If your on the conversion list for 31 Jan and you do not have training scheduled for Feb your just got a month off. Scheduled and actual conversions however can be different. Did you check the posted conversion lists for 31 Jan. If you did enjoy your month off!! One of the best deals you can get.

 

I thought they were making me go early. Did not ask not to go. I did put in some preferable dates for CQ.

 

Vacation bid question....Going to Philmount with my son this summer and would like to get two weeks in a row to cover the time...how do you fill it out for that....put week # and the 2 for the number of weeks requested? Then, do you follow it up with a CYA of just the one week # later...? Or, is it best to try and get the next week on a follow on secondary week bid? I'm sure that there is a gouge on the DALPA site but I am too lazy to go and look.

 

Yes, put in the week # and then 2 for the number of weeks. Try the two week thing first, then one week, over the days you'll need. By the second round, all the summer weeks will be gone, BUT...there is a new feature called Vacation Slide, so if you don't get the exact days you need, you can push your week ahead or back several days, when the bidding for that month begins. If the days you need are near the beginning of one month, or end of another, you might be able to get a week in each month, pushed up against each other.

Like all bidding, the more senior you are in category, the better chance you have of getting what you want.

Good luck!

 

Thanks Timbo...went and found the gouge on the DALPA site.....DW

 

And don't be affraid to call someone at DALPA Scheduling tomorrow, just to be sure, that's why we pay them. 1-800-USA-ALPA, ask for the Scheduling Guru.

 

I am about the most debt averse person you can meet. The concept of spending more than you make is really, really foreign to the way I am wired. However, wrt the gubmint, they print the money and the fed controls the supply/value.

The bailouts of the past few years have shown us a window into how the gubmint thinks/reacts. I cannot say this with 100% certainty, but if past practice can be used to predict future results, the gubmint will spend until the cliff is 100% irrecoverable...Think ruble, 2001.

 

It would be a rare situation where you were forced to go early unless perhaps you were last in your category. When you bid for training you specify if you want to go that month and then put in the dates you would like. If you don't want to go you tell the computer you don't want training in that month and then put in some what if choices in case you are forced to go. So far I have always had training in the month I wanted and near the dates I want.

 

I had someone look at my January schedule. I figured they wanted to know what their seniority holds at my position. I looked up their number. It doesn't exists. What does that mean?
Congrats 80 on mini80.

 

The concept I have a difficult time wrapping my head around is the effect of leverage, especially on the scale some of our bankers use it.

Dick Cheney famously said "deficits don't matter." Could he be right?

Lets say a guy takes 1 million from his savings and retirement and invests it in a business. He still shows $1 million, the business shows a million and with interest rates where they are at, might as well borrow a million (and the bank's deposits are just another guy's savings) ... so now my business has $2 million and I've got my million on paper too, for a total show of $3 million in assets. Magic, as long as you can make the payments. Now, we buy a couple million in houses from Courthouse foreclosure sales for around 50 cents on the dollar. If we can appraise them right 3 million becomes 6, and we can borrow against that equity. So, in this example the money supply has not increased, but by investing, there is a lot of cash floating around this little business.

That's leverage of 1 to 1, then 2 to one and finally 3 to 1. The average for banks is 9 to 1 and I think the investment banks got up to 34 to 1 in 2008.

When the liquidity ponzi schemes came cashing down, nearly all investors lost a lot of money. Where did that money go? It was in the money supply, but now it is gone. My business partner lost somewhere around 1.6 million total in 2008 and since his investments went to zero (Fannie, Freddie, GM Preferred stock, etc ...) he did not recover with the market. That cash is out of circulation.

My question is, do losses like his offset the increase in the money supply created by deficit spending?

Another question, what about when all this money is created ... can't we create much more money through leverage than the government ever dreamed of creating?

And, when our economy grows, don't we need more money? If you have a monopoly game with 1,000,000,000 players ... you are going to need more money than the game comes with .....