The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also referred to as the stimulus bill, is showing up all across the Nation. And if you pay attention, you’ll realize how lousy a deal it really is.

On a trip to the in-laws this weekend, we ended up taking a detour through the backroads of a sleepy little town due to the removal and replacement of the towns one and only intersection. Sponsored of course by the ARRA.

Six weeks ago we made the same trip and took the same detour. At that time they working on the project for two weeks.

It’s clear to me that this is a government sponsored job simply because it’s taking so long. Any project funded through local means would have been done weeks ago.

This is but one clear example of how inefficient our government is with money. Little projects like this have popped up all over and they’re costing us millions a piece when they should be measured in hundreds of thousands.

Brilliant.

Rather than try and work with the Governor and the rest of the State representatives on policy that the majority of Americans agree with, he’s going to continue blasting the bill, and bringing foreign leaders in to follow suit.

All the while neither he nor Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have read the bill (by her own admission).

Talk about poor leadership skills.

Effectively, a top kill consists of injecting heavy fluids under high pressure down into the well bore. The weight of those fluids (i.e. the “head”) counters the pressure of the oil and gas coming up the well bore, and the end result is a “kill”.

Then, BP can come back in with cement and permanently plug the well.

The key is that the fluid you’re injecting needs to be very heavy. Drilling fluid is typically used; it’s used on the drilling process for the exact same purpose, to contain fluids in the well bore.

The other requirement is that you must be able to inject that heavy fluid under enough pressure to initially overcome (or overpower, if you will) the opposing pressure of the oil and gas condensate coming the pipe.

Good luck BP. I’m excited to see if this works. It’s never been done in deep water.

Great. Call in the experts.

The administration also accuses BP of “missing deadline after deadline”.

If that isn’t the kettle talking…

BP will try a top kill on Tuesday, and if that doesn’t go well I suspect they’ll try a junk shot. I don’t have much faith in junk shots.

PVX dropped a ton, and someone consummated a trade at $0.01 per share.

I started a position in Sprint thinking I was smart stuff when it then went up, and then it got whacked.

Don’t know what’s going on in Europe, but it’s got equity markets scared.

So now I’m looking for the next opportunity.  It’s not that I’m turning on Cree, I just need another stock that has as much room to grow as Cree did when I did my first analysis on the company back in June of 2009.

In the spirit of “go with what you know”, I’m looking at Sprint (S: chart, web, Y!).

It’s not that I have any extensive knowledge of the company itself, but I do use their service (ever since I switched from Verizon in January).

Sprint has made a rough go of it in the wireless industry over the last several years.  Customer service has been at the top of the complaint list for many customers, and the Nextel acquisition turned out terribly.

What’s interesting is that the company is silently competitive.  While AT&T and Verizon are in a fierce advertisement battle, Sprint is the lower cost solution with competitive service and products.

Customer service is getting better, coverage is good and getting better, and the company is extensively developing a 4G network in a partnership with Clearwire.

Sprint announces first quarter earnings on Wednesday, and the expectation is that they’ll post another 300,000 subscribers.  Those will most likely be Nextel customers, and I suspect the CDMA side of the business will show a net gain in customers.

The expectation is that Sprint will post a $0.10 per share loss, and they’ll probably meet that expectation (I wouldn’t be surprised if the loss is greater than expected, either).

The silver lining.

Things are getting better.  The Nextel business is essentially dead, and the company will probably just let it die.  Customers (like me) are going to the low-cost solution and letting Verizon and AT&T spend the big bucks on television ads.

The company has a great future in the 4G segment, and will probably revolutionize the wireless industry.

CEO Dan Hesse is rational about the direction of the company; willing to spend money on R&D, and is realistic about the subscriber base.

My plans?

I’ll wait till the numbers come out on Wednesday.  There is more short-term downside potential than upside potential (i.e. through the next week or so after earnings).  That said, I’ll buy on an appreciable pull back under $4.

Initially, this made me really mad, until I realized that a good portion of those making “policy” haven’t held a real job either.  So Geithner is no odd duck.

Realizing that I’ve got better things to do than be enraged about the people that make up our corrupt government, I moved on to determining what criteria candidates need to get my vote in the future.

A real job is now one of those criteria.

From now on, you need experience in a “real job” to get my vote.  That means a real, no kiddin’ 8 to 5 gig making a no-kiddin’ paycheck.  And you need some tenure too.  None of this, “I worked as an intern as a financial analyst while in school” stuff.

If you want a government job determining how my hard earned tax dollars get spent, you need to have some concept of how my tax dollars are earned.

In fact, if you are in a family of 4 making less than $50k per year, you end up owing nothing.

If this fact has you a bit peeved after stewing over your taxes for the last several weeks, keep reading, it gets better.

The bottom 40% of households will actually make money off Uncle Sam this year.  Put another way, they don’t pay taxes, yet they still get a check in the mail from the U.S. government.  It’s really not a refund, since they don’t have anything withheld to return.

So all the infrastructure that we all take advantage of (military, interstate, national airspace system, postal service, etc), regardless of income; 50% of American households pay not only for their share, but the other 50% of households share as well.

Think about this: If you owe money this year, you may as well give half of what you owe to your neighbor.  He’ll get it anyway.

Duncan was no spring chicken, but in recent interviews, he really didn’t show any signs of, well…. decline.

The company indicated that it does not intend to change ownership or management of the partnerships, but it does leave the average DEP stockholder to question how the interests of the partnership going forward will be aligned with shareholders.

Ideally, you want all parties interests to be aligned.  If the CEO holds 50% of the shares and depends on the value of those shares appreciating in value, as a smaller stakes shareholder, you can feel somewhat secure that he’ll strive to create growth and value in the company to keep the value of the shares going up.  In essence, your general interests in the company are aligned.

Now that Duncan isn’t around, it will be interesting to see how interests of all parties line up.

I received yet another post card today from the U.S. census bureau.  This time though, they want me to go to work for them.

• Good Pay
• Flexible Hours
• Close to Home

“These are temporary, part-time jobs that offer good pay, flexible schedules, and paid training.”  And when we’re done, you can go back to collecting unemployment that the government will continue extending out until who knows when…

Ok, that last part is mine (in case you missed the significance of the quotes).

I’d go recalculate what this additional mailing is costing the U.S. taxpayer, but it probably have to redo the math tomorrow when I get another post card…

Until then, don’t forget to pay your taxes.

Three weeks ago I got a post card in the mail indicating I’d get the census in the mail within the next two weeks.

Two weeks ago I received the census in the mail, telling me I needed to provide the name and number of those living in my house on April 1, but I needed to return the census as soon as possible.  Presumably before April 1. I filled it out and mailed it in two days after receiving it.

One week ago I got another post card in the mail reminding me to fill out the census and mail it in ASAP.  But if I’ve already done it, there is nothing else for me to do.

Thanks.  Got it.

Two out of three mailings weren’t required, one of which wasn’t even applicable to my situation.

So here’s how the math works out.  It costs the average Joe $0.28 to mail a post card in the United States.  There are also just over 110,000,000 households in the United States.

So neglecting any “Government Discounts” on postage, and a varying household rate, that equates to $30.8 million in un-needed postage.

Sure makes that $2.5 million Super Bowl ad seem pretty cheap, doesn’t it?

If fact, it’s become apparent that our representatives really aren’t representing any longer, they simply vote to keep their jobs.

In that light, please let me send a bit of a warning to our fellow Americans in Washington.  When the taxpayer no longer sees their money as being spent frugally, they stop paying taxes.  Laws be damned.

Our government is one of the most corrupt in the World.  It should become obvious when labor unions sway votes even though the general public doesn’t want legislation.

This years tax results ended up more favorable than in years past.  I’m actually getting money back from the Fed this year, about $850 to be more precise.

To be honest, my goal is to break even.  If there’s anything worse than paying good money for bogus and frivolous spending in Washington, it’s giving Uncle Sam an interest free loan.

Adding an extra dependent helps (for a $1,000 tax credit) and I’m using all the money I’ve paid to the day care center to my advantage.

Then there’s the B.S. “making work pay” tax credit of $800.  I’ve got mixed feelings about this one, since I’m not really a fan of taking (or supporting) free handouts from our government.  On the other hand, if everyone else is getting the so called “tax break”, why not me?

If you take out that $800 credit, I basically broke even.

On a related note, if you’re tired of paying taxes to fund worthless government programs, maybe it’s time for a change.  Check out the Fair Tax proposition; it might be a worthwhile cause.

Hate,    –verb (used with object)

to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest: to hate the enemy; to hate bigotry.

I’m not to the point of  “extreme hostility” yet, but the rest of the above certainly applies.

It’s not that I’m against paying taxes.  I understand the benefit.  Someone has to pay for the roads and highways we use, banking and aviation infrastructure, etc…

It’s the rest of the fraudulent and wasteful crap that my tax dollars spent on that really peeves me.

At any rate, corporate returns are due Monday, and I’ll be filing an extension.  Not because I’m not ready, I just don’t like being rushed.

More on how things turned out later.

We went to see The Blind Side, which I highly recommend.  The underlying story is of a well-off couple with two kids who take “Big Mike” (a teenage kid from the “other side of town” with only the clothes on his body) under their wing, buy him clothes, send them to school, and he ends up getting a scholarship to play football at Old Miss.

I’m not much of a movie critic, and the the previous paragraph doesn’t do the storyline justice.  I recommend seeing it for yourself.

A long time ago I wrote about how I paid good money (and a lot of it) for a bottle of water, when there was a water fountain right next to the concession counter.

Well, I failed in frugality once again.

Last night I paid $8 for a “large” bag of popcorn.  I admit it, guilty.

I can’t believe I did that, but popcorn sounded really good at the time, and I figured we’d split it, which we did.

There’s no way that bag of popcorn was worth $8.  But I paid for it anyway, and apparently by the looks of the line at the counter, other people did too.  I suppose a product is worth what people will pay for it, but for something as cheap and easy as popcorn, it strikes me that so many people are willing to pay for it.

I was only slightly vindicated by putting $4 worth of free fake butter and salt on the popcorn.  If I’m gonna overpay for popcorn, I’m gonna load it up with all the free stuff I can.  Arteries be damned.

With a kid romping around and daycare chewing up the extra cash, it will be much more difficult to fund all $10,000 for 2010, but I’m gonna try.

What bugs me now is that I’ve got money sitting on the sidelines.  It bugs me because I want it to be working for me, but I’m not sure where to put it to work.  I’m still overweight in a few stocks that I’m paring out of gradually, which is where a bulk of the idle money is coming from.

I’m still thinking interest rates are going to be on the rise, along with taxes…

Another subject I’d rather not think about now.

This is the beginning.

Readers of this space know that I feel interest rates will go up.  They have to.

You can’t spend money like our Government has been printing it and expect any semblance of balance to be maintained.

If the economy were going great gangbusters right now it would be a different story.  In general, debt is not necessarily bad.  But like many households in the last several years, our Country can no longer service it’s debt without taking on even more debt…

So interest rates (and I’m certain, taxes too) are going up so we can get some cash out of the economy.

“One of the best rules anybody can learn about investing is to do nothing, absolutely nothing, unless there is something to do. Most people always have to be playing; they always have to be doing something. They make a big play and say, “Boy, I am smart, I just tripled my money.” Then they rush out and have to do something else with that money. They just can`t just sit there and wait for something new to develop.”  -Jim Rogers

I’m up about 80% on CREE, and am about back to even on PVX. I’m rarely up 80% on anything (read my posts on Ford before you draw any conclusions on my trading style), and I’m overweight in PVX.

I’m sure there’s more room to run on both of these, but it’s time to score some of those gains.

My son just had his first birthday this last week, and I’ve reflected back on the last 12 months, and constantly wonder where the time has gone.

We spent 8 days in Costa Rica in early January, and took the kid and two sets of grandparents with us. Never in my life has a vacation been so… un-relaxing. Constantly chasing the boy, changing diapers, giving a bottle, shoveling Gerber jars.

And I’d do it all over in a heartbeat.

I’ve got hundreds of pictures of my son dipping his feet into the sand on the beach for the first time, his first trip to the pool, and even pictures chasing iguanas and monkeys.

To be sure, I need more than 24 hours in a day to get stuff done. But I’ll never trade in my time at the beach with my son.