Bill Roper's Journal

Without further comment, I pass along a link to the excellent economics writer, Megan McArdle, who is discussing why Net Operating Loss Carryforwards and Carrybacks are a good feature of the tax code. (Ok, one comment. Hint: income averaging.)

And for those who don't care about economics and fairness (or those who do and aren't bored yet), a second link where she discusses strategies for dining out with a partner. Because even if we can't stomach the current election, we probably still have stomachs...

The catalytic converter for the warranty work on our Chrysler Town and Country finally came in at the dealership, a bit more than a month later than they said that it would and around two months from the time when we originally took it in. We dropped it off last night after hours so we could pick it up today.

daisy_knotwise noted that the service department hours had been cut way back, so we'd have to make sure to pick it up before 5 PM. When we got there, she sent me the cashier in the showroom to pick up the keys while she moved Katie, Julie, and the odd car seat back to the van.

It turns out that the dealership is open from 8-5, Monday through Friday. Closed on Saturday. Closed by law on Sunday. There were three cars on the showroom floor and darned little inventory outside. One person sitting in the center of the deserted showroom ignoring everything, including me. Nobody sitting at the cashier's window, although someone showed up eventually.

I'm thinking they're not actually selling any cars. Which is not overly surprising, given where we are in the model year and the state of the economy and of Chrysler.

I wonder how long they're going to stay open. Right now, it just looks like they might decide to be a dealership again someday.

Maybe.

Well, the Dow Jones has just dropped 10% across the last two days following the election. I heard the financial reporter on WBBM-AM this morning saying that it was because people thought that Obama would not be in office soon enough to implement his economic plan. Now, that's fascinating logic. I could equally easily say that it's because the markets recognize that Obama will soon be in office to implement his economic plan which has included things like raising the capital gains tax rate in the interest of fairness, regardless of its impact on government revenues. (That may or may not be part of his economic plan now, as these things are subject to change.)

But that would be equally specious reasoning. In the short run, it's not necessarily easy to figure out why the market is doing a particular thing, only that it is doing it and that it reflects some belief that the value of the shares traded is either higher or lower than it was before. And you need to recognize that there is a buyer and a seller in each of these transactions, so for everyone who is deciding to sell a share at a given price, there's someone else who is willing to buy it.
( So let's talk a bit about markets, risk, and return... )