Interest rates are made of up three components: opportunity cost, inflation, and default risk. US treasury rates are considered to be free of default risk, so they consist of nothing more than opportunity cost and inflation. Federally insured bank CD rates are close to treasury rates. Now, the US government could always avoid default by… [Read More]
Blog
Category: Political Discourse
Problems with my Ventra card, and why modern life is so exhausting
The Chicago Transit Authority is switching its payment system to a debit card system called Ventra. The switch has been confusing. One of the issues is that the cards have to be registered online, and the system crashed while I was registering it. And so, I have a card that I cannot use. The online… [Read More]
Another project: Rewriting Thomas Friedman
Years ago, I used to rail against Bob Greene’s column in the Chicago Tribune. One of my friends, who was tired of listening to me, suggested that I channel my energy by re-writing his columns that way that I would do them. It was a wonderful exercise. In recent years, the columnist who drives me… [Read More]
The SNAP Challenge isn’t that hard
Last week, food banks and other organizations asked people to take the SNAP Challenge, in which they attempt to live on the same budget as people on food stamps. I was going to do it and write the results for Chicago on the Cheap, but I ran into a problem right off the bad: the… [Read More]
Life is fair, mathematically speaking
Too many people I know and love are dealing with too many awful things right now. And so often, when discussing these situations, someone says, “life isn’t fair.” I disagree. But not in the sense of reward and retribution. Rather, stuff happens to us all at random. When I hear “life isn’t fair”, I think… [Read More]
