The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: More Thoughts on Plywood, Steel, and Porn

The Rules of Bureaucracy

Rule #O: "The Rules of Bureaucracy are mutable, non-canonical, non-ordinal, and contradictory, except in the cases where they are not."
Rule #1: "Document everything you do; if you didn't write it down, it didn't happen."
Rule #2 [The Sixty Minutes Rule]: "Never do anything that would cause Ed Bradley, Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Steve Croft, Leslie Stahl, or even Andy Rooney to persue you down a hallway with a camera crew."
Rule #3: "Nothing Simple is Ever Easy"
Rule #4: "It's about the money; follow the money."
Rule #5: "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Rule #6: "Politics is the enemy of good government."
Rule #7: "The biggest detriment to public service is the public."
Rule #8: "The second biggest detriment to public service is the service."
Rule #9: "There's a reason; there's ALWAYS a reason."
Rule #10: "The Law is a harsh mistress: The rigorous and exacting application of which can benefit of society when used correctly to advance good policy and block bad, and be the bane of society when used incorrectly to advance bad policy and block good."
Rule #11: "Public service often involves waking up in the morning, opening up the newspaper, and discovering that someone, somewhere out there thinks that you're a dickhead."
Rule #12: "No one really knows what you do."
Rule #13 [Luke's Rule]: "No one ever acts like the bastard they really are."
Rule #14: "Bureaucracy endures."
Rule #15: "The longer you work in bureaucracy, the more Catch-22 resembles non-fiction."
Rule #16: "Politicians are not smarter than you."
Rule #18: "Money is not created equal."
Rule #19: "Mediocrity is normalcy."
Rule #17: "Within any bureaucratic structure, resources (e.g. people, money, knowledge, etc.) are not distributed uniformly."
Rule #20: "Don't assume a fiduciary liability without a committed resource allocation."
Rule #21: "If you do your job and obey the law, they can't reasonably fire you."
Rule #22: "The Budget will always be wrong."
Rule #23: "Always sign in blue."
Rule #24: "A Bureaucrat must be able to explain and justify his/her actions to laymen without resorting to the phrase 'because the Rules say so.'"
Rule #25: "Never voluntarily relinquish control of an original document."
Rule #26: "Sometimes you just have to say 'Screw the rules'"
Rule #27: "Change sucks."
Rule #28: "Sometimes the answer is 'No.'"
Rule #29: "It is very easy to make difficult decisions when no one has a clue what's going on."
Rule #30: "If you hang around long enough, eventually you will become an expert in something."
Rule #31: "Data, technology, and automatic processes can never completely supplant human interaction."
Rule #32: "Cover thine own ass."
Rule #33: "It's not real until it has its own acronym."
Rule #34:There is nothing more dangerous than an elected, resourceful idiot.
Rule #35: It will always take longer than expected.
Rule #36: Coming Soon...

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

More Thoughts on Plywood, Steel, and Porn

How's that for a engaging title for a post? Did I say Porn? I meant Concrete.

Sorry for the confusion.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is out with their PPI numbers again. I'm not sure the Republic can handle it, but here I go plunging into the gooey caramel center goodness that is Plywood, Steel and Concrete.

Like I said, or at least meant to say, before, I feel that a surge in these prices will carry over to an increase in housing costs... which is bad, especially if us curmudgeons are right about this housing bubble bursting: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.

Or something like that.

Anyway, to satiate your appetite for graphs...

Plywood

Cement & Concrete

Architectural and Structural Metals

Hard to miss the dramatic swing in Plywood Prices (+9.76%) in September, which could be attributed to Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, Michael Brown, and other disasters. Also, it's hard to miss the continual increase Cement and Concrete (+.69%). May numbers in Plywood and Cement & Concrete were revised upwards from last month, which is interesting. Architectural & Structural Steel went down .34% in September.

BTW, CPI went up 1.22% in September. Plywood's rising faster than Ron Jeremy on Viagra AND inflation.

Heh... wood*

Again, make of this what you will, but I wouldn't want to be in housing construction or development right now. If I was a contractor, I don't think I'd be willing to hold my prices for more than a week.

Me? I'm going to go finish off my nightly bourbon.

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*I suppose it was about porn after all.