David's Macro Blog

These are my favorite videos that I watched during 2010 – the videos could have been created earlier but I found them during 2010. Enjoy.

Jon Stewart on the May 6th Flash Crash

Why is the best political and economic commentary coming from a comedy show?

Obsessive Pizza Maker

This is a place I’d like to eat at.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel! by the Mars Hill Sing Team

Cool version of a timeless classic.

Otters Holding Hands

Arjay and Brandi 1st Place Jack ‘n’ Jill

Amazing dance routine they made up in real time.

I got to the year-end site stats post right on time this year. Yeah.

Last year’s didn’t get done until mid-February.

Just wanted to say thanks to my loyal readers and also to the random ones primarily from Google search.

Here are the stats from 2010.

• New Posts: 20
• Visits: 2596
• Page views: 3425
• Ave. Time on Page: 5:30
• Most popular content:
  1. Foolish Quotes from “Experts” Who Should Have Known Better
  2. Marshmallow Test – Delayed Gratification for a 5 Year Old?
  3. Jeff Bezos on Customer Obsession and Innovation and Amazon.com

My thoughts:

• The number of visitors grew substantially probably because the site had more articles.
• The most popular post on foolish quotes was written primarily as a short post for myself so I could research how good experts were at predictions.
• My goal was to post once a week. Well that turned out to be much more difficult than I thought. It is still the goal for 2011.

Now I am off to work on my 2011 Predictions!

By now we’ve all heard or read stories about disillusioned home owners (home debtors really) who haven’t made their loan payments in quite a while but feel that everything will work itself out. They may be working on a loan mod, short sale, principal reduction, or just the “free rent” program.

What tragic commentary on the situation we’ve created! The credit bubble bursting made 25% of home loans under water and foreclosure a likely outcome. There will be a whole generation of home owners and their children scarred by this experience just like the Great Depression.

Hat tip – Jim Klinge

Favorite Quotes

Realtor – “My name is Randy and I am a local Realtor…”

Homeowner – “Oh yes, I am quite aware that many of you low-life blood sucking vultures…”

…”but we are in the middle of a loan modification so we are just FINE!”

“I don’t mind at all you blood sucking vampire…we are behind 17 payments just like the rest of our social climbing friends.”

Realtor – “It appears I am too late, and you will keep your head buried in the sand because you actually believe you are going to get your loan modification…”

Humor only works when there is truth embedded within it.  This works because while it is humorous, the truth is evident.

“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth. Son, we live in a country with an investment gap. And that gap needs to be filled by men with money. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Middle Class Consumer? Goldman Sachs has a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Lehman and you curse derivatives. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what we know: that Lehman’s death, while tragic, probably saved the financial system. And that Goldman’s existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves pension funds. You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want us to fill that investment gap. You need us to fill that gap.

We use words like credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligation, and securitization? We use these words as the backbone of a life spent investing in something. You use ‘em as a punchline. We have neither the time nor the inclination to explain ourselves to a commoner who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very credit we provide, and then questions the manner in which we provide it! We’d rather you just said thank you and paid your taxes on time. Otherwise, we suggest you get an account and start trading. Either way, we don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to!”

Source: StatsGuy – Baseline Scenario.

I know it is a little late, but I had to say thanks to all my readers for a memorable 2009, my first full year of blog writing.

What started years ago as chatting with co-workers (you know who you are…Alan) has developed into a weekly passion.

Here are the stats from 2009.  They provide a bar and a challenge to grow beyond in 2010.

• Unique visitors: 349
• Page views: 843
• Ave. Time on Site: 4:23
• Most popular content: Marshmallow Test -Delayed Gratification for a 5 Year Old?
• YouTube channel views: 1515
• Most popular video: Robert Royston & Patti Vo at Southbay Dance Fling

If you have suggestions, please let me know.