I wanted to give you a sneak peek at something we’re really excited about! Over the coming months we (primarily Nicole) are going to be hard at work on this great new project, codenamed “Number Three.”
We intend to largely keep it under wraps until launch, but we’ll nevertheless try and keep you updated on our progress. For now, you’ll have to content yourselves with this conceptual art. (It’s been magnified 4x so you can better appreciate the many details already in place.)
We don’t have a launch date finalized, but marks your calendars for a June ‘09 release!
October 15th, 2008
Tags: Blog Action Day 2008, economy, give to the poor, it's not your money, Jesus said it first, money, parable, poverty, sell your possessions, you're merely the steward of Gondor after all.
There was this successful businessman, okay? He was raking in the dough, and he was all like, “What am I gonna do with all of this? It’s not like I can cram it all under my mattress.”
So he talked to his financial advisers, and decided, “I’ll max out my 401(k), flip some real estate, buy up a bunch of tech stocks and live off the dividends. I’ll be all set, and I can retire before I’m fifty! See the world… maybe spend a year or two relaxing in Paris. I’m set for life.”
But God had other ideas: that same week the economy tanked, taking all the man’s investments with it. He died over the weekend of a massive stress-induced heart attack.
“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
So here’s the deal: don’t worry about “taking care of yourself.” God’s been taking care of the rest of the world for a while now, and frankly, he’s way better at it than you are. There’s all sorts of idiots scurrying around chasing after things they have no real control over.
Don’t be like them, they’re stupid.
Instead, chase after God’s kingdom and trust him to take care of that other stuff. He’s happy to do it, too! So don’t freak out; sell all of that crap you’ve been holding onto, then take that money and give it to people who are worse off than you. That’s how you chase after God’s kingdom, and it’s the only investment that’s a sure thing.
See, you’re like a manager who’s been put in charge of payroll: you’ve been given access to large sums of money, but don’t let that delude you into thinking the money’s for you, because it’s not. What would the boss say if he found out that while he was on vacation, that manager withheld everybody else’s paychecks and gave himself a hefty bonus? Do you think he’d even be given time to clear out his desk?
Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
October 7th, 2008
Tags: #ifelected, 1873, bailout, depression, economy, hashtag, Lew Rockwell, Ludwig von Mises, mortgage, Politics, recession, twitter.
If you’re on Twitter, post your answer there and include the #ifelected hashtag. I’ve got a few in there already, but it’d be more fun if somebody else was playing with me! Make it funny, serious and/or insightful… just don’t be bland. (And make sure you’re following hashtag on Twitter if you want yours included in their index.)
Anybody who’s trying to get a handle on the current economic free-for-all should check out The Real Great Depression, which does a great job explaining how the depression of 1873 mostly happened because too many banks approved too many bad mortgages in the commercial real estate sector, and so it’s a better analog to what we’re seeing today.
More generally, the Ludwig von Mises Institute put together a collection of articles to help you understand the bailout and everything related to it (Freddie Mac, short-selling, etc.). Lew Rockwell put together a similar collection of “I told you so” articles.
I swear this looks like the perfect prop for a Dr. Horrible story:
My favorites, though, were all the “when flashing” signs we drove past. Nicole wasn’t, so I was pretty confident that we could just dismiss them all. 
