“May your heart and home be filled with the joys of the holiday season. 2008″
signed: George Bush and Laura Bush

“Our best wishes to you and your family in this holiday season and throughout the year ahead.”
signed: Lynn Cheney and Dick Cheney

Why Echo Mountain? Here’s a few good reasons why they’ve at least earned the attention of this blog:

closest mountain to Denver (about 45 minutes away)

relatively low-cost tickets and season tickets (especially compared to the other mountains)

night riding available

ski & ride school (if you don’t know how to ride, they’ll teach you!)

local feel- not the corporate feel of the other mountains

terrain park for serious winter athletes

great food, great music

AND they’re involved in the community! Echo Mountain partnered with marketing students at Metropolitan State College of Denver to provide the students with some real world experience.

Check them out, click on the link below:

Echo Mountain Park

Remember when the Internet first started out? Maybe not the very first days of Internet, but how about the days of paying for connection through your phone company and then also paying a separate fee through an Internet server/gateway such as AOL? Remember receiving CD after CD in the mail with the latest and greatest version of AOL with 700 free hours, etc? Dial-up?

Well, as it always happens in a free market economy, the technology behind the product improved, improving the product itself, and lowering costs.

Almost overnight we went from dial-up to DSL, to high speed, to wireless, etc., and with it, the cost of the Internet went to 0. You still pay your phone or cable company for the access, but there is no longer a guardian or gatekeeper in the way. This was the market providing free email to everyone, so long as you had access to a computer, and a phone line/internet connection.

Now let’s say that somewhere in the near future, the government in their infinite wisdom decides to get involved in this free-market economy, the Internet. Government involvement would, as it always is, be painted with the best intentions and here is how it might happen:

The government could for whatever reason or motivation, decide that everyone should be entitled to the best quality Internet service money can buy. Right now, of course, there exist many different options among the many different provides. So the government would have to pick a winner, and let’s say they pick DSL. There would be a massive public relations campaign to highlight how our government, from the bottom of their collectivist heart of hearts, has decided that Americans need Internet to be a great nation and the government will help pay for DSL for everyone in America. Keep the people informed! Provided entertainment! Knowledge at our fingertips! Sounds great, doesn’t it? Let’s take a look at the numbers of this “mixed economy” then shall we?

Let’s assume that a high quality Internet provider costs about $90 a month, across the board, no matter what state you live in or what company you buy from (for the purpose of keeping this exercise mathematically simple). When the government decides to go with DSL, they’ll offer either a tax credit or a subsidy, or a combination of the two. This will allow the DSL company to provide their service at a reduced cost to themselves and to their customer. So now DSL can be offered at $60 whereas their competitors scrape to lower their costs but can’t get below $80 and remain profitable. Some of the competitors go out of business.

But at the end of the day, millions more American homes have access to affordable Internet. (Would the government have to add to their program later and offer computers to everyone in America?)

Fast forward several months, maybe even years. The DSL company has grown fat and lazy, like a sloth with an endless supply of food. The original government involvement, despite the good intentions, has removed the aspect of competition from the market. And in the absence of competition, no one can keep this government-backed company honest.

Unfortunate, because a few small time guys really want to open shop with their new, eco-friendly and green Internet service that actually prevents and reverses global warming. But fighting global warming is an expensive business, and there is no way they can be competitive with the low prices of DSL. It’s faster, safer, and prettier, but still too expensive.

The solution coming from the left in Washington will call for comparable tax credits or subsidies for the new company; they may even throw around the word “regulation” a few times for good measure, and that will start another circular track of the government chasing its tail and conning the tax payer (but that’s for another discussion).

The right will want to retain current low prices, calling everything else a tax. They defend only a glimmer of what used to be free markets, when in fact, many of these “so-called conservatives” had given in to the collectivist idealist dreamworld and supported the original tax credits and subsidies for DSL because they too thought our society would be better off with accessible Internet provided to everyone.

Get the picture? Now try to apply this same story-line to other products. How about oil? Farming and agriculture? Ethanol? Notice any resemblance?

Capitalism by itself, without government involvement, would have succeeded in bring about alternative fuel and energy sources at a competitive price by this time. Instead, a government barrier to the industry of energy has been put in place in the form of subsidies and tax breaks to oil and coal industries. That is not capitalism; it is only a mixed economy. Now with energy prices on the rise and the cost of oil floating, we do see capitalism beginning to become competitive with the mixed economy. Alternative fuels and energies are becoming more and more efficient and priced closer to the cost of oil, natural gas, and coal. And guess what- if the oil industry was no longer receiving such fantastic support from the government, then oil would no longer be competitively priced.

There are relatively no barriers to entry so anyone with access to a computer and Internet can participate. Once online, anyone can buy, sell, trade any item or service. There is a virtually unlimited amount of information available.

Are there problems and risks with the Internet marketplace? Yes.

Can government oversight limit all the risks for every participant without stifling the market? No.

However, the people themselves are constantly at work regulating the marketplace. We see this on Amazon with buyer feedback and ratings for the sellers. Most people will not buy from a seller who has negative feedback or does not have a strong track record.

Also, most people are in control of themselves enough to avoid the websites that are not to their liking. Sites that have content they may not wish to view, products and services they view as scams, etc. Sometimes these are unavoidable, momentarily at least, when a pesky pop-up appears offering some prize for being the one millionth visitor. So what does the market offer in turn? Pop up blockers!!!

Going back to that pesky pop-up: some people click through and complete the several offers or whatever rabbit trail is proposed to get the price. And some of these are scams. Yes, in all economies there are bottom feeders who mislead, misdirect, and underserve, or even flat our steal from the consumer. I know cause I’ve been taken advantage of by a few online schemes. But rest assured, the market figures it out again and I, now an informed consumer, will no longer allow myself to fall victim to these predators.

How old is your campaign manager?!?

While most young people are spending free time on their Wii or having jamm sessions with the hit game Rock Band, Sean Doherty, 21 years young, is working to make his name in politics and to someday take the center stage on the debate scene. (why not the political scene instead of the debate scene?)

And while most young people have gravitated towards a certain Democrat candidate for President, Sean Doherty has taken up a personal mission to renew the Republican Party and to educate the youth about the principles of the GOP. “I know there are plenty of other activities I should (could) be doing at my age, but I want to participate in debates (politics) as important as these. The future of my generation is on the line here and freedom waits for no one.”

After returning from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul/Minneapolis Minnesota, an experience that Sean said was refreshing coming off a week of Democrats in Denver, Sean decided to become involved in some of the local campaigns taking place. “I looked at the various campaigns being run and volunteered for a few, but the campaign that most appealed to me was George Lilly’s Congressional run in (Denver’s US Congressional District 1).” After becoming involved in the campaign and helping to coordinate some activities, Sean was made the Campaign Manager for George Lilly’s race.

Representatives of the campaign have cited Sean’s youthful energy and optimism as great assets to the campaign; he also brings with him a growing man’s appetite that leaves no leftovers at the dinner table.

When asked why he chose the Republican party and this particular campaign, Sean had this to say, “my generation may only be 29% of the population today, but we are 100% of the future, and someone needs to stand up for us. I found George Lilly to be a strong advocate for passing a better, safer, and stronger America onto the next generation and he wants to do so through the principles of the Republican Party. That works for me.”

Sean Doherty is now rolling his sleeves up, putting down the video games, and now he’s talking to Denver voters and setting up town hall meetings. He’s going to bed early, even on weekends, hoping to wake up to a better America for his generation and the next. His hard work just might pay off.

For more information on Sean Doherty’s involvement in the George Lilly campaign, go to www.GeorgeLillyforCongress.com

Yes, risky loans where made and accepted. Lenders and borrowers are certainly to blame. But what is the larger, root cause of all this? The Federal Reserve should share some of the blame, should it not?

The Federal Reserve, in all their wisdom, has been lowering interest rates for as long as this author has been alive. The Federal Reserve (FED) has made borrowing money so attractive, so much so that the housing bubble was given birth, not to mention the tech and Internet bubble before that. Had the FED not made credit so accessible, leading consumers to believe that they could not possibly lose out, we would not be in this mess. Folks, this is analogous to kids in a candy shop:

Shopkeeper FED: Ok kids, you can eat as much as you want, and we’ll work out the payment later.

Kids: We love candy!

Shopkeeper FED: Oh, don’t forget about these chocolate houses. I know they’re a lot to handle but I’ve made them even easier to take a bite out of!

Kids: Oooohhhh, this adjustable rate is giving me a stomach ache…

Shopkeeper FED: Well I don’t want you to stop eating candy, just keep eating and I’ll just keep lowering the interest rates…

And now the FED wants to swoop in and take up the role of Savior of the economy, fixing the problem that they created? There seems to be a disconnect here…. I liked what one Congressmen said of this government buyout of Wall Street firms: “if its too big to fail, it is too big to exist.”

Some similarities worth noting: both Presidential candidates support the bailout, and both have a bracelet. However, none of the third party candidates support the bailout, i.e. Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, and Ralph Nader. At the time of writing, this author could not confirm the existence of any third party bracelets.

Here are some local and national candidates that I support for the upcoming election. I am supporting these candidates because I believe they will best serve to protect my interests as a taxpayer, and the general interests of Denver and all of Colorado.

No matter who you vote for, please exercise democracy and show up to vote. Or, mail in your absentee and early voting ballots.

George Lilly For Congress

George Lilly is primarily concerned with our economy and will advocate for a return to smart and sound business practices. Less taxes. More freedoms. Liberty. If you said yes to any of the above, then this is your man.

Visit his website by clicking here

Primary Election: August 12, 2008
General Election: November 4, 2008

Last day to register to vote in the general election:
Monday, October 6th, 2008

Early Voting Dates
Primary: August 4 through August 8
General: October 20 through October 25, and October 27 through October 31

These are buzz words that I’m sure you have heard quite enough of lately. But it is important that we do not simply ignore these words that make us cringe and that one 9 letter word that has taken on the same aspects of four letter foul-language words: “recession,” not to be uttered in polite conversation.

Indeed, times will be getting rough and this will be happening very fast and soon. We will all feel the pinch and be forced to consume less. Not necessarily a bad thing. But one group that I am concerned about:

The senior citizens. These are the people who have been paying into social security with the belief that it would be there when they retire and they would need little else to live comfortably and not have to work. This belief is no longer so. I have noticed it to be commonplace to see senior citizens pushing carts at the grocery store, waiting on me at restaurants, cutting my hair, etc., and I can’t help but wonder: was this what they were planning to do when they reached this age? Is this what they had in mind for retirement?