Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Bullet Doddged

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The Tim of years ago would probably never have believed that he supported and applauded anything that Democrats were doing, but………he is. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I am living my political life backwards. The old saying, “If you’re young and conservative, you have no heart, and if you’re old and liberal, you have no brain” speaks to the normal, assumed political path of American citizens: you start off a hippie-dippie left-winger and, through the years, become a curmudgeonly radical-right conservative.

I’m doing it precisely the opposite way: as a teenager, I had a terrifyingly laissez-faire, dog-eat-dog, every-man-for-himself attitude. I was a hard-core libertarian (and, deep down, probably still am) and saw all Democrats as welfare-loving, tax-and-spending, union-worshipping socialists.

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Bullish on WalMart

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A Sloper was kind enough to send me the following idea this morning, which I wanted to share:

Walmart is benefitting from 2 major events:

1. The recent significant drop in gasoline prices (50+%) helps the low income segment of the population the most since they spend most of their income on the basics. Less fuel expenses leaves more for other things. Some of this goes to Walmart.

2. The strong dollar lowers the costs to importers and reduces the income of exporters. Walmart is a big importer.

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