My Story:

Three years ago, I noticed my left middle fingernail began turning white instead of its normal healthy pink. I did not know what was going on, but after a few weeks, the entire nail became white and flaky. At first I did not think much of it, but then I started getting regular questions along the lines of “what the heck is wrong with your nail, you freak?” Subsequently, I decided to go to the doctor.

After a short appointment, the doctor told me I had “onychomycosis,” which means nail fungus in regular-person language. He said that I needed to take a medication called Lamisil for two months. That sounded easy enough. But there was a catch: I needed to get a blood test to make sure that my liver could handle the medication.

At that point, since I like my liver, I asked the doctor if I had any other options. I told him I understood the medication was probably more convenient than the other options, but that I would much rather see if I could try a solution that didn’t involve damaging my liver. He told me this was my only option, and that if I did not take the Lamisil, my nail would grow thick and I would get frequent fingernail infections and live with constant fingernail pain. He then wrote me a prescription for Lamisil, using a pen with the Lamisil logo, and I walked out of his office dreading what might happen to my finger if I did not take the drug.

I’m writing this article for the primary purpose of getting my thoughts onto a page.  I always hear all of this talk about how the only reason that oil prices are so high is because of speculation.  But that argument does not sit well with me because it ignores the underlying reason for speculation.  The argument runs that oil/gas is not really as expensive as it is, because the prices are only high because of speculators screwing around in the market.

There is some truth to the speculation argument.  Sure, speculators are buying oil, and the more demand to buy a commodity, the higher the price goes.  But, this begs the question: why are they buying oil?

Speculators in this case are people that predict the price of oil will be higher in the future than it is now, so they, in the simplest case, buy oil now so they can sell it later when it is more valuable.  If the price of oil goes up, it is because lots of people believe the price will go up in the future.  That begs the question: why do they think oil will go up in the future?

My car is currently on its deathbed.  My 1990 Toyota Camry has been so good to me for so long.  However, I took it in to a repair shop a few weeks ago because I thought the rear cylinders were leaking.  I wasn’t too worried because rear cylinder repairs are only a couple hundred bucks.

Turns out I was right… sort of.   Not only were the rear cylinders leaking (slightly), but both front CV joints on my car are cracked, I have a bunch of “valve issues” and I’ve got oil leaking on my timing belt.  Total projected repair cost: $1800.  My car’s blue book value: sub $500.  So I’ve come to the conclusion, that sometime in the near future, I need to find another car.

I don’t like the idea that pro athletes in some sports are required to attend college for a certain number of years to compete in a professional sports league. I started thinking about this recently because the McDonald’s All American game is coming up soon, and there is lots of controversy over agents recruiting high school kids even though they have to go to college for a year before entering the NBA. The requirement that pro athletes attend college before participating in a professional sport is silly and paternalistic.

The argument generally made in favor of this requirement is pro sports leagues have to protect the pro athletes from themselves in case their sports career doesn’t pan out. I don’t buy it. First, these “kids” are 18 when they graduate high school (or will be soon). Hence, they are adults, and they deserve respect, so we should treat them like adults. If they want to bet it all on a sports career: so be it. That’s no different from a high-school graduate trying to become an entrepreneur: we don’t require a college education before starting a business, even though starting a business is inherently riskier than playing in the NBA for a year because if you fail, you’re generally going to be in big-time debt.

Dan Ariely was Bob Brinker’s guest on Money Talk last weekend.  Dr. Dan, as Brinker called him, is a professor of Behavioral Economics at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.     Dr Dan was pushing his new book Predictably Irrational. I am going to give a rough summary of one of Dr. Dan’s experiments for the book that I found interesting.   He gave subjects a simple math test where the subjects would be able to able to figure out the correct answers but he made sure that the subjects did not have enough time to complete the tests. He then tested different variables to measure the impact of cheating.   He had testers tell the subjects that they would be paid $1 for each correct answer. The first group:  Once the time was up, they told the testers how many correct answers they got correct.   On average these subjects reported they got 4 correct. The second group:  Once the time was up, they shredded the tests and then told the testers how many they got right.  They knew evidence would not be there to verify how many they got correct and said they got 7 correct.