WORLD: 2013 Centennials We are Celebrating!

The Gettysberg Address by Abraham Lincoln

150 Years Ago Today - Nov. 19, 1863

[Okay, its a Centennial and a half!]. Considered one of the greatest speechs of all time. There were 5 separate copies of the speech written in Lincoln's own hand. Each differ somewhat and you can read and see the 5 different copies here.

Above: one of the original copies of the Gettysberg Address in Lincoln's own handwriting. This is the "Hay" copy and is considered to be the 2nd draft of the Address, so it differs somewhat from the final version.

HALLOWEEN 2013: Final Damage Report!

*****October 31, 2013 Last Halloween Update! We came down to El Segundo for Rick and Brian's annual Haunted House with the theme "All Clowns, All the Time". We were joined by our friends Dan and Paula, Nancy, and Barni, as well as our son Andrew. Rick, Brian and crew once again did a great job on the House, and I believe we pulled in about a 1,000 people going through. Some photos to commemorate the night. Hope you can join us next year and have some fun! Click on photos below to enlarge.

Above: Cast of Actors that provided the scares inside the Clown House. Note that Sue would appear to be out of costume, because she was a chair (yes, a chair!).

Above: Brian, Rick, Laura in amazing costumes!

NATION: Red Tape for Private Businesses Only...

...Because Those Regs are Too Burdensome for Government!

Introduction: Our employment law firm represents businesses, and not plaintiff's or government entities. Over the years, we have observed that our government at all levels passes laws that do NOT apply to them, but ONLY to private employers. Their reasoning? The regulations are too burdensome for them! Shocking? Hardly. 

Note that I am NOT making the case that these regulations are good or bad. That will vary from case to case. However, I believe that in most cases, the onerous regulations are bad.  After all, if they were good, wouldn't the government adopt the regs for themselves? I am simply pointing out the disparity under which public and private entities operate.

I will compile some examples to try and convince that this inequity exists. Read on, taxpayers...

*****Example (October 2013) Do NOT Pay Congress During ANY Shutdown: Congress (the House and the Senate) should NOT get paid during any government shutdown. Furthermore, they should NOT get backpay once the federal government is back in operation. I think this may end government shutdowns?

*****Example (October 2013) Congress Should Complete Their Own Tax Returns: Congress Should Complete Their Own Tax Returns: Make them go into a room (with food, drinks, and bathrooms) and not let them come out until they have completed their own IRS Federal and State Tax Returns. Let them only get help from online IRS websites and IRS help lines (no special lines for Congress). Tax returns have gotten so complicated, due to the new and confusing tax laws that get enacted every year. If Congress had to do their own, I believe that we'd find tax simplification legislation gets passed quickly. Instead, each year it gets more complicated, and the people have to suffer, through our hopelessly complicated tax code.

*****Example (August 2013) Congress's ObamaCare Exemption: First, the White House  ignored ObamaCare by suspending the employer mandate for a full year, delaying the employer mandate from going into effect on Jan. 1, 2014. Instead, the mandate kicks in on Jan. 1, 2015. How can they take the concrete "effective dates" and change them? They just do, because they just can.

Now we have Congress's ObamaCare Exemption. The Affordable Care Act requires Members of Congress and their staffs to participate in the health insurance exchanges. The reason? to gain firsthand experience with what they have imposed on their constituents. All good so far.

This amendment requiring Congress to participate in ObamaCare was passed in 2009 and the Finance Committee unanimously passed this rule. The chairman of the committee was pleased that Congress had so much confidence in ObamaCare that they are going to participate in it themselves! Still good so far.

Then they found out what they signed up for: A health insurance program for the unwashed masses (that's us, folks). Horrified that they were actually going to have to wallow around in the dirt with rest of us, they realized that this situation could not stand. A fix was needed to elevate themselves above the lowly taxpayer. Thus, another (illegal?) exception to ObamaCare was carved out, this time for themselves and their staffs.

The bottom line: Congress and their staffs will receive (illegal?) extra payments from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) that will run between $5,000 and $10,000 per  person or family. Will we get these same perks? Not in your wildest dreams! Its good to be the King! Read more here. FactCheck.org seems to say otherwise, but the claim here is that Congress will receive extra payments from FEHBP to compensate for additional costs associated with being enrolled in ObamaCare - something that FactCheck.org does not address. This may have to play out a little longer for us to find out what is really going on - if we ever do. Read what FactCheck.org says on this subject here. Look for an update here once we find out more. Stay tuned.

*****Example (July 2013) Detroit Bankruptcy Pensions: The city of Detroit is going through a bankruptcy situation, due primarily to generous pension benefits awarded to city workers in the 1980's. Much of this generosity was tied to overly optimistic forecasts regarding investment gains for pension funds. The city can no longer afford to fund their pension system.

The problem is that public pensions lack the basic safety nets that private sector benefits "enjoy". Pensions granted by private employers are insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. and regulated by federal law. Note that employers pay an insurance premium for this coverage - it is NOT free. Public pensions, on the other hand, are not entangled by such burdensome pension regulation.

You can read more about this in an article from July 19, 2013 in the Wall Street Journal. Good luck, Detroit!

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PERSONAL: Tim's Investment Page

DISCLAIMER: 

If you use any advice from this page, 

then you get whatever you deserve!

No sage advice here - just some interesting investment notes. Hey kids, get yourself an education in investing - it'll pay off for a lifetime. In the meantime, boring pages like this one deserve a beautiful photo like this one (2 kayakers at Morro Bay at Sunset, taken 10/6/2013 at the Harbor Festival in Morro Bay):

I'll start with a financial saying stolen from the "From the Mind of WAAG" page (yes, some things do overlap):

Others-13: You make your best investments (buys) when people are overwhelmingly fearful. (Another version of this is"Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful". Here's an article on the subject: Buffett's Crisis-Lending Haul Reaches $10 Billion. This statement is commonly and frequently attributed to Warren Buffet, the "Oracle of Omaha", considered to be the best investor of our times. Its another version of "buy low, sell high". When others are fearful, that is when you make the best deals, if you have the guts to do so. During the market crash of 2007-2008, we had cash to invest, but were fearful and did not, finding security in our cash - while all of our investments except Gold (GLD) were tanking. If we had followed the Oracle's sage advice, we'd be in a better financial place today. Alas, we felt that being able to sleep at night was a better option at the time).

TW5: Nobody will ever care more about your money than you do. Up until 1997, I used a full service brokerage to manage my puny investments. How naive. A tiny account like mine would NEVER get the attention it deserved. So just a year before we opened our business, www.Waag and Co.com, I educated myself about investments and never looked back. I have not consulted an investment advisor since then, and if not massively successful, I at least understand what is happening with our hard-earned savings, and am comfortable making decisions about them.

I've just started with these, but as I recall my lifelong financial wisdom, those things will show up here.

REVERSION TO THE MEAN (10/8/2013): The best way to predict market bubbles. Its the financial version of "whatever goes up, must come down". It means that over time, things that have become overvalued will eventually revert back to their traditional value. Commonly used in stocks in reference to market P/E's, or Price to Earnings ratio for a given stock, or in the case of the stocket market, the market-cap weighted P/E.

TIPS (10/8/2013): Inflation protected bonds, issued by our very own US government. Never invested in TIPS and glad that I didn't. I like to keep things simply, and was never fully comfortable with what they would do for me in the event of inflation, and more importantly, what they would do for me if there was no inflation. Well, between 1/1/2013 and 9/30/2013, TIPS returned negative 6.3%. Warren Buffet always said that you should never invest in something you don't understand, and I'm glad that I didn't! Inflation is nowhere in sight.

BOB BRINKER'S MARKET TIMER (10/8/2013): I have been a subscriber for more than 15 years, and appreciate his measured advice on investing.

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PERSONAL: The waterman has fallen, the wave continues on (Part III)

Good luck to all the Scuba Divers out there this opening week trying to grab some early season bugs. Stay safe! (don't do anything too stupid! :-)

Dive N' Surf (Redondo Beach, California) held their 37th Annual Lobster Mobster Contest on September 27th, 2013 between Midnight and 9am. I was not a participant this year, as I was out lobster diving in the Northern Channel Islands. However, I still want to share the art for the official Lobster Mobster T-shirt, as it is kind of a final memorial to Bill and Bob Meistrell, founders of Dive N' Surf in 1953 and Body Glove in 1965. The art for the T-shirt was derived from this early photo of Bob and Bill's lobster catch:

NATION: Live Within Your Means and There is No Shutdown!

What does the Tea Party Stand For? I found this website on the Tea Party Platform, which is summarized below.

The Tea Party Movement is an all-inclusive American grassroots movement with the belief that everyone is created equal and deserves an equal opportunity to thrive in these United States where they may “pursue life, liberty and happiness” as stated in the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. No one is excluded from participation in the Tea Party Movement. Everyone is welcomed to join in seeking to achieve the Tea Party Movement goals, which are as follows:

1. Eliminate Excessive Taxes
2. Eliminate the National Debt
3. Eliminate Deficit Spending
4. Protect Free Markets
5. Abide by the Constitution of the United States
6. Promote Civic Responsibility
7. Reduce the Overall Size of Government
8. Believe in the People
9. Avoid the Pitfalls of Politics 
10. Maintain Local Independence

I am an independent, moderate conservative, but support the above goals of the Tea Party and do not believe that they are a close-minded, racist group of bigots (as they are most often portrayed in the media.

No Federal Government Shutdown: If the spendthrifts in Washington DC only spent what they took in taxes, there would be no extension of the debt ceiling, and thus no government shutdown! Hey Congress and Obama - spend within your means and the government continues to run - ever think about that?

Federal Employees Get Paid to Not Work: During the shutdown, Congress and the President get paid, while 800,000 federal workers do not! This is an outrageous practice and should end immediately. Also, while the workers are furloughed, they do not work and do not get paid. However, after the government is back up and running, Congress will enact legislation to pay those 800,000 for the time they did not work, thus turning this shut-down (once again) into paid vacation. This too should stop.

 Reference: This article shows the federal government deficits and surpluses between 1940 and 2013. It includes the deficit in current dollars of that year, as well as inflation-adjusted dollars of today. You should read that article before continuing with this one.

Teach your children well: We taught our children to live within their means, as well as to save 10 to 15% of everything they make in their entire lives, no matter how little they make. If you save it, you'll never know what you are missing. We believe this to be wise advice. Its even good advice for all government entities (federal, state and local). In fact, it applies even more so for to our government, because they are spending someone else's money (i.e., the taxpayer's hard-earned money).

Upcoming Federal Borrowing Cap Limit: In mid-November 2013, we are forecast to hit our $16,700,000,000,000 federal budget cap. Congress must give its approval in order to increase this borrowing limit, thus creating (yet another) budget showdown between the D's and the R's. The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) is forecasting a federal budget deficit of somewhere around $700,000,000,000 for the current federal fiscal year ending September 30, 2013.

CBO reports that federal health care (mainly Medicare) and retirement programs (mainly Social Security) are overwhelming the budget. This will harm the economy in coming decades unless measures are taken now to get it under control. It will overwhelm our children and grandchildren, as they will be the ones that have to pay it back. Yet, "living within their means" will never happen because politicians like to have fun spending the taxpayer's money, instead of being miserly and saving it. 

Ultimately, it is the people's fault because we elect these politicians. Since we have now passed a threshold where more than half of all people in America receive government aid, voters will, IMHO, be increasingly likely to vote for politicians that will ensure that the government help checks continue. Eventually, logically, the system will collapse. Hopefully, I will be dead by then, but it is likely that my children will still alive to bear the brunt of my generation's burdens. Sorry boys. Time will tell.

Yes, another boring topic - budget deficits - I realize that. Sometimes boring can also be important, as in this case. Think about our future. Do the right thing. Somebody. Anybody.

The New York times has a bunch of articles on the upcoming debt ceiling battle. None of them talk about how the federal government should live within their means (i.e., spend only what you take in, and don't borrow). Here's an article that contemplates what it would be like if we managed your family's budget like our government manages their budget. Truly pathetic.

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PERSONAL: The waterman has fallen, the wave continues on (Part II)

Bob Meistrell's paddle-out and memorial service took place in Redondo Beach, California on 9/15/2013. Read this excellent article that covered the event: 1,000 Surfers Take To the Water To Honor Surf Legend Bob Meistrell as well as this article from the Easy Reader.

Sue and I were there to pay our respects to one of the legends of the diving and surfing world. But more than that, Bob was a person who always had time for the "little people" like us. He always had a smile on his face, and words of encouragement. Thanks Bob (and the entire Meistrell family) and also to Ricky and Scott, for creating the opportunity for me to become a Scuba instructor at Dive N' Surf. It was an amazing dream come true for me. I never thought I had it in me, but they sure did, and they were right!

My Dad, Bob Waag, got certified at Dive N' Surf some time early in the 1960's, and I was proud to be teaching divers at that same location where he learned to dive.

Below: Some photos from the paddle out and memorial (click to enlarge). Thanks to our friends Tom and Jill for sharing this important event with us, and letting us crash at their place in Hermosa Beach!

Above: I brought a flower from twin brother Bill's 2006 paddle out. I swam out with it and gave it to his son, Billie, who said he had not saved one from his Dad's memorial and would keep it forever. That was an awesome moment for me. I knew Billie from my days at Dive N' Surf, though I'm sure he doesn't remember me!