An Open Letter to Tribune, Inc. Regarding the DirecTV Dispute

Dear Tribune, Inc.:

I can appreciate that you and DirecTV are having a bit of a spat over carriage fees, and I won’t pretend to know the ins and outs of what a fair price for carriage rights might be.   Heck, I probably wouldn’t care except my wife likes Bones and American Idol.  Personally, I find almost no value in television these days.

However, as you and DirecTV continue to throw your mutual temper-tantrums, and as you get your other local media outlet, the Hartford Courant, to portray you as the injured party and DirecTV as the bad guy without disclosing your ownership of the Courant, I feel obliged to mention something:

In my efforts to at least act like a good husband, I have hooked up the rabbit ears to my wife’s TV.  However, I have made a point to “forget” to program in the two stations you own in the local market.  Instead, we will be watching the Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate from Springfield.  If you wish to inconvenience viewers by limiting how they can access your programming, I trust you will understand if at least a few viewers will seek out your competitors to work around such a limitation.

Sincerely,

MikeTheActuary

On the S&P Downgrade and Blame

I realize that it’s very rare for me to post on this blog anymore, as my extracurricular activities have shifted to being focused primarily on amateur radio, but news of the US’s credit downgrade and the resultant frenzy by the punditocracy oblige me to speak up.

1. Regarding the downgrade itself, I think S&P’s criticisms are spot on. However, I do question whether S&P has strayed from evaluating credit risk to evaluating the national economy. After all, if the federal government had absolutely no other option available, it could simply print more money to make the payments.

Granted, doing that would be even more catastrophic to the economy than a one-position downgrade, but it is an option.

I’ve often wondered how much of the work done by entities like S&P is art, rather than science. Recent events have me shifting the needle more towards the art side of the gauge I’m afraid.

2. As to who’s fault the downgrade is, I have a novel idea: Rather than pointing fingers at political parties or individual politicians, perhaps we the people should be looking in mirrors and pointing fingers at ourselves.

It’s We The People who elected the current crop of politicians, who seem to have a chronic inability to do anything other than posture for political benefit.

It’s We The People who consume sensationalized media, creating demand for “news” stories that thrive on strife, soundbites, junk science, and the inability to appreciate that reality has multiple grey dimensions instead of the flat, two dimensional black-and-white fiction portrayed in the media.

And it’s We The People who want our cushy services (be they welfare programs, shiny military toys, or government contracts for particular industries) without having to pay for them or otherwise experience inconvenience.

When a society shifts from the balance of realism to unstable, unrealistic chaos, the results will be messy and unfortunate.

If, as a society, we have truly lost the ability to assume personal responsibility for our messes, a federal credit downgrade is probably the least of our problems.

US Debt Ceiling Thought Du Jour

So, apparently the Financial Times has run an article discussing the consequences of a ratings downgrade if the U.S. defaults on an interest payment as a result of Congress’ inability to reach a compromise on how to manage the national debt.

The article reports that the increase in interest rates will likely lead to immediate drop in the market value of bonds in investors’ portfolios to the tune of up to $100 billion, and that the U.S. can expect to be liable for $2-$4 billion annually in additional interest payments on the national debt.

Despite what it will sound like further on in this post, if finger-pointing must be done, both donkeys and elephants deserve blame for the mess, as does the American public in general for re-electing these jokers every 2 or 6 years.

I respect the efforts of the GOP to stick to their guns on their insistence that the federal government rein in its spending to sustainable levels. As someone who’s not a fan of taxes, I appreciate their efforts to take federal revenue increases off the negotiation table.

However, there is a time to fight for ideals, and there is a time to be practical. Practicality and realism are called for when fighting for your ideals is on track to be counter-productive.

In this case, protecting investors from tax hikes leading to a $100b decline in the value of investors’ portfolios, as well as the fight to cut spending leading to additional multi-billion dollar annual obligations both seem…well, dumb.

I admit there is plenty in politics that seems dumb when viewed from outside the Beltway, but perhaps this is a time when our legislators ought to quit wallowing in idiocy and find a way to make things work?

Photo du Jour

Did you ever wonder where you would be taken if you used the wrong cover page on that certain report?

Ham Radio Blog Started

On the off chance that anyone is reading: in the past couple of months, I’ve been bitten by the amateur radio bug.  Rather than clutter up this blog with ham radio posts, I’ve started another blog to contain that material: ab1od.wordpress.com .

This blog will remain “active”, such as it is, for non-ham subject matter.

Question for the Day

After having gotten the tractor/snowthrower stuck in a plow drift at the end of the driveway this morning, I feel obliged to ask:  Why must the insurance industry be so heavily concentrated in the snow belt?

You’d think that with all the premiums we collect, we could afford to move the insurance capital of the country someplace warmer.

I think the next time there’s a regional actuarial meeting, I will have to formally propose that we re-headquarters our companies in Las Vegas, a much less frigid locale where other local industries are well-suited to the nature of our profession.

I’m Apparently a Criminal!

The lede from a news story at WTVY (CBS affiliate in Dothan, Alabama:

Okaloosa County investigators say a poaching investigation resulted in the bust of a math lab.

It’s a sad, sad day when one can get in trouble with the law for doing math.

The story was actually about the discovery and closure of a methamphetamine production facility…but it was the phrase “math lab” that really caught my attention.

I guess it’s a media strategy for a new decade – reel in readers/viewers through attention-grabbing typos.