Secondhand, the price is right

What can you buy second hand? Ans: Lots of stuff. Nice cars. Used Detroit up scale cars (Caddy, Buick, Lincoln, Ford) can be had for very good prices, far less than the cheapest new econobox. They are well built, parts are widely available, and gas mileage is very good. I'm getting 27 mpg highway out of a Caddy Deville. Used Japanese and German cars are not as good a deal as Detroit iron. The cars are fine but the price is higher.
Tools, hand and power. Old stationary power tools, the cast iron kind, are better than brand new Chiwanese sheet metal jobs. I've picked up hand saws, socket sets, chain saws, weed wackers, files, a Yankee screwdriver, a Fluke digital multimeter, and turning chisels. Exception, used battery powered tools most often have dead batteries and battery replacement is nearly as costly as buying a whole new tool.
Housewares, drinking glasses, decorative copper bowls, brass candle sticks, table lamps, electric pencil sharpeners, bowls and plates and mugs. All look as good as new after washing and polishing.
Clothes. A little looking on the racks at thrift stores turn up plenty of LL Bean, Arrow, Woolrich, and other top name shirts. Plus outerwear, children's clothing, chinos, and blue jeans.
Electronics, stereo receivers, speakers, VCR's, tape decks, computers.
Second hand stuff is a quarter of new pricing. If you are on a budget, and who isn't, you can stretch the dollars a long way. Plus, the stuff looks good and no one will know.

Greece, down the slippery slope

In case you haven't noticed, Greece is slowly going bankrupt. Greek government expenditures far exceed tax revenues. Greek politics will not allow spending cuts or tax hikes. The country is staying afloat by borrowing money.
Couple of questions. First off, who in their right mind would loan money to Greece, no matter how high the interest rate? The chances of Greek default, followed by social and political chaos are serious. The chances of getting your loan paid back are poor.
Well, the lenders are taking out bond insurance, "credit default swaps" is the Wall St code word. The insurers, in return for a juicy fee, guarantee to repay the Greek loans if the Greeks default. Question. Can the insurers pay off when the Greeks default? If not, are they expecting a bailout from Uncle Sam? Are the insurers of sound mind? The chances of default are high, the Wall St Journal financial page has talked of little else for weeks. The other Europeans have made it clear that they won't bail out Greece.
The Obama administration ought to make it perfectly clear to Wall St that any firm issuing, buying, or holding Greek "credit default swaps" will NOT get a bailout. It will be tough on Greece, but it is pretty clear that the Greeks won't clean up their act until they run out of money. It's a poor use of valuable capital to prop up a government that is living far beyond its means.

And the third winter storm warning fizzles

They forecast 8 to 12 inches for the White Mountains yesterday. We got zip for snow and a lot of rain. Then the wind picked up and howled around the house. The lights went out at 10PM and didn't come back on til 5 AM. House stayed warm enough with the furnace out. It didn't get cold enough to make me get up and start the fire.

The Health Care Circus

Fox, to its credit, carried most of Obama's circus live. Surprisingly, Cspan did not, or at least not on the two Cspan channels I can get. The pols put on a pretty good show. This was a public relations effort, both sides were talking to the TV audience, not to each other. No agreements on anything were reached, at least not in front of the TV cameras.
The PR effort was a Mexican standoff. The Republicans stuck with their position of malpractice reform, interstate sale of insurance, importation of drugs from Canada. The Democrats told endless tales of woe, and called for passage of Obamacare to relieve the woes, the spending and to save the Union.
Obama came out against interstate sale of insurance, saying that people would flock to cheaper insurance from states with fewer mandated coverages, and that was bad, we have to force everyone to buy expensive cover everything policies. He also implied that the democrats will try to jam Obamacare thru Congress using reconciliation.
Obama also came out against catastrophic only coverage, saying that full coverage was only a few pennies more that catastrophe only coverage. That's not true. I switched from a $12K full coverage policy to a $3K catastrophe only policy. The $9K in savings more than covered my office visits. Plus, since I was paying for it out of pocket, I bothered to get my prescription switched to low cost generic drugs.

Tom Harkin (D) gets it wrong

Senator Tom Harkin is ranting on TV saying that malpractice reform doesn't work. He said NH had to repeal it's malpractice law.
Not true Tom. It was passed, it's worked so well the doctors insurance fund has a $100 million surplus that the governor tried to pinch to balance the state budget.
In NH, tort lawyers must present their case to a special medical malpractice court. If the lawyer doesn't like the verdict of the special court, he is at liberty to sue in regular state court. BUT, the verdict of the special medical malpractice court MUST by read aloud to the jury. The jury, not being fools, pays close attention to the verdict of the special court. Malpractice suits have been cut in half.
Trial lawyers attempt to repeal this reform every legislative session, so far with no success.
So Senator Tom Harkin, for somewhere-or-other in the heartland, malpractice reform is alive and well in NH. And it has reduced our cost of medical care.

Insurance pools?

The great Obamacare debate is on TV as I type. Obama is claiming that creation of "insurance pools" would offer health insurance for a lower rate than at current. Sounds too good to be true. The cost to insure a family is the same whether they are in a "pool" or on the beach.
A "pool" isn't the same as health insurance offered by employers. Companies get a better rate than individuals, mostly because workers are in good health. When their health fails they stop working. A "pool" composed of anyone who walks in off the street ain't gonna get the discount the big boys like Caterpillar and Microsoft get.

The Nature of Horses Stephan Budiansky

Good read which I picked off the stacks at the Abby Greenleaf public library. Subtitle is Exploring Equine Evolution Intelligence and Behavior which is a good summary. Archaeology now places the domestication of the horse on the northern shores of the Black Sea. A grave of a "cult stallion", complete with grave goods and dated to 3000 BC was discovered. The teeth of the stallion showed wear marks characteristic of a bit, this some 500 years before the earliest wheel. Leading the the conclusion that the horse was domesticated for riding first, and for pulling chariots only later. Which makes a certain amount of sense, the urge among teen aged boys to show off by riding a half wild horse is understandable, and doesn't require fancy technology, like spoked wheels, yokes, axles and axle bearings. Whereas to ride bareback, you just jump on and hang on.