The Weird Karma of August 2
I look around today and see absolutely no sign of people preparing for the coming apocalypse in 3 days if we don’t raise the debt ceiling, so I suspect no one is buying it.
Today I attended a car wash to raise money for my youth football program, met with one of my youth baseball coaches and I’m about to go to a BBQ and finish off the Sangria I made last week (it’s best after it sits).
Here is what I didn’t do: I didn’t sell my stock. I didn’t move my cash to tangible goods. I didn’t buy copious amounts of fresh water and canned goods. I didn’t fill my oil tank. I’m betting no one else did either. Like the rest of you, I didn’t give one thought to the make believe calamity that isn’t coming August 2 if we don’t raise the debt ceiling.
Now if I were the spooky type I might get a nervous belly simply because the day “August 2” has ushered in some serious changes in history.
Here is a website about August 2, but let me give you some of August 2’s highlights:
*Hitler became the Fuhrer
*There was a heat wave in 1929 (there will be on August 2 2011 too)
*PT 109 was sunk
*Gulf of Tonkin attack on the Maddox
*Iraq invaded Kuwait
*For irony, In 1914 the US loaned the struggling Great Britain $100 million (did we ever get that back?)
Despite the general bad rap of August 2, I’m still not scared.
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Comments :
Oct '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
Yeah, Tommy. It reminds me of Y2K: "Dejavu all over again".
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
Great call!
May '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
The only significance of this date is that it's when August recess is supposed to begin. If you don't have plans for Martha's Vinyard or The Hamptons, it is utterly phony.
Dec '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
My favorite Y2K quote from a friend, "I need to buy a 9mm so I can get ammunition off the dead bodies. No one carries .45s anymore."
Oct '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
During Y2K, every Tom, Dick and Jane in IT was onsite until the wee hours, myself included. At least we had pizza and great munchies, sadly no beer..
Takes ample qualtities of malt just to watch this unfold...
Just why did the US forgive all those war debts anyway ? Never mind, already know the answer even if we had the money...
Nov '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
Shhhhh... you'll cause a run on tuna fish.
Oct '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
Starve the Beast
Shhhhh... you'll cause a run on tuna fish. · Jul 30 at 4:27pm
Shhhh, Hardtack and beef jerky. Trail mix for yuppies....
May '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
"Hitting the iceberg" is a better metaphor than "falling off a cliff." Short sharp decline is more likely than a crash where it's Pleasantville one day and Thunderdome the next. It will occur over a period of a year or so, not at some minute in the early morning hours of August 3, 2011.
We've already hit the iceberg BTW. Nobody has an actual plan to balance the budget, which means that at no point in time will we ever begin to retire our debt, or even stop it from growing.
There won't be a debt "ceiling", more like a debt "incline" where the market will want more and more interest on the money they lend US.
Things will simply get crimpier and crimpier (as the economists say). We'll defer maintenance on our homes longer and longer, we'll wear our clothes longer and buy fewer & cheaper new clothes.
It's maybe 12:15 a.m. on the Titanic. They're still serving caviar in the 1st class dining salon. We're already headed for the bottom. Your task is to try to make sure you have your family on one of the lifeboats.
May '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
Speaking of August. I like the Mark Steyn quote "both political parties are playing croquet on the lawn in August 1914."
May '11
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
Debt crisis? What's that. All I know is UGA starts practice this week. Its fall camp time here in the south. No one is paying attention to anything outside of that.
Nov '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
An obscure effect of this farce is that my Russian friend, Natasha, cannot interview for her visa on 2 Aug, as scheduled.
It's a minor matter in the event, but it's something for me, and something much more for her. "Rule of law, my <donkey>!", she shouted so eloquently over Skype in that perfect English I have inculcated in her. She's out $300 (visa fee) and a vacation with me in California.
Luckily, she's an elder-aged Russian, steeped in Socialist Realism, for whom disappointment is the course of life.
Jan '11
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
There was a short article about France just making the last payment from the loan we gave them after WWII a few months ago. Wasn't part of the Versailles Treaty that Germany had to pay some or all of the war debts incurred by its enemies? I'm meandering at the lazy threshold of being interested enough to ask but not enough to google it for 15 mins...
Oct '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
One has to address the fact that debt forgiveness simply bought allegiance. Cheaper in the long run, Yes ?
Nov '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
No serious skin in the game, then?
Apr '11
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
Yes, life goes on after August 2nd. Isn't there a big birthday bash and fundraiser scheduled the next day?
May '10
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
I'm meeting a bunch of Left Coast Ricoteers for pizza in Palo Alto on 3 August. We'll post live updates, as long as it's not Armageddon.
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
One good thing that happened on August 2nd: most of the signatories signed the Declaration of Independence. (Also my dad was born).
Also Tommy, I'd like your sangria recipe :)
Apr '11
Re: The Weird Karma of August 2
Without reading the other comments, I never even thought to be nervous. At least about August 2. Now the long term consequences is another matter.