the tindog coffeehouse

So the $700,000,000,000 bailout plan pushed by the Bush administration and tweaked by Congress over the weekend failed to make it out of the House, and everyone is scratching their heads, wondering, “Now what?”

Well, it seems a Dallas Morning News reader has a simple idea: Give every legal American resident a check for $1 million.

With a population of about 300 million people, that comes to about $300 billion total, less than half of what Congress was proposing to spend. Trim it down to $1 million per household (still fine by me!), and that number drops even further.

Brilliant!

Time again for another amazingly accurate prediction (also known as a wild guess) for this week’s Texas Longhorns football game, courtesy of NCAA Football 09 for the Nintendo Wii.

Past predictions have been so-so, with last week’s real score a whopping 18 combined points different from the Wii prediction. (Hey, I never said this was a perfect system.)

Anyway, this week the Arkansas Razorbacks come to town, still sore from getting their pork pulled last week by Alabama. On paper, tomorrow’s game should be no different. After all, this Arkansas team has struggled all season, and don’t think for one minute the Horns have forgotten what happened the last time the Hogs came to Austin.

Still, after seeing Oregon State take down #1 USC on Thursday night, it’s important to remember that nothing can be taken for granted anymore in NCAA 1-A football. The Wii, in all it’s electronic wisdom, must understand that because this week it’s predicting a painfully close score of 24-21, Texas.

Let’s hope I’m way off, ’cause I’m smellin’ bacon!

Hook ‘Em, Horns!

Real Score: 52-10. Whoa. Not even close. Maybe the Wii thought I was playing Ole Miss vs. Florida.

Is it OK to “let” your kids win? Last night my 5-year-old daughter Erin and I played a board game, and I won. Immediately she began crying because I didn’t let her win. I offered to play again, telling her she might win this time, but she wasn’t having any of it.

I’m reminded of that scenario this morning as I read about the federal government’s $700,000,000,000 (let those zeroes sink in for a second) plan to bailout the financial sector. Under the hastily proposed plan by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the federal government would buy up a bunch of bad assets from banks in order to keep them from having to suffer the consequences of their actions.

But should it?

The Bush administration says that it’s necessary in order to end the financial crisis we’re in, but there’s no guarantee that the plan will work. But even beyond the question of the plan’s efficacy is the question of whether we should be letting these financial institutions off the hook in the first place.

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Microsoft is finally getting around to responding to Apple’s “I’m a Mac” ads by releasing a series of ads showing various people, including a few celebrities, proclaiming that they’re a PC. The idea is to combat the negative stereotype of Windows and its users propagated by the Apple ads.

With other marketing efforts such as the Mojave Experiment falling flat, it was a smart move on Microsoft’s part to take direct aim at Apple. After all, the Windows/Mac debate has always been about culture and stereotypes rather than about the actual quality of the products.

As well-orchestrated as the ads may be, however, I don’t think they’ll be enough.

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After having a soggy weekend off from Texas Longhorn football, I’m back with my weekly prediction for the game, courtesy of NCAA Football 09 for the Wii. Previous weeks have yielded fairly close prognostications, so I’m eager to see if the trend continues.

This week, the Horns host the Rice Owls at home, and the Wii predicts the final score to be Texas 62, Rice 18.

No doubt the Longhorns will dominate this game, especially on offense, and after having to deal with the ravages of Hurricane Ike this past week, you kinda have to feel sorry for the Owls. Kinda.

Last weekend it was Hurricane Ike. This weekend get ready to meet Hurricane Mack.

Hook ‘Em, Horns!

Real Score: 52-10. Sorta close. Give each time another touchdown and throw in a field goal for Texas, and you’re there!

David Saied, a former SEC commissioner for the Republic of Panama, has written a sobering article on six commonly-believed American economic myths.

Number 4 on the list seems particularly relevant this morning, with news of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America:

Consumption is indeed important in a free economy: particularly the freedom of consumers to buy their goods in unhampered markets. However, key to long-term economic growth is investment (savings), which is the opposite of consumption. Public policies that promote consumption — such as low interest rates — do so at the expense of savings. Less savings means less investments; an economy that does not save or invest will consume all of its resources and eventually end up bankrupt.

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