Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

2020 Vision

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In less than a month, we will know who our President will be for the next four years (cough President Pantsuit cough cough). Way back in January, my post about the election stated simply: “Hillary Clinton will win the election if things more or less, kinda sorta stay the same. In other words, the status quo begets the status quo.”

In case you didn’t notice, over the nine months since I did that post, things have sorta kinda stayed the same. Central bankers still control the world. Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon are billionaires that will never be charged with a crime. Hillary and Bill can act with impunity. Nothing has changed. No big terrorist attacks. No financial panic has been allowed. It’s all……the same.

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Announcing House Safari

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Two years ago to the day, I sat down with a friend of mine from back in the days of Prophet. He wanted to catch up, and he shared with me some ideas he was having about real estate information. We started talking excitedly about all that could be done in this surprisingly undeveloped area, and I latched on to the idea of creating a mobile app in this sector.

I am delighted to finally announce the introduction of House Safari, into which we have poured a tremendous amount of time, cash, and unfettered love. I suppose the quickest way to explain it would be “it’s like a Yelp for houses”, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Please check out the website and play the video there. (I’ve done more specific videos on this page, if you’re interested). If you have iTunes or are reading this on your iPhone, click here.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, download the free app and give it a try. I’ve been looking forward to this day a long time, and I’m thrilled it’s finally here. And if you download it, please do me a favor and give it a nice review. I’m cashing in whatever Slope gratitude might be out there!

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Hairspray

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My reflection stared back at me faintly this morning in the large plate glass at the front of the Vonn’s supermarket. My family-oriented lifestyle, shall we say, keeps me on the road constantly these days, and this time I found myself with my long bangs flying all over the place. I wasted little time in procuring a new Ace comb and some hairspray to whip my hair into submission.

As I made sure that no hair was out of place, I was mentally transported to a memory that surprised me: when I was a boy of about ten, one of my prized possessions was a bottle of hairspray. I can remember the simple black and white bottle. Growing up in Louisiana, I wasn’t exactly living the life of luxury, and I rarely asked my parents for anything out of the ordinary. At the barber one day, however, I asked for that bottle.

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Post Eighteen Thousand

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No, I’m not talking about the Dow. This is, in fact, the eighteen thousandth post on the WordPress platform for Slope of Hope. Incredibly, that doesn’t count the platforms Slope was on before. But Slope began its life on WordPress (having been in existence almost three years already) on February 27, 2008. And, boy, we didn’t know what was coming later that year, did we, boys and girls?

Would that the market were behaving in such a way as to inspire an easy, content-rich post analyzing its behavior. Sadly, this is not the case. It’s a testament to the Slope community that, in the face of that red-hot poker stick you see drawn below, we still have a thriving, dynamic blog on what is ostensibly (thanks to your insane host) a bearish blog. Can you possibly imagine this place during a downturn? (more…)