More or less.
I am pleased to report that I once again have a reason to put on a tie every day. I’ve signed on with an investment management start-up in Boston. Details are not relevant here, but bottom line is that my thinking hours are now consumed by commercial activity, to the exclusion of, among other amusements, this blog.
Of course, start-ups are fragile things. For all I know I’ll be back here by summer. Either way, I’m going to keep paying the (very small) fees involved in keeping this site up for those who find my old posts worth reading. Google still sends a steady stream of readers this way on daily basis so I guess some of you must still find this stuff of use.
Once again, to all my readers, loyal and otherwise, a heartfelt thanks for allowing a curmudgeon to ramble on a bit.
[Photo: Asa Wilson]
[This Thursday Re-Run first ran November 4, 2009.]
There is a movement amongst earnest policy wonks that might be called Nanny State Light. It’s a compromise position between full-on centrally planned we-know-what’s-best-for-you 
control and you’re-on-your-own-kid libertarianism.
The idea is that instead of making people do the right thing or hoping that they do what’s best on their own, you give them a little nudge and hint in the right direction. This is, I am told, the topic of a clever and popular book, Nudge, which I haven’t yet gotten around to reading. (But I bought a copy a few weeks ago. That’s something, isn’t it?)
The latest scheme along these lines to hit the media is in today’s Wall Street Journal. Apparently, all we need to do to get people to save more money is to send them a text message reminding them to save more money.
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[This Thursday Re-Run is from November 20, 2009. I’ve updated the dates to fit with 2010.]
We are coming up on what we Americans call the Holiday Season. And it is a season: not just one holiday, but a joyous period in which every day is special. A few of those days don’t have names yet, but I am sure that in time that gap in our culture will be filled. Here’s a rundown of the next week or so.
The traditional fun begins with Travel Nightmare Wednesday. Observed the day before the last Thursday in November, this holiday is celebrated around the nation by crowding into planes and spending quality time with loved ones inside cars crawling along interstates.
Then comes Thanksgiving, when we solemnly thank the Almighty for football and giant balloons in the shape of cartoon characters. Some families also give thanks that once again they deep fried the turkey without burning the house down.
Things pick up a bit with Black Friday, a holiday that celebrates the simple pleasures of buying stuff. Traditionally, it is observed by talking about how everybody else is going to the mall that day and recounting how it is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. It is not, nor has it ever been. That honor usually goes to Most Busy Saturday, which falls this year on December 18th.
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Sorry. You have probably noticed that I’ve been failing to post on my usual schedule lately. Non-blog life is once again rearing its ugly head in a higher-priority way.
For the next few weeks, likely through the holidays, I will be engaged in another of my quixotic efforts at attaining actual employment. Everybody keep fingers crossed.
So, once again, I am officially declaring a Bad Money Advice hiatus. And, once again, let me take this opportunity to thank all the members of my ego-boosting cult-like following. Please try and notice that I am not around.
Normally, this is the time of year that money advisors and gurus trot out the old canned advice on end-of-year tax planning. Not this year. This year we are all just too confused.
Generally, we can do little things in November and December to slightly lower our tax bill because, generally, we can predict what the tax rates will be in January. Not this time. Congress managed to adjourn for the elections without doing anything at all about the expiring Bush tax cuts, and when they 
reconvene for the lamest of lame duck sessions today I do not foresee a sudden clarity of purpose.
Could there have been any larger indication that the Democrats were in very serious trouble than that they passed up an opportunity to enact tax cuts a few weeks before an election? Yes, there were (and are) differences of opinion on what bits of the Bush cuts should be extended, but those differences ought to have been bridgeable. Instead, the Democrats became frozen in fear and indecision, petrified (and not entirely without reason) that any legislation they passed, whatever the particulars, would cost votes.
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admin | Frank Curmudgeon | 
February 12, 2011 3:59 pm | 
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