3 Colorado health orgs spread mandate misinformation

by Brian Schwartz | 6:00 am, January 3, 2011

The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative joins the Colorado Medical Society and the Colorado Trust in spreading what’s effectively the “big lie” in support of mandatory insurance: the cost-shift from the uninsured.

The King’s Speech

by Joshua Sharf | 11:19 pm, January 2, 2011

This is a movie about courage.  OK, it’s also a movie about love, friendship, responsibility, and heroism.  But first and foremost, it’s about courage. We all know the story about how Edward VIII abdicated the throne for American Wallis Simpson, in favor of his brother (Colin Firth) who would become George VI.  It was a [...]

How to keep New Year’s resolutions

by Brian T. Schwartz | 8:48 pm, January 2, 2011

“New year’s resolutions doomed to failure,” trumpeted a Guardian.uk headline this time last year. The article describes a study by psychologist Richard Wiseman, which found that not even one in four people “managed to stick to their resolutions.” But we can learn from the minority who kept their resolutions. They “tended to have broken their [...]

Backbone Radio, January 2, 2011 – China, markets; Backbone Business – rare earth minerals

by Rossputin | 10:14 am, January 2, 2011

On our first show of 2011, Christopher Sanders and I discussed news of the past week before delving into a somewhat in-depth discussion of the future of China and how a potential slowdown (or even collapse) in its economy could impact commodity markets. We also spoke about the upcoming Congress, including our view that the battles between the House Republicans and Barack Obama will be “brutal”.

The last hour of the show was this month’s edition of Joshua Sharf’s Backbone Business, with this month’s topic being the simmering geopolitical problems regarding rare earth minerals.

Audio archives for this show:

Segment 1 – Intro, News of the Week, Muslims killing Christians in the Middle East
Segment 2 – China’s economic growth prospects and inflation
Segment 3 – Trivia question; underage drinking; more about China and its impact on commodity prices; Gold and silver ETFs
Segment 4 – More gold & silver, S&P 500 and interest rate predictions; discussion of coming Congress, including likely actions of committee chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa

Audio archive for January 2011 Backbone Business on the topic of rare earth minerals. You can go to Backbone Business to read more, see charts and graphs, and photos from the mine tour.

Segment 1 – Introduction, the uses and basic chemistry of rare earths; China’s recent role
Segment 2 – Molycorp, their mine, and other potential sources
Segment 3 – “Green” metals; their uses in Clean Tech, the prospects for clean tech, and the DOE
Segment 4 – Alternatives to Rare Earths, Substitutes, Recycling & Show Wrap-up

My New Years Resolutions

by Rossputin | 6:32 am, January 1, 2011

Happy 2011 to all my friends and readers.  There’s an old tradition of making “resolutions” for the New Year and although I usually skip that particular step in the festivities, this year I’m thinking of a few things I want to be sure to do.  I’ll list a few of my goals for 2011, and I hope you’ll comment with one or more of yours, especially out-of-the-box ideas.

• It sounds soooooo cliche, but I have a serious goal of adding exercise to my life.  We have quite a nice little home gym but I almost never use it.  In part, it’s a lack of discipline by yours truly.  And in part, it’s that I don’t have (or at least feel like I don’t have) enough time.  I know that’s sort of a cop-out and that I should make the time, but especially during the week, as I have to leave the house before 7 AM already to get to work and then I have to (and want to) be a parent when I get home, I just don’t seem to make it work.  So I (and my wife, although she already works out frequently at home) will be joining a health club in Boulder and I’m going to do my best to go 2-4 times a week.
• I’m going to spend more time with my wife and kids in the evenings, even if it means I have to cut down on blogging.
• Speaking of which, I have to decide whether daily blogging is a good use of my time.  I’m beginning to doubt it.  The commitment of a Sunday radio show plus the opportunity to write occasional articles (for which I am paid modestly) might be enough of a media presence for me at this time in my life.  There’s some ego boost involved in having a reputation as one of the best (or at least most prolific) bloggers in Colorado (though nobody reaches the level of Michelle Malkin).  So, for example, having candidates and others request that I interview them (as both Jane Norton and Ken Buck did) makes one feel good and important.  But honestly, perhaps because of my background as a trader in Chicago, I’m not very motivated by ego (or at least I try not to be.)  And I’m starting to think that the time commitment to daily blogging is time stolen from watching my children grow up.
• And I’m going to focus on work, whether its trading or something else, rather than being the relative slacker that I’ve been during 2010 due to a lack of motivation and inspriation that was nobody’s fault but mine.  Perhaps I was in a lucky situation to be able to live fairly well without working as hard as most people work, but I’m not proud of myself for my – well, the word “laziness” comes to mind – that characterized my efforts to make money during 2010.  I spent a lot of time and effort on writing and on politics and not enough time on making money.  That has to change in 2011.

That’s enough…Even one New Years Resolution can be hard to follow through on if it represents a fairly large change in one’s behavior.  I’m trying to implement three such changes.  As they say in other behavior modification programs (which I have never needed to participate in, just to be clear), one day at a time…

 

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