Ben’s Blog

Today was the worst single day for US stock markets since 9/17/2001, the first day the markets were open after 9/11. The S&P 500 was down 3.47% at the end of the day. The Dow was down 3.29%. The mutual funds I have money in dropped 3.21% on average. The Chinese markets dropped 9% today after setting an all-time high yesterday. Investors got worried that the value of both Chinese and US stocks were inflated. They probably were, though I could have done with a less violent correction. The biggest gainer today was Radio Shack of all companies. Their stock went up 11.94% after they announced profits were up 65% in the last quarter.

In much better news, Mississippi landed a Toyota plant today. They were also considering Arkansas and Tennessee. The jobs the plant will create, both directly and indirectly, are greatly needed. Manufacturing jobs have been leaving Mississippi in droves over the past decade or so. The plant should employ around 2,000 people, and another 2,000 jobs will be created in related industries. It will be built in Blue Springs, which is about 10 miles up highway 78 from Tupelo. It should become operational in 2009.

I assumed the Toyota plant coming to Mississippi was mostly a regional news item, but Google News currently lists 486 articles from all over the world. Impressive.

One of the comics I read on a regular basis is Piled Higher & Deeper. It chronicles the lives of a group of graduate students trying to get their PhDs. Friday it hit a little close to home. :) Click here to see the comic.

I’m in a similar situation. I’ve got a baby on the way, and I’ve been dragging my thesis out for over two years now. The good news is, I’m finally making some progress. Friday I submitted drafts of three chapters to my adviser. I should have another one finished in the next few of days. My thesis will have seven chapters, so that only leaves three to go. I’ll probably defend my thesis the last week in April, and our little guy will arrive about a month after that.

• Amusing: I left work a little early today to go get a haircut. I arrived at the barber shop to find a note taped to the door that said, “Gone fishing.” I could probably use an afternoon of fishing myself.
• Weird: FedEx was supposed to deliver a package to our apartment today. It never arrived, so Cassie tracked it. Of course they said it had been delivered. She called FedEx, and they said if it didn’t show up by Monday that we should file a claim. Not very helpful. Cassie suggested we drive around and look for it, as it was likely that FedEx actually delivered somewhere nearby. I thought the probability of us finding it was pretty low, but I was game. We drove through about a dozen apartment complexes on our road looking for packages left on the porch of apartment #3. No luck. We headed toward home, but we spotted a package sitting on the porch of a small apartment fifty yards or so off the highway. It looked like the sort of place one might get shot, especially if you’re taking a package off someone’s porch. I got out of the car and checked the name on the package. Sure enough, it was ours. No one was home, so I just took it. The apartment where FedEx left it was a third of a mile down the road from ours, and on the wrong side of the road. The house number wasn’t even close. Good job FedEx.

There are a lot of unhappy Canonites this morning. Canon did make an announcement early this morning, but they did not announce the successor to the 30D like everyone thought and hoped they would. Instead we got a new pro camera, a new lens, a new flash, a new wireless transmitter, and a bunch of point and shoot cameras.

Good thing I didn’t have my hopes set on a 40D. However, it does mess up my plans of possibly getting a cheaper 30D. Some people still think Canon will announce the 40D in the next few weeks, but I don’t see it. It’ll probably happen in the fall.

The 1D Mark III that they did announce does have some interesting features. It has dual Digic III processors that allow 10 frames per second for up to 110 JPEG or 30 RAW images. It has 14-bit image processing, which is a first (most do 12). It’s LCD has a live-view mode, which is a first for a pro SLR. (Olympus has live-view, but their SLRs aren’t generally considered professional.) It also has ISO 6400, a new autofocus system, and the dust removal system that is in the Rebel XTi. It’s going to sell for around $4000. It’s safe to say I won’t be getting one anytime soon.

I’ve spent entirely too much time over the past couple of weeks in the forums over at Digital Photography Review. I have learned quite a bit, but I’m still not exactly sure what photography equipment I’m going to buy.

I have more or less decided on a primary lens. I’m going to go with the Canon EF-S 17-55/2.8 USM IS. It’s a little expensive, but it is apparently a very nice lens, and it will stay on my camera 95% of the time. The Tamron 17-50/2.8 was really my only other option. While the Tamron is cheaper, the Canon just has too many advantages.

As far as camera bodies go, I’m still trying to decide between the Canon Rebel XTi and the Canon 30D. Both have their advantages. My plan is to find someone locally that carries the Canon lens mentioned above, and see what it feels like mounted on both cameras. That lens is a little on the heavy side, but if it doesn’t feel unwieldy on the Rebel XTi I’ll probably go with it. It’s smaller, lighter, and less expensive.

Rumor has it that Canon will be announcing a new camera (or two) and some new lenses in the very near future; possibly as early as tomorrow. Most people believe the 30D will be replaced with a new model, but it’ll probably sell for around $1,400, which is out of my price range right now.

My eBay auctions (to fund my photography) are going well. I have enough to buy the Rebel XTi now, but not much else. I haven’t broken out the big guns yet, though. I will be doing that soon. I am going to try to sell some of my high end stuff directly to collectors to avoid the eBay and PayPal fees. I also have a couple of lenses that I’ll no longer need that I can sell.

Today I ran up on this interesting article on the US budget. His main point is that we can’t do much to fix the budget unless we first fix the “welfare state.” The federal government spent nearly $2.7 trillion last fiscal year. That’s $248 billion more than they took in. The deficit made up about 9.2% of the budget. Around 60%, or $1.6 trillion, of the budget was “payment to individuals” which includes Social Security ($544 billion), Medicare ($374 billion), Medicaid ($181 billion), and other types of welfare.

According to the US National Debt Clock, the national debt currently stands at over $8.7 trillion. That’s $29,000 per person. Recently the debt has been climbing at a rate of $1.57 billion per day, or slightly over $1 million every minute of every day.

Most economists agree that the national debt itself is not that big of a problem. Last fiscal year the government spent 8.5% of the budget ($230 billion) paying the interest on the national debt. That’s substantial, but it’s not hurting us too bad. The problem is that the government continues to add to the debt, and every year they spend more of our tax dollars paying the interest.

This site shows that Reagan, Bush, and George W. Bush are the only presidents that have increased the national debt as a percentage of our GDP since the end of World War II.

I’ve been interested in economics for a few years now. I’m no expert by any means, but I imagine I know more than the average person. (I’d know way more if I’d read those economics books that have been sitting on my bookshelves for a couple of years now.) If I were to get another degree one of these days, I’d be tempted to get it in economics. I don’t think I’d want a career in it, but it would improve my critical thinking and problem solving skills. Economists impress me with their ability to make sound scientific statements on a wide range of topics.

I’m probably going to start posting more economics-related material on the blog. I’ll do my best not to bore you. Most of it will be from one of these blogs:

• Freakonomics Blog - the authors of the bestselling book
• Free exchange - The Economist’s blog
• The Beckner-Posner Blog - an economist and a federal judge
• Marginal Revolution - two economists at George Mason University
• Greg Mankiw’s Blog - a Harvard economist

Cassie went back to the doctor last Thursday for the “official” ultrasound. The baby still looks good. We could see his spine, all four chambers of his heart, his kidneys, etc. He is definitely a boy. He was 1.3 lbs., and the nurse said he felt strong for his “age.” He is already in the vertex, or “head down,” position.

He’s been kicking for several weeks now, though it’s just gotten to the point where I can feel it. Cassie tells me he puts on a good show a few times a day.

We have more or less decided we will call him Luke. We don’t know if it’ll be his first or middle name though, and we really have no clue what his “other name” will be. Cassie doesn’t like any of my ideas, and I’m not too fond of any of her ideas. We’d prefer that Luke be his first name; to avoid all the stuff that goes along with being called by your middle name. However, with Luke being a one-syllable name, it just doesn’t sound right as a first name combined with most middle names.
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