling.  How much more so when they have a million employees and a million shareholders and 100 million customers.  The people become like a school of fish to the observer/manipulator.  Strange things happen to the "soul" when contemplating one's family that way.

6/2/2008
1. POSTAL RATES have turned out not so bad for letters and light stuff but significantly higher for packages.  If you order weight there is less range before priority kicks in at a bit less than $5.00 per pound for delivery in USA.  For out of country it is pretty expensive in dollars, more so-what-like in euros.  So I will hold at the $3.00 minimum shipping charge for shipments in USA but will predict a somewhat higher level of add-on for larger orders.
2. MORE ON PRICING: an economic "moment" seems to last a few months these days.  That pseudo-benchmark commodity gold seems "stable" in the $800-1000 range.  The US dollar seems momentarily "arranged" with the other major currencies.  The food staple situation is evidently subject to speculative hoarding, the kind of thing that enlightened despots in olden days would impose public execution after torture to punish, is plainly bubbling, the bubble will burst, hopefully with only "minor" deaths from famine and the blighting of millions rather than tens of millions from malnutrition.  This year, I mean.  Oil also seems bubbly.  The problem is not the price, it is the scenario that Joseph laid out for Pharaoh.  The people at the choke points continue to manipulate and skim profits.  This is what Einstein was referring to in his "ways of thinking" comment.
     In China they study Chinese history.  There were several incidents in Chinese history in which avenging armies of liberation ate their oppressors.
     Prices for numismata are being set outside the USA and are higher for what they want.  As I write this the markets "out there" remain strong.  I continue to be surprised.  Put some price on something I think is insanely high, it sells.  What it is for budget collectors is a great time to sell.  At this "moment."
3. MY CURRENT INITIATIVE BUGBEARS are net metering and recycled municipal water.

5/1/2008
1. POSTAL RATES GOING UP THIS MONTH.  Don't worry about it.  I'll see how much it costs and adjust as necessary.
2. I AM FEVERISHLY RAISING PRICES but will inevitably overshoot, the bubble will burst, it will become possible to make successful bids again.  But not yet.  Stupidly high prices are the way it is for now.  Could change any day.
3. I WROTE THIS ABOUT 4 weeks ago: I think what we're seeing with the global food shortage (breathtaking concept, no, not "breathtaking," more on that lsome other time) is mostly a series of dislocations I think mostly caused by speculation.  I don't think there's actually so much more ethanol being produced.  If there was a serious shortage meat production would decline (and again, that doesn't count fish), its not, so where's all that alcohol?  Its not there, ergo there's a lot of hoarding going on out in the world.  Meanwhile it has taken less than a year for "everyone" to figure out that corn ethanol is a bad idea.  This has been one of the stupider and more shortsighted of bubbles.  Farmers figured that out halfway through last year I think, thus the reduced corn planting.  I think, barring bad luck or even stupider decisions on the part of people who can make things happen, that farming will get back in balance in a few years, maybe only one.  Widespread famine unlikely in 08 I think, at least on that score.
    Now I am kind of thinking that maybe I was overly optimistic.  It appears that the food thing is being seriously mishandled and is too big to wiggle out of.  Spotty famines later this year seem more likely than not.  Keep fingers crossed we'll avoid widespread regional famines.  And, you know, breakdown of order.
4. GLOBAL WARMING will tend to make Siberia very attractive to China for cropland.  Perhaps we would see some interesting agricultural contract operations in central Asia if we looked for them.  Anyone know anything?
6. FOR THE DEMS it is to dump the boomers or not.  Bill or Michelle?  For the Reps it is how serious is Mr. Straittalk about being a kindergentler Bushiot.  One has to assume he is being disingenuous.  Doesn't one?  The mendacity of hope.
5. IF YOU LIKE CHINESE COINS - I bought a tasty collection.  Get in touch to get the announcements.

4/2/08 - Let's talk economy.  It is obvious that thieves are all over the place and the only thing anyone can do is to read the fine print.  That's all there is to it.  Like if you live where I live, and you can't recognize poison ivy and black widow spiders, you have a problem.  Read the fine print.  Keep records.
    Anyway, prices continue to be fluid in my business.  One day I'm paying $14 for a silver dollar, next week $11.  Prices will continue to be subject to change without notice.
More opinions - 100s of thousands of words!

This 1100 year old Arab joke seems obliquely appropriate to the American primary year:
    A certain man claimed to be a prophet and was brought before the Sultan, who said to him, "I bear witness that you are a stupid prophet!" The man replied, "That is why I have only been sent to people like you."

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