One of the things I have heard for years from both political parties is a lot of yelling. Partisans yell at the television. Or in groups, they will chat about the current thing and gripe about something. Social media elevates the noise and temperature.

Out on the campaign trail, everyone hears a lot of that stuff. Not from constituents, but from candidates. They will talk about what they have done. It makes sense if you have been in elected office. It makes no sense if you have never held elected office.

If you haven’t won an election, you never held the power to effect any change. It’s just noise, no different than the old man on the park bench shouting to get off his lawn. It’s not even his lawn; it’s a public park.

This is the first time I have ever done anything remotely like this. Citizen to candidate is a hard leap. But if I am successful, I hope this run inspires someone else like me to take the plunge. We need more people who have done stuff in the real world to enter government and get real stuff done.

Taxpayers are under too much pressure, and there is too much at stake.

I was chatting with a Munibond guy today. He is my age and has been in the biz since his 20s. I think we have known each other for about 20 years now. I saw him at his daughter’s wedding last December. He was telling me how antique a lot of treasuries are around the country. Not just states, but counties and cities, too. Their accounting systems are so old that they can’t even buy floating-rate bonds. That makes zero sense in this day and age. Even if you don’t buy them, your accounting software ought to be able to keep track of them.

Funny thing about business careers, most of the stuff you do is quantifiable, searchable, and objective when you measure it or talk about it. For people who have worked in what I call “Ivory Tower Factories”, nothing is measurable or quantifiable. Nothing is tangible. They did some chalk stuff on a blackboard. Maybe they wrote about it for some journal. Hence, everything they say is what we used to call “smack”.

The academics I used to interface with at Chicago Booth were quick to remark that some of the stuff they did would not work in practice, but it worked in theory. It is a running joke. CAPM is a perfect example. It’s taught in every Finance 101 class, but no one uses it. However, understanding it helps you understand something else.

When you analyze their literature and their proclamations, it’s all astroturf. It’s fake. Even when you go to Wikipedia or a website, it’s all linked back to fake stuff. “All hat and no cattle” is what my old friend BBJ on the floor called it. Some of them even shade the truth quite a bit to make you think something when it isn’t true.

I think that’s why they called Obama the “empty suit”.

I was chatting with a few people today, and they were surprised that I tossed my hat in the arena. Once I explained why, they weren’t surprised. They are supporting me.

You can too.

One of the things I have heard for years from both political parties is a lot of yelling. Partisans yell at the television. Or in groups, they will chat about the current thing and gripe about something. Social media elevates the noise and temperature.

Out on the campaign trail, everyone hears a lot of that stuff. Not from constituents, but from candidates. They will talk about what they have done. It makes sense if you have been in elected office. It makes no sense if you have never held elected office.

If you haven’t won an election, you never held the power to effect any change. It’s just noise, no different than the old man on the park bench shouting to get off his lawn. It’s not even his lawn; it’s a public park.

This is the first time I have ever done anything remotely like this. Citizen to candidate is a hard leap. But if I am successful, I hope this run inspires someone else like me to take the plunge. We need more people who have done stuff in the real world to enter government and get real stuff done.

Taxpayers are under too much pressure, and there is too much at stake.

I was chatting with a Munibond guy today. He is my age and has been in the biz since his 20s. I think we have known each other for about 20 years now. I saw him at his daughter’s wedding last December. He was telling me how antique a lot of treasuries are around the country. Not just states, but counties and cities, too. Their accounting systems are so old that they can’t even buy floating-rate bonds. That makes zero sense in this day and age. Even if you don’t buy them, your accounting software ought to be able to keep track of them.

Funny thing about business careers, most of the stuff you do is quantifiable, searchable, and objective when you measure it or talk about it. For people who have worked in what I call “Ivory Tower Factories”, nothing is measurable or quantifiable. Nothing is tangible. They did some chalk stuff on a blackboard. Maybe they wrote about it for some journal. Hence, everything they say is what we used to call “smack”.

The academics I used to interface with at Chicago Booth were quick to remark that some of the stuff they did would not work in practice, but it worked in theory. It is a running joke. CAPM is a perfect example. It’s taught in every Finance 101 class, but no one uses it. However, understanding it helps you understand something else.

When you analyze their literature and their proclamations, it’s all astroturf. It’s fake. Even when you go to Wikipedia or a website, it’s all linked back to fake stuff. “All hat and no cattle” is what my old friend BBJ on the floor called it. Some of them even shade the truth quite a bit to make you think something when it isn’t true.

I think that’s why they called Obama the “empty suit”.

I was chatting with a few people today, and they were surprised that I tossed my hat in the arena. Once I explained why, they weren’t surprised. They are supporting me.

You can too.