Hard Times Good Times

It was bad enough that the economic crisis crippled many private pension plans, 401ks, etc.. In many cases owners of these plans were partly to blame, ignoring the basis (or lack of it) for the extraordinary returns accumulating in their accounts; they blithely sat back and let the good times roll, hopefully right into retirement. In other cases, where retirement plans were managed by professional money managers, investors relied on them to keep their nest egg growing but at the same time safe from severe loss. In any case it all crashed like a house of cards. Paying for your own mistakes is one thing, but if you live in Hungary or Poland or certain other places, the government is now talking about seizing private pension plans [1] – what’s left of them – to pay for the State’s mistakes. I know what you’re thinking, that can’t happen here. Not in the U S of A, right? I’m not so sure, but in any case I’m merely a dog, one lacking any kind of nest egg, but if such a thing were to be considered here I can well imagine that the word target would be widely used in a whole new set of contexts.

While we wait for the apocalypse,  Mom got out for a ski today under 1-Airedale power. No not with me, rather a girly girl named Gypsy, the sweet companion of our friends Mark & Judith. There’s enough snow in the mountains to make for nice skiing, but here in the city we’re well below our annual average this time of year. Or so it seems. Later, on their way to the date night venue mom captured a moose munching on a Mountain Ash on a major downtown street. Moose are ubiquitous in the Anchorage bowl, but seeing one downtown is a bit unusual. When they get hungry they can get desperate. I still can’t get my head around how a 1-2 thousand pound herbivore can subsist, especially through winter, on branches, twigs and a few frozen berries. I miss breakfast and I’m not myself the rest of the day.

Pictures (Ski jour, downtown moose, date night beauties). Ciao.

1. Hat tip Improved Clinch via Instapundit