Why I support the rescue plan

We need to flush our system out and return liquidity to our financial markets. The money in these bad loans is essentially gone and we need to face up to that. What do we do about homes that have a value now that is substantially less than their purchase price? No refinancing package will fix that. You cannot repay a loan by selling an asset for a fraction of the balance of the loan. The money is just gone.

IMHO one of the most vexing issues of this whole thing is that it was the voodoo loans that enabled home prices to rise beyond reasonable purchasing ability in the first place. Folks took out loans they could not pay back figuring their houses would appreciate in time for them to build enough equity to pay back the loans. The problem is the appreciation was due to the very type of loans they took out. It was a ponzi scheme. Once it collapsed folks were left with no way out. Home values plummeted. They are not coming back.

Only making loans that folks are going to be able to pay is going to have a long term moderating effect on the housing market, it has to. This will build in a price ceiling. All you have to do is look at the average salary of home buyers in the area. Assuming adequate supply, look at what somebody with that salary can afford and that will be the maximum possible average home price in the area, absent voodoo loans.

The voodoo loans that are out there will likely not be repaid. Their owners will default on them; no matter who owns the paper, even if it is the government. They have to. They cannot afford them. They have no choice. Frankly, I think the best thing to do is to think of this as a major natural disaster, like a major earthquake or New Orleans. Only it was our financial markets that were hit and that need to be rescued. We need to build liquidity back into our system or the cost will be greater. The market crash on Monday cost more in lost wealth than the rescue plan.

$1.5 trillion was lost that day. We all made this mess, Democrats, Republicans; we all built our houses on shaky soil. All this bad debt is toxic waste and all you can do with toxic waste is bury it. We also need to pass laws to keep this from happening again. The problem with unregulated capitalism is it leads to uncontrolled greed and corruption.

~Steve

A blog about HPVs at SJSU

A new dedicated blog

I have been trying to minimize this topic on this blog and stay focused on family. However, I am concerned. In my opinion human powered vehicles pose a safety risk to their operators and pedestrians at SJSU:

• As an employee I am concerned about the risk to students and employees.
• As a parent of young adults I am concerned that many of the operators of these devices are prone to take risks.
• As a parent of an SJSU student I am concerned that this is a dangerous situation that the university, in my opinion, is ignoring.
• As a taxpayer I am concerned that the university is taking on a financial risk by assuming liability in the event of a lawsuit arising from this flawed practice.
• As a bicyclist myself I am all too aware of the hazards of improper use of human powered vehicles.

Because university employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement I filed a grievance under our union contract. I documented my concerns and the grievance here, on this blog. But, I have received a lot of support from folks who are not covered by our union contract. So, I have decided to shift the attention here, to this blog, that will be focused on this issue exclusively.

Okay, what now?

If not a bail out, what now?

Sue's cousin Adam

Sue's cousin Adam visits

This weekend Sue's cousin came to San Jose. Adam is a mountain biker. After we had a great visit and a dinner Wednesday night at Sue's mom Fran's house Adam and I went for a mountain bike ride on Sunday. It was an awesome ride and Adam was the leader of the pack. We really enjoyed Adam's visit.

Technorati Tags: Sue Graziano Sloan, ssloansjca

Letterman on McCain

Indian Summer Bike Rides

[Click here to see more photos from the September 16 ride]

Summer Is Dead, Long Live Summer

Last night we had the first extended season Whine and Dine ride. It was a great ride up Hicks to Reynolds then further up Hicks to the double diamond sign. The weather and scenery were perfect! The extended season is Indian Summer, early Fall after summer ends until the rain comes in, typically in mid to late October. The riding weather is typically great this time of year, but the rides have to start earlier due to the earlier sunsets.

Technorati Tags: Whine and Dine, ssloansjca

Jacob's Birthday

Today is Jacob's birthday

Though we celebrated last weekend today is Jacob's real birthday. Jacob is a really happy baby with a very happy personality. If a baby can be an optimist, he is.

Yesterday Jeff, Nicole, Madison they came to visit and we had a picnic at SJSU. That was very nice. They are a great family.

Technorati Tags: Jeff Sloan, Nicole Sloan, Madison Sloan, Jacob Sloan, Sloan Family, ssloansjca

Encounter on Hicks

Late yesterday evening, just before dark, I was on my bicycle descending Hicks Road near Camden Ave. in the east part of Los Gatos. On the way up the hill I had earlier seen a herd of deer in front the new houses there enjoying some landscaping plants. One of the deer was a six point buck. I had seen this buck on the hill before on other rides and was looking forward to seeing him again on the way down.

As I was descending I rounded a curve I saw the buck on the left side of the road and a black Toyota Tundra on the right side of the road. Directly behind the truck was a man lining up a shot on the deer with a crossbow. I was heading right into his line of fire. Behind the buck was the houses.

I started ringing my bell and making a lot of noise. Neither I, the buck or the houses behind the buck were shot. The shooter went into the truck and sped off. The plate on the truck was California 7M41254. I reported it to Los Gatos PD as this was in Los Gatos City Limits.

If the shooter missed he could have hit the houses. He apparently planned to kill this deer in their front yard! I hope Los Gatos PD does something.

Grandson's birthday party

[Click here to see more photos]

Yesterday we celebrated Jacob's birthday

Jacob turns one this week and we celebrated on Saturday. He is such a cute and happy baby. It was a lot of fun. It was very nice of Nicole's mom Kathy to host the party at her house. It was a big party and she had a real house full.

Technorati Tags: Sue Graziano Sloan, Jeff Sloan, Nicole Sloan, Madison Sloan, Jacob Sloan, Sloan Family, ssloansjca

Car vs Bike; Bike Lost

Cycling safety at SJSU

I have been a long standing advocate for the safe use non-motorized vehicles on and around SJSU. I have taken this position not because I am an old man standing on my porch yelling at kids running across my lawn. I have taken this position because I have seen far too many people hurt and am aware of the risks involved to both cyclists and pedestrians in an accident. We need to remember that most of the folks we see riding bicycles on our campus also ride them on the streets around our campus.

I shot this photo using my camera phone one block north of campus.

The history of the whine and dine rides

The Whine and Dine Story

Yesterday, as I posted before, was the last whine and dine regular season ride of 2008. What is a whine and dine ride, here is the whine and dine story:

[Click Here to Read the Story]

Technorati Tags: Whine and Dine, ssloansjca

Last regular season WnD ride

Another whine and dine season is history

Tonight was the last regular season ride for 2008. it is sad for me as I have really enjoyed this season. Each season is different and there will be folks who were regulars this season who we will not see again, it happens every year. It has been a great year one of the best. The group brought a cake for me today and wished me happy birthday. It was wonderful!

Technorati Tags: Whine and Dine, ssloansjca

Birthday

53 today

The Help Desk staff threw a nice party at lunch with a nice cake. Sue and I are going out tonight. I got lots of nice e-mails and calls. A nice day.

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Another bike club newsletter

The October ACTC BBB Newsletter

Here is the October issue of the Black and Blue Bottom, the Almaden Cycle Touring Club newsletter, here in PDF format:

• Normal version for viewing.

Palin is not ready

This is not American Idol

Bob Herbert of the New York Times has this great editorial about the candidacy of Sarah Palin in the office that is a heart beat away from the presidency. The key problem is not her politics. As Herbert said:

Ms. Palin’s problem is not that she was mayor of a small town or has only been in the Alaska governor’s office a short while. Her problem (and now ours) is that she is not well versed on the critical matters confronting the country at one of the most crucial turning points in its history.

As Herbert said, "Ms. Palin may be a perfectly competent and reasonably intelligent woman (however troubling her views on evolution and global warming may be), but she is not ready to be vice president."

Update, New York Times Editorial, "If the choice (by McCain) was, as we suspect, a tactical move, then it was shockingly irresponsible."

Celebrating a Whine and Dine wedding

[Click here to see more photos]

Celebrating a Whine and Dine Wedding

Tuesday night we celebrated the recent wedding of John and Rosa. They are the first whine and dine regulars to marry who actually met on the whine and dine ride.

Technorati Tags: Whine and Dine, ssloansjca

Tehachapi Friday Afternoon

The joy of train chasing

One of my greatest pleasures is chasing and photographing trains in this mountain pass. This is just another Friday afternoon on that really cool place called Tehachapi!

[Click here to see more phots on Flickr]

Technorati Tags: Tehachapi, Trains, ssloansjca

I am off to LA

If you want, you can follow me on twitter.

Tuesday is whine and dine day

[More photos from Aug. 26, 2008 Here]

Tuesday is Whine and Dine Day

For a few more weeks at least the Tuesday Whine and Dine rides will continue. Even though Sue is not currently riding she has been hiking! We now have hikes as an option at the Tuesday rides. It is great having her be part of the fun.

Technorati Tags: Whine and Dine, ssloansjca

Fun at Vic and Annies

Fun with train friends

[Click here to see more photos]

It has been a busy three day weekend. I spent a lot of time working on my class and am pretty happy where that is at right now. In addition on Saturday morning I led a bike ride, that was fun. And, yesterday we went to Vic and Annie's for a barbecue and train slides. They are very nice people and we had a good time. We even talked about Winterail 2009!

Technorati Tags: Vic Neves, Sloan Family, Trains, Winterail, ssloansjca