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.

Plausible Denial aka The Cancer Of Leadership

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No matter the headline, no matter the scandal, no matter how few or how many might be involved, one thing will become crystal clear: nobody that should have known – will have known.

There was a time when this art form of creating circumstances as to protect people of influence had its place and was used sparingly and tactfully. However, as of today both the frequency along with how and where it is used has gone from “useful ruse” to a downright childish alibi. No one seems to be accountable today. And I mean nobody! (more…)

Did Apple Just Become Microsoft?

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Let me get this out of the way up front. I have been an Apple® fan from the beginning. I’ve owned their products with my first purchase of a IIc back in the early 80′s. Yes, I have bounced back and forth between PC based brands over the years, but once the revolution at Apple took place with the return of Jobs (where truly everything changed) I began dropping anything PC based and replaced it with Apple.

Since the introduction of the iPhone®, and the improvements via iOS and Mac® based platforms I made the change to everything Apple based and haven’t looked back. I have opined many times that all one has to do to solidify whether or not the switch was worth it was to try to make the change back. For me, 10 minutes trying to do simple things without feeling I need a degree in code writing was all it took. (I know there’s a whole anti-Apple crowd so save the emails) (more…)

Will History Record The Ending Of QE As An Archduke Moment?

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One can’t help but look at the situations transpiring around the globe and hope: things are different0512-ass this time. The problem is being different puts it right back in line with that other caveat: history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. And so lies the most troubling aspect facing not only the U.S. economy, but quite possibly the world as whole. For if things rhyme anything inline with past events in history: We’re all in a dung heap of QE based minutia, with Geo-political ramifications the “intellectual” crowd never contemplated as possible – let alone probable.

It was just a mere 4 years ago this month in which then Fed. Chair Ben Bernanke announced to the world via his now infamous Jackson Hole speech that QE would basically be adulterating the financial markets indefinitely. i.e., QE1 became QE2 signaling QE4eva. And since that time the Federal Reserve has done just. And as always that decision was heralded by the financial media as “genius.” (more…)

Moving The US Economy Forward By Reversing Its Tax Policies

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Nothing will stir up an argument faster than a discussion on taxes. Doesn’t matter local, state, or federal. One thing is certain: there seems to no longer be a middle ground for those arguing for more, or less. Now it’s all – or nothing.

Not since the days of red-coated overseers has this argument seem to have been met with such furor. One of the troubling reasons is that the people claiming rights to dispense edicts on what they believe one is entitled to keep, believe they have the moral and intellectual argument for it.

We hear routinely that businesses aren’t paying enough, or that other catch phrase, “not paying their fair share.” Well to quote the late Billy Preston, “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.” And what a lot of these people are finding out pretty quickly – nothing is exactly what they are going to be left with if their current pursuits are followed further. (more…)

And Banks Wonder Why People Distrust Them

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If it wasn’t for the sheer magnitude of the idiocy associated with what happens behind the scenes at most major banks one would just laugh. However, one can’t help but look at just the latest story to grace the headlines referencing Bank Of America™ and its now uncovered “oopsy” accounting and wonder should you laugh or be scared.

Suddenly it’s been revealed that all the “extra” money they had to bolster their balance sheets which allowed them to offer dividends, buy backs, et al actually wasn’t there. So much so that the Federal Reserve (supposedly the overseers that are responsible that such things don’t/can’t happen) has now rescinded the “all clear go ahead and pay out” to “Holy crap what?” (more…)