Something wrong with this picture

Have I mentioned lately that the iPhone is amazing? Well, I've had mine for 16 months or so now, and I still think it is the best phone I've ever had.

What triggers this praise? Thanks to the wonders of Stanza (links to iTunes), I just re-read The Count of Monte Cristo (one of the all-time classics that is honestly fun to read). As I was reading, I decided to look at some of the different places in Google Earth, since I am very rusty on my French geography. Actually, I have no concept of French geography other than Paris.

So I look at Marseilles, then decide to look for the Chateau d'If. I found it, and on the island it looks like there is a little something unexpected:

So why didn't Edmond Dantes simply take the jet when he left the island?

He could have saved himself a lot of swimming!

Also, Monte Cristo is a real island:

Yet another post about bailouts

There are a few key failings of this blog:
First, I haven't posted in over two months.
Second, I haven't posted about something other than bailouts since September 9th.

One of these is going to be remedied tonight. The other is not. That's right, it's time for another angry rant about bailouts.

I won't rehash my disappointment regarding the original bailouts. I won't even criticize AIG, although they are an easy target. Also, say you were a large size company who received a sudden windfall injection of cash despite thoroughly mismanaging your assets. Why would you change your behavior? And if this same naive "investor" rewarded you with EVEN MORE cash without asking where the original money went, would you do anything differently? Yeah, me neither. And so that is why even though I hate AIG, I understand. What I don't understand is the Treasury and the Fed continually dumping more money. But I digress...

My original intent with this post was to comment on an article I saw on CNN's website. It is provacatively titled "Why the Big Three Should Fly Corporate Jets". As you may remember, on their first trip to capitol hill, the CEO's of Ford, GM, and Cerberus Motors...er, Chrysler that is...all flew on their own private jets. Each of them got hammered in the Congressional session and in the press for the audacity of wasting so much money and natural resources.

The main arguments in the article are:

• Congress wastes lots of money, too, so why should they criticize?
• If they had flown commercial they might have been late.
• Disney, one of the critics, lets its CEO fly a corporate jet.
• Most CEOs are "required" to fly corporate by their boards of directors.
• You are really just jealous it isn't you flying on the corporate jet.
• Corporate jets really aren't that nice.
• Corporate jets save time (really? You are going to waste words telling us the one thing EVERYONE in America knows?) and CEOs make a lot of money, so why waste shareholder's money?

Call me crazy, but I think every single one of these points is asinine. The main issue is not that the CEOs flew on corporate jets to their meetings--it is that the CEOs flew on corporate jets the their meeting to ask for $25 billion (now $34 billion) in taxpayer money!!! Let's do a quick reality check:

Imagine you had a really rich uncle. For years, he's been living the high life. He's had the mansion on the hill, vacations in Tahiti, ski lodges in Sun Valley, etc. You name it, he has it. On the other hand, you've lived a modest lifestyle, not much in the bank, but have good credit. One day your uncle flies into town on his private jet, pulls up to your house in a limosine and asks to borrow $250,000. Wouldn't you think it was a little extravagent? Wouldn't you want to know why he couldn't have flown in on Delta and rented a car from Hertz?

Most CEO's flying in corporate jets is not that big a deal. I think it is incredibly wasteful and silly, but if a company is in good financial shape, go for it. But if a company is asking you, my fellow humble taxpayer, for a massive loan, shouldn't they demonstrate a willingness to control costs before they are given more money?