The Steussy Ranch

Mom wins! And is leading the pack for the year as well.

Saturday was Aaron’s First Birthday Party. We all had a great time. Thanks to everyone who came!

Video is available by clicking here: (more…)

Current score:

• Our mortgage is now owned by the government (Freddie Mac)
• Our life insurance is now owned by the government (AIG)
• Our bank has been seized by federal regulators (Washington Mutual)

Also, our local US Congressman, Darryl Issa, is one of the dinosaurs preventing passage of any form of Rescue Plan. No, not just nit-picking the Paulson Plan. He doesn’t want government money going to Wall Street at all.

Please note: for normal day-to-day life, these changes don’t effect us at all.

From the front cover story this week, on the political fireball of Paulson’s Rescue Plan:

You are lavishing money on the people who got you into this mess. Sensible intervention cannot even buy long-term relief: the plan cannot stop house prices falling and the bloated financial sector shrinking. Although the economic risk is that the plan fails, the political risk is that the plan succeeds. Voters will scarcely notice a depression that never happened. But even as they lose their houses and their jobs, they will see Wall Street once again making millions.

His birthday is actually Saturday, but we just got these. These are his formal baby portraits. Current status:

• 8 teeth
• Standing for brief moments on his own
• “Mama”, “Papa” clearly spoken and understood
• “Tej” (Hungarian for milk) is the next most clear word in his vocabulary
• Very cute

Well, I spent about three hours this morning listening and watching the Congressional Hearings on the Paulson plan. Quite interesting. It’s clear that everyone is rattled, particularly Paulson. There have been several negative reviews of the plan (see here and here), which seemed spot on to me.

I’m generally positive in my long-term outlook. The American economy churns out better educated college graduates and post-graduates than anyone else, as well as having the world’s most fertile ground for entrepreneurs. I know. I’ve started businesses in four countries now, depending on how you count, and it was far easier and far more profitable here. We might still be hit by falling asset prices and other calamities, but things will turn out OK. Even better than that.

Personally, after watching the clash of interests this morning, my intuition is that the final solution to all of this is going to be a bout of extreme inflation, which will devalue the current loan structures to the point where they don’t matter much compared to current income. Small investor solution? Same as always in an inflationary market: real estate and commodities.

But don’t listen to me. My success in investments speaks for itself.

You know its been busy here when you get back-to-back NFL postings. I was traveling on business and Gabi was sick for a couple of days, so that takes time out of the schedule.

Congratulations to Mom on her win this week! And Gabi takes first place in the Year Totals. Clearly I have to work harder here.

Yesterday, we went to Los Angeles to visit Marv, my old business buddy from my publishing days, and Cousin Alex in her new digs at Occidental College. The photo above was taken by Dan-dan (!). No, I did not crop or change any of it. This is the raw photo as he took it.

Alex took us to the top of a hill in the middle of campus to see the surrounding area. She’s just been here for two weeks now, so she’s still getting everything together here.

Marv is looking much better today than he did when we left for Hungary eight months ago. We saw him and Brenda, shared some pizza with them and caught up with the events of the last few months.

On returning home, I found that DirecTV had refused to record my football games due to an un-advertised package that will add $100 to their total bill. I’m very unhappy with their service so far. It has taken lots of my time on the phone to try and get the service they offered to me in the first place, and it is turning out to be quite a bit more expensive than advertised.