I have seen a plethora of articles like this one on MSN proclaiming that now is the best time ever to jump into an SUV. The articles invariably point out the low price point and their prediction that gas prices will go down to "normal" levels in the future, which in turn makes SUVs less costly. Of course, these articles completely ignore the why the price of SUVs are so low and how exactly gas prices are going to go back down.

The simple economics explanation for the low SUV prices is that demand has dropped. And an economist would assume that people were acting rationally and decided that the costs of an SUV were not worth the benefits. Of course, markets can be wrong, but a basic presumption of all economics is that markets work efficiently. The price is set by what the collective society values a product as. It is true that emotion (something economics struggle to grasp) can disrupt markets and many of the articles point out negativity towards SUVs now, but there is no evidence that this emotion is what is dragging down prices. In fact, it is pretty clear to me that emotion was artificially boosting SUV in the past; people were feeling patriotic about driving Hummers, and SUVs were the new it product. Regardless there is no credible evidence that SUV prices are going to rebound in the future; the entire argument rests on the assumption that current prices will trend back to past prices over time, but this assumption is fundamentally flawed, just ask anyone still looking for tech stocks to hit 2000 highs.

In a couple of days, my wife and I will drive to the beach at Emerald Isle for a 10-day vacation. On the way, we will pass through Jacksonville. As we prepare for the trip, I've updated something I wrote last year at this time.

According to MapQuest, the distance between Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Chapel Hill is only 145 miles. It seems more like a million. In Jacksonville, United States Marines rule the flat landscape like a swarm of killer bees. Hard men with tight haircuts, spreading democracy through brute force. Here in the southern part of heaven, Grandmas and Greens run the hilly streets, worried more about the stock market and stormwater.

This post was originally posted by RANT earlier this week. The snark is wonderful and deserves a bit more attention during the Saturday morning funnies. Thanks, RANT!

The Real Deal versus The Raw Deal

A reporter friend of mine just related the most interesting story about a Fourth of July parade she attended in her neighboring Montgomery County today.

TroyFest is apparently a big one -- a full blown, all-day street festival that begins with a parade showcasing Americana at it's finest... fire trucks, clowns, old timey cars and, of course, political candidates like Larry Kissell and Robin Hayes.

But Troy you see is in the 8th District. And that means two things these days - The town has lost jobs, lots of them, due directly to Hayes' bad trade policies he promised to vote against before he voted for them, and he still has to drag his fat ass over there anyway for the parade and pretend like he didn't just piss on the locals' leg and tell them it's raining.

So my reporter friend had much to say about how the day played out, the most interesting of which is Hayes is in serious trouble.

I'm not being flippant; I'd really like to know what makes Christian martial arts Christian martial arts. Does anyone have any experience with this?

See this photo in jacobkrejcix's photo stream.