Paris: The City of Light Windy Apples

I just spent a week in Paris, France not Texas.  It was an amazing trip.  I'm broke now (not an update) but it was worth it.  There are so many incredible sights in this city and it's pretty easy to get around.  

Here are the differences between Paris and New York City.  Yes, this is definitive.

-The Subway system is incredible in Paris.  NYC Subway is good but doesn't hold a candle to Paris.  Here's why:

In Paris, the train comes every 4 minutes.  Literally.  Every line, always.  Every 4 minutes.

In NYC, it's easy to get uptown/downtown but getting east/west is often a pain in the an-us.  In Paris, the system is like a spiderweb with stations constantly intersecting.

-Everything is older in Paris.  You can walk by a neighborhood church, poke your head in, and see that it was built in 1648.  Pretty neat.

-They show American shows in Paris and their original tv programming is atrocious.  For episodes of Law & also Order, the add stuff like this: "How do you say...le.....BUM BUM".  Note: this is not true.

-The reputation for Parisians being rude is largely unfounded.  However, there are some times when you are astounded.  Examples:

1) We went to sit down and have a coffee.  There were 14 tables open.  We sat at one.  The waitress eventually comes over and asked us: "Etes-vous ici pour les dejeuner?"  Which means: 'Are you here for lunch?'

We said (in broken French): 'non. soulement pour cafe.'  Which is : 'no. Only for coffee'

The waitress then went on a tirade which we eventually realized was about the fact that we were not allowed to sit where we were sitting, with 13 other open tables, if we were only going to drink coffee.  We were made to move 6 feet to a different table that was not differently marked in any way.  There were no signs indicating this policy and no way of knowing which tables would cause someone to chastise paying customers because of their seating choices.

2) We were looking for a train station called the RER.  We asked a local: 'Ou est le RER station?'  He looked puzzled.  We each took turns trying to say: 'RER' with our best fraccent.  He continued to not understand.  Then finally, he shook his finger at us and said: 'oh...RER (in a fake American doing French accent)...non...'

Then he over-exaggerated the Frenounciation: 'est. EH-RRR-AAA-EH-RRR'.  He then pointed across the street no more than 150 feet from where we were standing.  Really dude?

Still, phenomenal trip.

I'm still really pissed at the bailout.  The thing I think that not enough people are saying (not enough people that can influence the decision anyway) is that the reason this call is being made is because our leaders are scared to tell Americans that we have to change the way we live.  From the top down, over the last 30 years, we've been living over our means.  We've borrowed and spent and borrowed some more.  This isn't just Wall Street, it's everyone.  It's the developers that continued to throw up McMansions, it's banks that frivolously lending, and people borrowing more than they could pay back, it's universities inflating tuition forcing people to borrow some more, it's US car companies refusing to plan for a future, but most of all, it's a lack of willingness to change our life styles.  God forbid anyone (meaning a politician) points the finger at us and says: 'you are living irresponsibly.  And it's time for a change.  We'll all be better off in the long run if you make a few sacrifices now.'  

This can't happen in today's climate.  One thing liberals and conservatives have in common these days is a place to put blame.  Each side has a boogeyman it can point to and say: 'Here's why we're fooked'.  Gone are the days of 'ask not what your country can do for you.'  We'll sit here now as this enormous band aid gets syphoned out of our pockets and pat ourselves on the head and tell ourselves that everything is OK now.  Well it isn't.  In years past, liberals would always want to blame the system for the failings of individuals and conservatives would always choose to blame the individuals, well, right now both sides would be right.

The Bailout is Bullsh*t

This is political I guess.  Sorry, but it's important to me.  Giddyup.

This market bailout by the federal government is good in the short term (as evidenced by the 2 day rebound of stock prices on Wall Street which pretty much erased the losses earlier in the week).  Confidence is back.  Good old Uncle Sam to the rescue.  Here's what it really means:

With the money that you and I (probably you because I'm a poor comic) put into the federal government was used to erase horribly irresponsible fiscal behavior.  This is beyond debate.  Lots of smart folks saw this credit crisis coming years ago, some saw it recently, whatever the case, enough people knew this was coming to have prevented a national and international financial crisis for the US.

Take The Economist, in 2005, they called the housing bubble bursting because it was obvious to them, even then, because people were borrowing beyond their means, lenders were lining up ('when banks compete you win!'  Heard that slogan before?) to toss money at anyone who wanted it, and the market was so inflated, a collapse was imminent.  They also said this would lead to a wave of 'failures'.  Yup.

There are more but this is not an I told you so.  What it really is, at its core, is an old boys club trying to stay on their surfboards as the latest wave lines their pockets, increases their margins, and keeps them rich.  Long term fiscal solvency, once a staple of Wall Street giants like Lehman Brothers, was cashed in long ago.  No one went against the tide.  It's easy to say they should have known better.  Even if I did know better, I am not paid for that knowledge.  There are people who's job it is to predict things like this and if they did predict it, no one listened.

Now, here is why this government bailout is wrong:

-It's corporate welfare.  You know how people complain about 'white collar criminals' serving easy sentences when they stole millions and regular criminals doing hard time because they robbed a grand from one person?  Where here you go.  The giants screw up, we pay.  Note that if said giant recovers and thrives, you and I will never see that money but that's secondary.

-The US has moved away from LBJ's social welfare state.  We're not in the business of saying, 'Hey you screwed up, here are all your losses back and some money to start again'.  It's about risk.  Where are the FDIC bailouts for small businesses and a nearly extinct middle class?  It's silly right?  Guy opens a bar, the bar fails because he charged $.50 per beer, he gets all his money back from the government.  That would never happen right?  

-It's obvious to those of you that are politically oriented that I'm a fiscal conservative.  To that end, I have always believed the greatest factor in economics is consumer confidence.  If people feel like they are getting value, they spend and all is well.  Now in the short term, we've got that with the bailout.  I'd trade the short term high five party for a dependable market long term.  We have literally put a finger in the damn with a 1000 leaks and are calling the problem fixed.  Once we wake up after the weekend, no one can afford to fill up their gas tanks, homes are still being foreclosed at record rates and we're paying more for less.

-Philosophically, I loathe government intervention to make up for irresponsible behavior.  In the same way I hate the idea of someone receiving more welfare for more poor decisions, I hate the idea of Wall Street cronies who've cost the nation billions so they can go back to business as usual, getting bailed out.  This is a slippery slope people.  Alarms should be going off as this happened on a conservative president's watch (albeit that watch was blindfolded, drunk, and locked in a basement with loud sitar music blaring).  

-Here's the last thing I'll say about this.  Confidence and hope are great things.  They really are.  But would you rather build a house of cards or one made of steel that was hard to build?  Right now, we're choosing the card house.  We'd rather people feel good about themselves then do the right thing for the long term health of our country.  I find this step taken by our government to be a slap in the face to the thousands of Americans who are scraping to get by.   The market was crashing and we fixed it... for now.