Bookworm

We can't register it, either. . .

"Small service stations are running into a problem as gasoline marches toward $4 a gallon in the United States: Thousands of old-fashioned pumps can't register more than $3.99 on their spinning mechanical dials. The pumps, throwbacks to a bygone era on the American road, are difficult and expensive to upgrade, and replacing them is often out of the question for station owners who are still just scraping by. Many of the same pumps can only count up to $99.99 for the total sale, preventing owners of some sport utility vehicles, vans, trucks and other gas-guzzlers to fill their tanks all the way." [AP story at CNN.com]

Overseas Call Centers as a symptom of globalization

I felt like I was inside a chapter of Thomas Friedman's book on globalization this morning.  I had to place a phone call to find out how much interest was paid on a loan last year, for tax purposes.  I was on hold for approximately ten minutes and then my call was answered by "Matt."  Matt appeared, from his accent, to be a native of India and I could barely understand what he was saying to me.  He had to put me on hold at least three times and finally after almost twenty-two minutes on the phone, I had what I needed. 

Red, White and Blue Tag Sale

"Two decades ago, we fretted that Japan was taking over America when Sony bought Columbia Pictures and Mitsubishi bought a chunk of Rockefeller Center. But they overpaid for everything.

Now, because of Wall Street’s overreaching, our economy depends on foreign oil and foreign loans to stay afloat.

China and Arab countries have a staggering amount of treasury securities. And the oil-rich countries are sitting on so many petrodollars that they are looking beyond prestige hotels and fashion labels and taking advantage of the fire sale to buy eye-popping stakes in our major financial institutions.

Like the president, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch came with tin cups to Middle Eastern, Asian and American investors last week, for a combined total of nearly $19.1 billion, after the subprime mortgage debacle blew up their books.

Citigroup, which raised $7.5 billion from Abu Dhabi in November, raised another $12.5 billion, including from Singapore, Kuwait and Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal. Merrill Lynch gave $6.6 billion in preferred stock to Kuwait, South Korea, a Japanese bank and others.

(While the great sage Bob Rubin was advising Hillary Clinton on sound fiscal policy, he seemed to be asleep at the Citigroup switch.)

As Warren Buffett has said, we are giving ourselves a party to feed our appetite for oil and imported goods and paying for it by selling off the furniture, our most precious assets."  [New York Times; emphasis mine]

27 Money Tips for College Students

"School’s back in session, and with it come life-lessons in money management for students. But personal finance can be easy, even if you’re just starting out. You just have to know how it works. All of the following are concepts I wish I had known before heading to college." [Get Rich Slowly: 27 Money Tips for College Students]

A very good, well thought out, post with tidbits for everyone, not just college students.

Many Entry-Level Workers Feel Pinch of Rough Market

"Entry-level wages for college and high school graduates fell by more than 4 percent from 2001 to 2005, after factoring in inflation, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by the Economic Policy Institute. In addition, the percentage of college graduates receiving health and pension benefits in their entry-level jobs has dropped sharply. Some labor experts say wage stagnation and the sharp increase in housing costs over the past decade have delayed workers ages 20 to 35 from buying their first homes. “People are getting married later, they’re having children later, and they’re buying houses later,” said Cecilia E. Rouse, an economist at Princeton University and a co-editor of a forthcoming book on the economics of early adulthood. “There’s been a lengthening of the transition to adulthood, and it is very possible that what has happened in the economy is leading to some of these changes.” [NY Times; emphasis mine]

The Week Magazine

"China’s economic boom has made America’s penny much more costly to produce. Because of its rapid industrial growth, China consumes enormous quantities of zinc, the metal inside the copper shell of a penny. As a result, zinc prices have soared. That means that the U.S. Mint will have to spend 1.23 cents to produce one penny this fiscal year. The penny isn’t the only coin with this problem: Chinese demand has also pushed up the cost of copper, the main metal in the nickel, forcing the Mint to spend 5.73 cents to produce each 5-cent coin. Still, the penny is the only coin on the chopping block." [The Week Magazine]

Gee, Doesn't Every Employer Do These Things?

"Meals of all kinds, painstakingly prepared by company chefs, are free at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., a modern corporate campus known as the Googleplex. Other amenities there include children's day care, doctors, dry cleaning, laundry, a gym, and basketball and volleyball courts. Maternity or paternity leave is 12 weeks at 75 percent of full pay. There is also up to $500 available for takeout meals for the entire family after a newborn arrives, courtesy of Google. Shuttle buses (with wireless Internet access for working while commuting) ferry employees to the Googleplex from throughout the Bay area. . . [T]he company's engineers are given 20 percent of their time to pursue their own ideas instead of company assignments. . . [A]ll Google employees receive stock grants or options . . . The company also doles out cash payments, including Founders' Awards of millions of dollars, for innovations that add value to the Google franchise." [NY Times; free registration required to read articles]

How is the Economy Really Doing?

". . .[T]he unemployment rate is only one of several numbers economists use to assess the jobs picture. When the economy is generating an abundance of jobs, economists expect to see strong growth in the payrolls reported by employers and in the number of people who say they have jobs, together with a rise in the length of the average workweek. They also expect to see wage gains well in excess of inflation, as employers compete to attract workers.

In fact, we see none of these things. As Berkeley's J. Bradford DeLong writes on his influential economics blog, "We have four of five indicators telling us that the state of the job market is not that good and only one - the unemployment rate - reading green."  [NY Times]

The Credit Card Prank I and II

Where an intrepid researcher goes to extraordinary lengths to find out what someone has to to in order to have his or her signature checked when making a credit card purchase.  [Link: The Credit Card Prank and/or The Credit Card Prank II]

Fix the Problem, Washington

A recent Harvard study found that, of 1,771 people filing for bankruptcy across the U.S., half of them were doing so because of the fallout from illness and/or healthcare costs. 

". . . each year, 2 million Americans -- those who file and their dependents -- face the double disaster of illness and bankruptcy.  But the bigger surprise was that three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance."  [Washington Post]

According to the linked WaPo op-ed piece, Congress's response to this growing crisis is to make it harder for people to declare bankruptcy.  Talk about putting their collective heads in the sand.  Elected representatives: Tell us what you're going to do to make sure we all have adequate health insurance and good quality healthcare!  Do you think people really want to be declaring bankruptcy?  They've got their backs against the wall financially and need to provide the basic necessities for their families!