SNAFU

June 17, 2015June 10, 2015 fasab Banks, Business, Current Events, Politics $18 trillion, 2016 is an election year, a wise voice, all f***ed up', American economy, announcement, army, bailed out, boat rocking, Bureau of Labor Statistics, catastrophic mess, credit, Current Events, enormous debt, equation, Fed, Fed's threats, financial advisors, foundation, gloat, government, government crap, hike in interest rates, hinted, humble pie, I told you so, interest rates, interest-rate hike, jobs created, logic, lose money, market crash, military, muddle through, near zero, out of control, printing of money, prodded, Quantitative Easing, raise interest rates in June, raising interest rates, situation normal, sluggish economic recovery, smartass, SNAFU, stop reckless spending habits, Surprise, swallow, tightened its belt, wiser voices

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

It’s never pretty when some smart ass says I told you so.

But never mind that.

“I told you so.”

There I said it.

I wrote a post “The Only Way Is Up, Unless It’s Sideways” (if you want to read it click here) that all the logic in my head told me that contrary to the Fed’s threats to raise interest rates in June they wouldn’t.

They didn’t.

Gloat, gloat.

Mind you, although I’m taking all the credit that’s going, it wasn’t that hard to figure out. Despite that it did seem to be beyond most of the ‘financial advisors’ who just swallow whatever government crap that’s going and act accordingly – and usually lose money.

So it wasn’t a great surprise to me when on Friday past, after an announcement from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that reported 280,000 jobs created in May, the promised interest-rate hike expectations have moved back to this September. My guess is still that interest rates will remain near zero for considerably longer than that. (I explained my reasoning in that other post just referred to.)

SNAFU they say in the army.

For those who don’t know, SNAFU means ‘situation normal, all f***ed up’, because that’s how it always seems in the military. Usually however they muddle through because they can always count on being bailed out by the government.

With the government it’s different. There’s no one to bail them out.

The American economy, which is currently built around a staggeringly enormous debt of $18 trillion, is slowing.

Add to that equation sluggish economic recovery on the back of a collossal and prolonged printing of money by the Fed — Quantitative Easing, they called it.

And you do not have a sound enough foundation to support raising interest rates.

Some wiser voices in the Fed – maybe just a wise voice – realize the whole thing is out of control. The Fed has hinted, prodded and sometimes just asked plainly for the government to stop reckless spending habits. But the government hasn’t tightened its belt, nor doesn’t seem likely to.

dollar bill stash

What this really means is that a hike in interest rates too soon or too fast risks not only a market crash, but also a catastrophic mess for the government — and as I said in my previous article on the subject 2016 is an election year so there probably won’t be much boat rocking going on.

Stay tuned for what happens in September, I still have some humble pie in the freezer if I need it.

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None. That’s Ninguno, Aucun, Keiner, Zero!

July 18, 2014July 17, 2014 fasab Business, Current Events, Factoids air travel, air travelers in America, AIrbus, airlines, airplane, airports, America, ANA All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, aucun, aviation industry, best airline, best airplanes in the world, best performer, Boeing, build them, bureaucratic bean counters, buy aircraft, Cathay Pacific, comfort, consistently high standard, Current Events, customers vote, customers' opinions do count, disgrace, economy, education, Emirates, England, Etihad Airways, everyone is uncomfortable, fact, facts, Farnborough, Farnborough Air Show, Garuda Indonesia, global category, Hampshire, herded, Hong Kong, humiliated, important event, information packs, invitations, jobs, keiner, leading the world, loses you money, Lufthansa, luxury, meet and greet, ninguno, None, PR stuff, prodded, Qatar Airways, save you money, scanned, second rate, service, show, Singapore Airlines, smaller companies, squeeze just another row of seats, standard of their airlines, they don't vote for you, Thoughts, top ten, top ten best airlines, Travel, travelers, treated as potential terrorists, Turkish Airlines, United Stated airlines, United States, United States airlines, votes, world's best airline, world's largest and busiest airlines, Zero

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

In the summer in Farnborough in Hampshire, England one of the biggest events in the aviation industry takes place. It’s call the Farnborough Air Show.

I remember when I used to work in that industry helping to prepare invitations, information packs, and all the usual PR stuff. Farnborough is THE place to meet and greet both those who buy aircraft and those firms like Boeing and AIrbus who build them and provide tens of thousands of jobs for smaller companies.

So it is an important event.

At this year’s show they named the world’s best airline, in fact they named the top ten best airlines.

And despite the United States building some of the best airplanes in the world, and despite the United States having some of the world’s largest and busiest airlines, do you know how many United States airlines made it into the top ten?

The title of this post probably gave it away. The answer is….

None. That’s ninguno, aucun, keiner, zero!

Even the regional category for North America was won by Air Canada.

Apparently, not only are air travelers in America to be treated as potential terrorists, herded and prodded and scanned and humiliated when they are trying to get on to an airplane. But when they do, the comfort and service they can expect will be second rate.

I think that’s a disgrace. America should be leading the world in the standard of their airlines. They should be at least one, if not more, of the top ten list every year offering a consistently high standard that their customers (that’s you and me) deserve.

And this award is decided by the votes of millions of travelers, so customers’ opinions do count.

So time for United States airlines to ditch those bureaucratic bean counters who decide that they can squeeze just another row of seats into an airplane so that everyone is uncomfortable. In the long term this kind of thinking doesn’t save you money, it loses you money. And when your customers vote for the best airline, they don’t vote for you!

For those of you who are interested, this year’s best airline was the Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific. They were voted best performer across all types of travel, economy, and luxury.

Cathay Pacific World's Best Airline 2014 — Cathay Pacific World’s Best Airline 2014

Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines placed second and third respectively in the global category, with last year’s winner, Emirates, slipping to fourth. Fifth to tenth places went to Turkish Airlines, ANA All Nippon Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Asiana Airlines, Etihad Airways and Lufthansa respectively.

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What Am I?

October 16, 2013October 16, 2013 fasab Computers, Current Events, Humour, Politics, Rants $2 billion, access, administrative costs, affordable healthcare, aka, americans, amusing, bad code, break down, build-out and operate, bureaucratic, competitive rates, computer, computer code, computer program, Computers, cost, crucial components, Current Events, description, did not work, drop-down menus, estimates, fail to load, fiddled with, first launched, fools, frequently, game, Government Accountability Office, half a billion dollars, Healthcare.gov, high cost, hit with a hammer, Humor, Humour, incompetent bidding process, incompetent company, incompetent government, information, laudable goal, login, low quality of service, major code renovations, make a name for himself, miracle, Misc, Miscellaneous, money, morons, obamacare, Opinion, overhauled, played, Please enter your username and password now, poked, politician, politics, primary purpose, prodded, purchasing healthcare, Random, reject, spiral out of control, stupid, stupid people, stupidity, uninsured Americans, User not recognized, Washington, Washington DC, web site for Obamacare, website, What Am I, yes we can

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

When I was a kid there used to be a game we played called “What Am I?” where someone would describe a thing or a job or a place and the rest would try to guess what it was from the description.

How about we play that game today?

What Am I?

I was born out of an idea from a politician wanting to make a name for himself.

I was then handed to an incompetent government.

I was built by an incompetent company,

That was chosen through an equally incompetent bidding process.

I have cost more than half a billion dollars of your money – so far.

Even the Government Accountability Office estimates I will cost about $2 billion to build-out and operate in 2014.

I am a computer program.

I am full of bad code like you would not believe.

I did not work right when they first launched me.

I have been subjected to major code renovations, overhauled, prodded, poked and fiddled with and even hit with a hammer and I still don’t work right.

Try to login to me and I will reject you.

If by a miracle you manage to access me I will fail to load drop-down menus and other crucial components that you need to successfully access my information.

In fact I will do my utmost to prevent uninsured Americans in the 36 states I serve from purchasing healthcare at competitive rates which is supposed to be my primary purpose.

If eventually I do get going my bureaucratic and administrative costs are going to will spiral out of control.

And I expect I will break down frequently and require much attention and money spent to keep me right.

I will continue to provide a low quality of service at an unbelievably high cost.

So what am I?

Well, if you haven’t guessed already I am “Healthcare.gov” aka the web site for Obamacare!

And the question that all Americans should be asking is, “If the masterminds behind Obamacare can’t even get a simple website up and running, what kind of a mess are they going to make implementing the rest of this act?”

Affordable healthcare is a laudable goal, but this disastrous piece of ill thought out legislation is not the way to achieve it.

Yes we can? No I’m afraid we can’t!