Monthly Archives: August 2011

Take the Money and Run, episode 2

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Take the Money and RunThis week and the previous one, I’ve been watching “Take the Money and Run” on ABC.  I wanted to share some thoughts about tonight’s episode (Note:  Spoilers ahead).

The first thing that interested me was how I found myself rooting for the cops.  For whom do you find yourself rooting?

So, the two “robbers” won tonight.  I have a better strategy for the interrogators than they used tonight.  What they should have done was to have the “robbers” get dressed a bit ahead of the deadline, have them come into the office or the interrogation room or whatever, tell them that they’ve won and ask them where the suitcase was stashed.  Then call the “cops” and tell them where it is.  Too bad they didn’t think of that, eh?

Last thought:  I hope that “Robert” has found a new hiding place for his house key, after his house (including a map giving the approximate area of its location) and the location of his extra key were aired on national television.  Otherwise there might be real-life robbers looking for his house.

U.S. Debt Ceiling redux, redux

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Okay, last post on the U.S. debt issue for a while.  Reading some more newspapers since the last time I wrote, it also appears that S&P’s downgrading of the United States’ credit rating is also based on the brinksmanship that led to the debt ceiling crisis in the first place, that the government of the United States is not really able to deal with issues as one would suspect they might be.  True, but sorry to see.  Unfortunately, there are politicians that aren’t really interested in acting in the better good of the country.

The United States federal government is addicted to debt like an alcoholic is addicted to alcohol.  Just like the alcoholic needs to quit, the United States needs to quit borrowing.  However, if the alcoholic were to quit cold turkey, he could die (from a seizure etc.).  Similarly, the United States can’t just stop borrowing like some Tea Partiers think it should; it needs to get off borrowing, but it needs to do it gradually, not all at once.

Alright, I’m going to write about something else now.

U.S. Debt Ceiling, redux

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So the United States did manage to legislate an increase in their debt ceiling.  It’s kind of interesting how the United States’ credit rating got downgraded anyway and the stock markets are still in a freefall (although there was a bit of a recovery Friday afternoon).  What would have happened if the government didn’t manage to raise the debt ceiling?  It’s kind of interesting that the reason that Standard & Poor’s gave for cutting the U.S. credit rating is because of concerns over budget deficits, saying that the plan recently passed doesn’t go far enough (makes you wonder, are Tea Partiers in charge at S&P?)  If the debt ceiling didn’t get raised, would they happy that debts weren’t going to increase?