Free Calls, Free Trade March 17, 2005March 1, 2017 FREE CALLS Columnist Robert X. Cringely tells us that Skype and the others will have trouble when the big boys – the big telecoms – start giving better treatment to their own VoIP (voice over internet protocol) calls . . . which will relegate your and my Skype calls to the slimmest pickings of the available bandwidth. But for now, there’s theswitchboard.ca, which requires no downloads and is entirely free. So you and your girlfriend can spend the whole day together, as if she were in the next room (“Honey, how long do you microwave beets?”), even though she is 7,000 miles away. Ah, brave new world. FREE TRADE Frank McClendon: “I would like to know what you think of the Lou Dobbs interview in Playboy – ‘America’s Other War – By Outsourcing, Corporate America Kills the Middle Class and the American Dream.’ The gist: I’d prefer that corporations return to being good citizens – and because of the dictates of their conscience – end outsourcing. But if corporate America can’t forgo short term profits for the broader interests of our society, it is Washington’s responsibility to act. . . . It seems however that business leaders would rather collect seven-figure bonuses for cutting costs – usually by dumping jobs or shipping them overseas. ☞ I am more of a free trader . . . albeit biased toward using our influence to push trading partners to improve working conditions and environmental regulation – e.g., instituting a “minimum wage” program as suggested here last week. I understand that family comes first, and that close neighbors are more important than distant neighbors. Ohioans (if you’re from Ohio) clearly outrank Kentuckians, just as we care more about Americans (if we’re American) than we care about Canadians, let alone the French. But how steep should the curve be? I first wrote about this 35 years ago in a book (The Funny Money Game) that included a “conversion table,” by nationality, as one might show how many pounds or francs or baht or yen there are to the dollar. But it remains a puzzlement even today. To take a childish example, if you had a choice between one neighbor dying or one Bangladeshi, you’d probably – reluctantly – choose the Bangladeshi. But if it were one neighbor versus two Bangladeshis? Ten? Ten thousand? Fortunately, with respect to outsourcing, no one has to die (except possibly, indirectly, from the poverty of joblessness). So it’s not as wrenching to come right out and say one American job is worth two or ten or ten thousand jobs in Dhaka. But there are two other factors that, even so, make it a damnably difficult calculation. Because not ONLY does giving the job to the Bangladeshi help the Bangladeshi . . . but it also lowers the cost of the clothes we buy to keep our kids warm (making clothes in Bangladesh is cheaper than making them here); and, in the long run, enriches us as well as the Bangladeshis, because someday that newly-employed Bangladeshi will be able to buy some product or service WE sell. (And perhaps buy a few shares of the stock that we will need to sell to pay our nursing home bill.) So I lean strongly toward free trade, but with assistance for those who are displaced here (e.g., extended unemployment and continuing education/retraining opportunities) – and with a very conscious, creative effort to include in our trade agreements progress on wage and environmental issues . . . pushing hard for and making progress on those things . . . but pushing not quite so hard that we kill the deal. Michael Young: “You argue the U.S. should espouse a global treaty requiring a minimum wage. That all sounds nice, but not even the most labor-friendly politicians believe that is practical or even desirable. Developing countries simply cannot meet the standard; forcing their minimum wages up too soon will likely stifle development. If you limit your statement to developed countries, then it’s a fine one (and it’s largely, but not entirely, met already). The problem is deciding when and how to pressure developing nations, who are indeed siphoning off jobs in the process of growing themselves out of relative poverty. I’m sure you know all that. I just worry when you make these kinds of unqualified pronouncements that they may turn off your more moderate (or even conservative) readers. The rest of us are the choir.” ☞ It could be three cents a day. There must be some acceptable level for any country. And from there, what’s wrong with making it a voluntary goal to do better? I repeat: The U.S. should espouse a global treaty requiring each signatory to establish a minimum wage – however low – and requiring “best efforts” to raise that wage each year until it reaches the median minimum wage for all the signatories. All voluntary, but a matter of national pride and, when quantified this way, something to shoot for. Jonathan Levy: “By definition, half the signatories to such a treaty would always be at or below the median. The only way to meet the goal would be for every country to have exactly the same minimum wage. I realize it is a voluntary goal but does it really help to set even a voluntary goal that is all but impossible to meet?” ☞ In a zero sum game, you’d be right. But what about a world where countries were continuously striving to reach a median that itself, in most years, would be rising? Granted, someone would always be in last place, which could be discouraging. But measured in terms of “improvement,” even countries at the bottom could have something to be proud of. Indeed, starting from such a low base, it’s not impossible that – in percentage terms – the poorest country could see its three-cent-a-day minimum wage (or whatever) rise faster than America’s $5.15-an-hour minimum wage (which has not budged in nine years). What could it hurt to make a rising minimum wage a matter of pride for poor countries – and not just their shiny new weapons?
Dog, God, $$$, Flu, Hump March 16, 2005January 19, 2017 DOG Neil Berger: “Another organization with a very special history going back to 1948, is Guide Dogs of America. GDOA was founded in large part by the International Association of Machinists, who continue to be the major supporter. When a member who had been blinded requested help from his union, they investigated, realized the limited number of dogs available, and started a new program, one of the first in Southern California. They have a great facility and welcome guests.” Richard Stanford: “If you’re interested in the impact that a guide dog can have in the life of a blind person, I can’t recommend highly enough Emma and I, by Sheila Hocken. Sheila talks about her life with remarkable candor and focuses on the ways that Emma, her chocolate lab, changed it.” GOD From the Washington Post: Battle on Teaching Evolution Sharpens By Peter Slevin WICHITA – Propelled by a polished strategy crafted by activists on America’s political right, a battle is intensifying across the nation over how students are taught about the origins of life. Policymakers in 19 states are weighing proposals that question the science of evolution. . . . To fundamentalist Christians, [Southern Baptist minister Terry] Fox said, the fight to teach God’s role in creation is becoming the essential front in America’s culture war. The issue is on the agenda at every meeting of pastors he attends. If evolution’s boosters can be forced to back down, he said, the Christian right’s agenda will advance. “If you believe God created that baby, it makes it a whole lot harder to get rid of that baby,” Fox said. “If you can cause enough doubt on evolution, liberalism will die.” $$$ I can’t take credit for TiVo, having suggested it here so faintly three weeks ago at $3.70 you might almost have taken it as a sell recommendation. But if any of you were drawn to pick up a few shares, you noticed that they closed up 70% yesterday, which is better than a kick in the head. I’m holding mine – oink, oink – but not buying more. Having worked a deal with #1 cable company Comcast (which I am also holding), TiVo would appear to have, at the least, a modest new lease on life. FLU From the Asia Times Online, in part: Dollar catching Asian flu By Alan Boyd SYDNEY – They may be telling a different story to money markets, but Asian central banks have been quietly switching their dollar holdings to regional currencies for at least three years, confirm global banking data. In a further, and so far the biggest, setback for the greenback’s status as the undisputed reserve currency, Japan on Thursday said it might diversify its holdings, though monetary chiefs later sought to play down the prospect. South Korea rattled currency traders with a similar announcement late last month, followed by a similar backtrack. China, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Hong Kong have already started a sell-off, despite a diplomatic show of solidarity for the greenback that is prudently designed to prevent a crisis of confidence in exchange systems. The likelihood is that much of this outflow will never return to US dollars as economic interdependence within East Asia and the widening shadow cast by China’s trading conglomerates are slowly transforming the traditional market structure. The Bank of International Settlements (BIS), which acts as a bank for the world’s central banks, has just released a study showing that the ratio of dollar deposits held in Asian offshore reserves declined to 67% in September, down from 81% in the third quarter of 2001. India was the biggest seller, reducing its dollar assets from 68% of total reserves to just 43%. China, which directly links the yuan to the dollar and is under US pressure to allow a freer movement of its currency, trimmed the dollar share from 83% to 68%. This shift conforms with global trends as central banks seek a buffer from the burgeoning US trade and budget deficits. A separate survey by European-based Central Banking Publications found that 29 of 65 nations surveyed were cutting back on the dollar and 39 were buying more euros. America’s annual budget deficit of US$500 billion [it is really $700 billion because we are borrowing $200 billion from the Social Security surplus as well – A.T.] is largely funded by Asian purchases of US government bonds, mostly from China and Japan. The US trade and current account deficits are in a similar plight: it took $530 billion of foreign capital to finance US imports in 2003 and $650 billion last year. Projections for 2005 range up to $800 billion. Alan Boyd, now based in Sydney, has reported on Asia for more than two decades. Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. And finally . . . HUMP Why did the Bush team forbid cameras behind the President? Why was there a hump under his jacket? Why did he seem halting at times and why – specifically – did he say, “let me finish” at one point when no one seemed to be interrupting him? Thoughtful reader Rick Boyd watched that first Bush/Kerry debate and challenged my memory on the “let me finish” mystery. Having watched it again myself, I now agree my memory probably tricked me. Yes, he says, “let me finish” without having been interrupted, but – at least from what we can see here – he may simply have been reacting to some body language from Jim Lehrer. You can watch for yourself here. (On the right, click the “More Campaign Multimedia” link under a blue banner that reads “More Election Coverage.” Search results appear, one of which – probably on the second page – is an October 1, 2004 Video Feature: “Campaign 2004: Presidential Debate Video.”) I couldn’t bear to watch the whole thing (“let me finish” comes about a minute into the “Taking Sides” chapter), so I asked the estimable Alan Light to watch for me. Here is his report: The question that came to my mind over and over again was, is he pausing to think or to listen? I didn’t see any hard evidence, just suspicious moments. At one point, Bush is eager to say something in rebuttal to Kerry so Jim Lehrer says “OK, you can have 30 seconds” and then Bush just pauses and stares. If he was so eager to say something why didn’t it just come rushing out? So is he listening to something, or now trying to collect his thoughts in a more coherent manner before he speaks? There is other suspicious circumstantial evidence. This article says that during a D-Day speech in France by Bush, television viewers reportedly heard a voice from a crossed frequency that was feeding lines to Bush during his speech and also during the question and answer period. But strictly from watching Bush speak, leaving aside the mysterious hump, [I see no real evidence that he was wired]. ☞ It’s still very hard to credit the White House explanation of “bad tailoring.” But without the “let me finish” moment having been as damning as I had remembered, a better tone for my several comments on this would have been “arch” rather than “ranting.” Thanks, Rick. Henceforth I will rant about our $700 billion budget deficit and precarious currency.
Paws with a Cause Dogs, Lions, and Bugs March 15, 2005March 1, 2017 But first . . . ACTIVIST JUDGES A decision by a California judge yesterday, certain to be appealed, held that these gay couples – including one that has been together more than 51 years – are entitled to the same legal rights as any other married couples. Judges in New York City, Washington State – and of course Massachusetts – have found the same thing. It’s amazing anyone cares so much whether gays get drivers’ licenses, marriage licenses, liquor licenses, or any of the other civil stuff law-abiding citizens get . . . but on the specific issue of ‘activist judges,’ something funny has happened, at least in Massachusetts. The state legislators who voted in favor of gay marriage were all reelected, while some of those who voted it down have been voted out. It’s expected that when this issue next arises in the Massachusetts legislature, the elected representatives themselves will affirm the Court’s decision. So at least in some small pockets of civilization (Canada is another that comes to mind) it’s not just crazy judges who are interpreting ‘equal protection under the law’ to include gays – it’s legislators. This is great news for the Republicans, who will try to use gay marriage to cut Social Security benefits, thwart funding for education and health care, impose a global ban on embryonic stem cell research, eliminate the estate tax, criminalize abortion, drill in ANWAR, attain a filibuster-proof lock on all three branches of government – the whole list. The longer gay marriage can be kept in the news, the better. But what are judges to do? Conclude that a couple of 51 years should be entitled to equal protection under the law – but then rule otherwise? It is a dilemma. Yet attitudes are changing. Soon, a majority of Americans may decide it’s just not that important to them to deny Rosie O’Donnell’s partner and their kids Social Security survivor benefits . . . or to insist that Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, a committed couple of 51 years, remain ‘strangers in the eyes of the law.’ What is so fragile about Senator Rick Santorum’s marriage that it is threatened by the happiness and commitment of Phyllis and Del? Interracial marriage, so long illegal, may not be your cup of tea – but how does it threaten or weaken your own? Justice Clarence Thomas is married to Virginia, a white woman. But if he had been married to Virginia in Virginia prior to 1967, he could have been arrested. Let’s hope he remembers that when, eventually, all this comes before him for a decision. And now . . . WOOF! WOOF! Kevin Smith: ‘Another excellent organization is Canine Companions for Independence, which trains assistance dogs for sighted, but otherwise handicapped people. The program is similar to the Guide Dogs program, with early training being provided by volunteers and then intensive training afterwards before being matched with a person. If for some reason the dog does not pass the intensive training, the original trainer has the first right to keep the dog for a small fee. We’ve had several of these dogs in my office (an auditing department), and it’s been a great experience all the way around.’ Michael Roth: ‘Another part of Guide Dogs is that they cull out of the program really well-behaved dogs with good genetics and use them as breeding stock. They are looking for people to house these animals (‘Breeder-Keepers’). The role involves keeping the dog in your home, following the rules of the school, and taking care of them properly. This offers another wonderful opportunity for people to contribute to Guide Dogs and the Guide Dog mission. I am currently a Breeder-Keeper for Genie, a wonderful Golden Retriever, who has had three litters of pups who have gone on to be Guide Dogs.’ LIONS Tony Spina: ‘Did you know that there are about 60 organizations in the US that train dogs to be eyes for the Blind? Paws with a Cause is one, and my personal favorite is Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester Michigan. And I would like to add two additional facts: All of the year-long training of the dogs that you wrote about and the weeks-long lodging/feeding/training of the dog’s blind future partner is completely free. Also dogs are given to people living all over the world, not just in a particular state. Lions International is a charity that focuses mainly on blindness. So by joining your local Lions Club, you support research to cure and prevent blindness throughout the world, and help your communities while you are doing it. The biggest share of the donations from the Lions Club that I am a member of (Addison Township, Michigan) is sent to Leader Dogs. With more than 46,000 clubs in 193 countries and geographical areas there is a Club to join near you! Click here for the speech by Helen Keller in 1925, eight years after the Lions founding, that changed its purpose to helping the blind.’ Mike Wallin: ‘While I love the heartwarming stories about guide dogs and the heart burning stories about Brussels sprouts, can you occasionally mention something about money?’ ☞ Tomorrow! BUGS Peter Vanderwicken: ‘How come I no longer get your column by email? By the way, Brussels sprouts are best cooked by boiling for 10 minutes, then drenching in red wine vinegar.’ ☞ Fixed. Toby Gottfried: ‘You mark some paragraphs with a little hand and outstretched index finger – in Internet Explorer anyway. In Mozilla Firefox, this wingding shows up as the letter F.’ ☞ That’s F for Firefox.
Woof! March 14, 2005March 1, 2017 I arrived in Washington, passed through security into the main terminal, and was met by a seeing-eye dog whose owner approached tentatively – I was on my cell phone – and said, ‘Hi, Andy,’ motioning that he would wait until I finished my call. Is the squeak of my sneaker so distinctive? Do I wheeze in some unmistakable way? Or . . . smell? The black lab’s name was Babs – I could tell this from the yellow vest she was wearing that read, Babs – and its owner, I was relieved to realize, was Rob Shook, a friend from IBM, who was attending the same meeting I was. He handed me his dog’s card: ‘Babs, Future Guide Dog.’ It had her breed and birth month (Labrador Retriever, born March 2004), along with home address (complete with nine-digit zip code) and website (guidedog.org). Rob sees perfectly well. He takes Babs everywhere – planes, restaurants, business meetings (‘a great icebreaker,’ he says), because it is his volunteer job to get Babs used to everything. ‘Babs is learning to be a guide dog for the blind,’ the back of her business card reads, continuing . . . She lives with her ‘puppy walker’ family for the first year of her life, being exposed to as many places, people, noises, smells and situations as possible. Her puppy walkers teach her some basic skills, and these experiences will help her be a more confident guide dog and to succeed in the important job that awaits her. At the end of this year, she will undergo testing and formal training before being matched with a blind or partially-sighted individual to assist them. Babs’s yellow vest indicates she is in training. She thanks you for understanding that, like working guide dogs, she is very friendly but is on the job and need to focus on the tasks ‘at paw’ . . . and can’t have a visit right now. ‘Our home has been filled with the patter of little feet – four of them – for the past couple of years,’ Rob followed up via e-mail. ‘My partner Brian and I are nearing the end of the first year of raising our second guide dog, Babs, a wonderfully bright 11-month-old black Labrador Retriever. We responded to an article in the local paper asking for host families to apply for the ‘puppy walker’ program of the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind. A few weeks later, we picked up a very sleepy, tiny, warm 10-week-old bundle of joy, and our Guide Dog journey started. Riley, our first, has successfully graduated and is now guiding a gentleman in Massachusetts; we wish Babs the same success. ‘The goal for the first year is to provide a broad base of experiences for the puppy. Guide dogs must be fearless while not being aggressive, and the more things they are exposed to in the first year helps ensure they won’t encounter things that will startle them – and they become confident enough to handle new situations without becoming fearful. Simple tasks like carrying her while vacuuming, letting her meet clowns, watching parades and fireworks shows, walking near traffic, and meeting other neighborhood pets all contribute to success. Sitting on the corner near taxis and other cars in Manhattan, hanging out with the toys in a store at the mall and watching the children playing, and visiting grocery stores also help. ‘The real fun, however, comes in the broader experience of traveling with her. I am on the road a significant percentage of the time for IBM, and much of that time I am accompanied by my puppy. I have encountered no problems taking here anywhere I have gone; this is mostly due to people’s basic nature to help in her training (she has a smart yellow vest – a magic cape of sorts – that while not conferring super powers, does identify her as a Future Guide Dog), and, besides, who can resist a puppy? She flies curled on my feet in a bulkhead row on the airplane, usually sleeping through takeoffs and landings, sleeping (often on her back) in the front passenger footwell of the car, or laying quietly next to me on the train, the subway, or the bus. She stays with me in hotels (trying to sneak onto the bed in the middle of the night, occasionally putting a partially-chewed hoof in my mouth while I’m asleep), she sits under the table in restaurants, accompanies me to meetings, and sits quietly next to the podium when I am presenting. Because of the ease with which she travels and functions in the business world, she will likely be matched with a blind businessperson. ‘The aforementioned yellow vest indicates to her that she is ‘on the job’ (much as her wearing a harness will be a signal in her working life). She loves to play, but quickly learned not to play, eat, or relieve herself while she’s in the vest. When she’s off the clock, she likes to run, jump, play with our other Labrador (and the guinea pig) and behave like any puppy – although the games of ‘tug,’ ‘chase,’ ‘fetch,’ and ‘chew on the guinea pig’ are all highly discouraged. (That last one is especially discouraged by the guinea pig.) ‘If there is any downside to having her, it is that seemingly mundane tasks in public take a little bit longer than usual because everyone wants to know all about her and how the program works. ‘After her year (or so) of living with us, she will start her formal training back at the Guide Dog Foundation. She will need to pass several tests to become a guide dog; one involves firing off a starter’s pistol as she walks by: she can look, but if she jumps, she’s out of the program. When she successfully learns escalators and revolving doors (things we can’t teach her since the rules are quite specific and she could be injured in either), when she shows that she knows what to do at crosswalks, and that she’s ready to be trusted to guide someone in a fast-moving world, only then will she be matched with a blind person. The person she’s matched with will be flown, housed, and fed, at the Guide Dog Foundation’s expense, for a 25-day training course with the dog, and we get invited to graduation to watch them cross the stage together. She then starts her working life, and she can retire with us when she’s done. We figure we’ll start a home for geriatric labradors in about 9 years. ‘To say we’ll miss Babs is an understatement, but we have prepared ourselves from the outset by remembering that we’re just taking care of someone else’s dog for a year. We also will pick up Clara, our next puppy, the day we turn Babs in; who can be sad for long with a puppy around the house?’ ☞ The Guide Dog Foundation is always looking for volunteers, so roll up the carpets, have a frank talk with the cat, and click here. REBATE SUCCESS! According to this in the Washington Post, CompUSA is going to have to do better with rebates. Good going, Federal Trade Commission.
Minimum Wage Bankruptcies Sprouting Up All Over March 11, 2005March 1, 2017 TO EACH HER OWN April Stevens: ‘At the sight of Brussels sprouts my husband will dramatically clutch his heart and cry, ‘No, not green balls of death!’ I have learned to measure and cook them for one.’ BANKRUPTCY Jim Petersen: ‘When Harry Truman’s business went bust, he did not declare bankruptcy – instead, he worked hard and lived poorly for many years to pay back his debtors. I respect him for it. This is an uncommon value today. I do wish Congress would find a way to support people whose medical expenses exceed their capacity and pay our troops more, but don’t agree that encouraging them to declare bankruptcy is the answer.’ ☞ I think anyone with the talent, charisma, and good health to become President of the United States should be ashamed to go bankrupt. And I agree: providing adequate health care to the uninsured would be a great way to reduce personal bankruptcies. Ed Biebel: ‘Hearing about the change in the bankruptcy laws and all of the disparagements of the people who file bankruptcy drives me up a wall. Back in July 2003, I wrote you about my brother and his travails with his epilepsy and his hospital bills. You’ll see in that piece that, though hard-working, my brother had incurred a large debt through the despicable behavior of his employer. This company owner led employees to believe that they were insured and was taking premiums from their pay but not sending them to the insurance company. My brother was blocked from filing for bankruptcy by the tenacious lawyers from the hospital. My point in writing you is that many people ask why my brother didn’t pursue a claim against his employer. The answer is that the owner of the company and the company itself filed bankruptcy and were protected. Why do I have a feeling this new bankruptcy law will not one whit to protect people from unscrupulous companies that go into bankruptcy? It is a great time to be rich in America.’ Munch: ‘You link to Paul Krugman on the Administration’s bankruptcy bill – ‘tightening the screws on the least fortunate among us, as we gradually turn the clock back to the 1890s,’ as you put it. With the ascendancy of the religious right and corporatism, I would expect to start seeing quotes like this reappearing.’ CARAMELIZED Marie Coffin: ‘Slice in half and broil until the outside is nearly black. Eat. Yum. Broiling seems to caramelize the sprouts and make them even sweeter and tastier.’ MINIMUM WAGE Doug Jones: ‘I agree with your position on minimum wage in general. However, Washington and Oregon have relatively high minimum wages, $7.35 per hour give or take. Some McDonald’s restaurants now have call in centers for their drive thru windows, eliminating one or two employees. The call-in centers are located in North Dakota! There’s very little stopping McDonald’s from locating these overseas. So, even some of these jobs can be outsourced to a lower cost provider.’ ☞ Talk about Yankee ingenuity. You drive up to the window and ask for Chicken McNuggets or Kibbles & Bits and someone in Pakistan enters this order. Even so, the bulk of the work of fast food chains or motel maid staffs is likely to remain in situ. My hope is that the relatively few jobs lost in a minimum wage hike – I agree there surely would be some – would be more than made up for in the increased economic demand those higher wages created. WITH KETCHUP John Kasley: ‘Place rinsed sprouts in microwave dish. Add a generous slug of ketchup (yes, ketchup). Roll them around in it. Cook for a while. Eat from dish.’ ☞ Now you’re Cooking. Monday: More of Your Minimum Wage Comments, and a Real Dog color code: sprouts are green; bankrupts, deep in the red; minimum-wage earners, dirt poor
Boil, Salt, Eat, and Click March 10, 2005March 1, 2017 Tomorrow: Your thoughts on the minimum wage. Today: Don’t miss the links beneath these sprouts. BRUSSELS SPROUTS Mark Kirby: ‘I hope your praise of this unjustly maligned vegetable will encourage others to come forth.’ ☞ And forth they came . . . Bart: ‘A moment’s more work, creating a taste that has received enthusiastic endorsement from every Brussel Sprouts eater ever invited to our table. Boil sprouts in a generous amount of plain chicken broth. Do not overboil to point of mush. Drain all the broth from sprouts. Roll wet sprouts in and coat well with bread crumbs seasoned with a generous amount of ground black pepper and oregano. Lightly brown the sprouts in butter in a hot skillet. Serve immediately. When possible, purchase the sprouts still on the stalk. We generally prepare this as a last minute dish. Removing the stalk of sprouts from the refrigerator sparks conversation and allows one to extol the dish.’ ☞ They come on stalks? I thought they were like little vegetable plums. In any event, Bart’s concept of ‘a moment’s more work’ does not quite jibe with mine. To me, a moment’s more work is putting them on a plate instead of eating them straight from the colander. David: ‘Boil a bit, sauté a bit with butter and walnuts or pecans. Mmmm, good.’ ☞ Sauté? What is this, sauté? We are Cooking Like a Guy™, may I remind you, not like a Guy de Maupassant. Michael Ammerman: “Just as there is an S on ‘Cliffs’ in ‘Cliffs Notes,’ there is an S on ‘brussels’ in ‘brussels sprouts,’ the name derived from the Belgian city.” ☞ Well, I checked before I put that up – Google has 118,000 references to Brussel Sprouts. But in response to this e-mail, I checked and see 328,000 hits for Brussels Sprouts . . . so henceforth I will go with the crowd. TWO LINKS WORTH CLICKING Here is James Grant with his dour view of the investing landscape (if Warren Buffett has $43 billion parked on the sidelines, maybe the sidelines are not an entirely dumb place to be). And here is Paul Krugman on the Administration’s bankruptcy bill (tightening the screws on the least fortunate among us, as we gradually turn the clock back to the 1890s).
A Global Minimum Wage March 9, 2005March 1, 2017 BRUSSEL SPROUTS Buy. Boil. Salt. Eat. One of life’s simplest underappreciated pleasures.* RELIVE YOUR YOUTH This site – thanks, Roger – reminds you how old you were when big things happened. Don’t miss the links that show how old you likely were when you first heard certain songs or saw certain movies. You can even print personalized, if somewhat gruesome, birthday cards (‘You were 7 years old when the Challenger blew up – Happy Birthday!’). And now . . . WHAT SHALL WE PAY THE NIGHT WATCHMAN? Brooks: ‘I understand and basically agree with the principled reason for not raising the minimum wage: namely, that higher wages will reduce total employment because some employers will not be able to keep as many employees on payroll at the higher rate.’ ☞ We no longer sew a lot of clothes – those jobs are already gone. Typical minimum wage jobs these days can’t easily go overseas. Hotel maids and fast-food employees are not going to lose their jobs to the Chinese if their pay is raised (for the first time in 9 years) from $5.15 to $7 an hour. If all the competitors in an industry must raise wages, no one competitor is disadvantaged. The price of a burger might go up a nickel; the cost of a hotel room, a dollar . . . but people will not abandon fast food for home cooking over a nickel or sleep in their car over a dollar. If it’s not overdone, raising the minimum wage should have far more positive effects than negative. It enhances the value of work and personal dignity. It creates more spending power among people who might actually spend it. And that boosts the economy, creating more jobs and profit. Certainly raising the minimum wage nine years ago did not raise unemployment, which fell to the lowest levels in our history. Hiking the minimum wage gives people at the bottom a fairer shake, but also helps employers who want to give that fairer shake, yet can’t now because doing so unilaterally would put them at a competitive disadvantage. The U.S. should espouse a global treaty requiring each signatory to establish a minimum wage – however low – and requiring ‘best efforts’ to raise that wage each year until it reaches the median minimum wage for all the signatories. All voluntary, but a matter of national pride and, when quantified this way, something to shoot for. *For a few words on underappreciated vegetables generally, click here.
A Grand Time to be Rich and Powerful We're All In This Alone March 8, 2005March 1, 2017 It’s true Congress hasn’t raised the minimum wage in 9 years, but look on the bright side: for those receiving $1 million a year dividends, Congress has cut taxes $246,000. And here’s another good thing, as noted by the Center for American Progress: A bipartisan coalition in the Senate is determined to help the credit card industry, which took in $30 billion in profits last year. That’s why many senators are supporting a bill (S. 256) that would make it harder for average people to recover from financial misfortune by declaring bankruptcy. And they refuse to let anyone – not victims of identity theft, not those suffering from debilitating illness, not the military – get in their way. Last week the Senate rejected a series of amendments to the bankruptcy bill that would have, among other things, closed loopholes for the wealthy, cracked down on predatory lending practices and protected the homes of those who were facing bankruptcy from medical bills. (For more on the bill, check out this memo by American Progress CEO John Podesta).There is no more time to waste – a final vote on this bill is scheduled for tomorrow [today]. Write your senators now and demand that they oppose the bankruptcy bill. From John Podesta’s memo, in part: The real bankruptcy challenge isn’t the 4 percent of debtors who abuse the system. The real crisis is the 96 percent who are broke when they file for bankruptcy. Two million Americans go bankrupt every year-1 every 15 seconds. If current trends continue, 1 in 7 families with children will go bankrupt by the end of the decade. These rising bankruptcy levels directly correlate with rising levels of consumer debt. And those rising debt levels in turn reflect a tectonic shift in our economy-away from a time when families could afford to save, and into a time when their wages are stagnant (+12% since 1978) but the costs of their health premiums (+163% since 1988), their tuitions (+170% since 1978), their mortgages, and their child care have risen dramatically. Because of all these trends, families stand on a precipice, and one sickness or pink slip sends them off the cliff, with no safety net below. Shutting down access to bankruptcy courts of course does absolutely nothing to address these challenges… While conservatives press ugly and inaccurate stereotypes about the “deadbeats” who typically go broke, progressives should tell the truth about an economy that no longer works for the middle class. Under Bill Clinton (to whom Podesta was chief of staff from 1998 through to the end of his term), taxes on folks at the top were raised; the minimum wage was raised; the earned income tax credit was raised . . . and although the rich still did better at a faster rate, after tax, than everyone else, everyone else did better, too. It was a good time to be an American of any economic stratum. Under George Bush and the Republican Congress, it’s been a grand time to be rich and powerful – no one can dispute that. But it’s become increasingly tough if you’re not. One of you writes: Roublen Vesseau: “I can understand toughening bankruptcy laws in the abstract. But I cannot understand any Senator of conscience not making an exception of people who are bankrupted by medical emergencies. I cannot understand any Senator of conscience opposing treating bankrupt veterans with a little bit of leniency. And most of all, I cannot imagine any Senator of conscience who supports toughening bankruptcy laws, yet opposes attempts to crack down on the most egregious abuses of bankruptcy law, e.g. ‘asset protection trusts.’ “I remember when OJ Simpson was found liable for the deaths of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown, he was able to shirk making payments due to clever manipulation of bankruptcy laws. Now, if this bill passes, OJ Simpson will continue to go scot-free, playing golf and living his comfortable lifestyle, while some middle class family will feel the lash of usury and the debt spiral, some uninsured person will have to think twice about going to the emergency room. “It would be easy to dismiss these Senators as scoundrels and crooks. But they aren’t, or at least not all of them. How can they justify their support of this bill, and in particular how can they justify their votes on the specific amendments? After voting this way, how do they manage to shave themselves in the morning?” ☞ I don’t know. How does Florida governor Jeb Bush shave in the morning having opposed a hike in the minimum wage, having fought so hard to keep from reducing classroom size (some Florida students are crammed 40 to a class), having slashed drug treatment programs – yet all the while having cut by 75% the Intangible Property Tax . . . the one tax which applies only to the richest among us? What kind of society are we becoming? George Bush claims Christ as his favorite philosopher. Has he read the Sermon on the Mount? The Democrats, to one degree or another, operate on the general principle that we’re all in this together. That can be taken to extremes, to be sure; but my own feeling is that from 1993 to 2000 we had struck a pretty successful balance. The Republicans operate on the general principle that (to borrow Senator Dick Durbin’s characterization) “we’re all in this alone.” But you and I? What do we care? We don’t pay credit card interest or suffer $29 fees for being a week late on an $85 payment. It is a grand time to be rich and powerful in America, and it looks as if for the next few years it will only get better.
Good Advice from Jezediah Squimatsu March 7, 2005March 1, 2017 Largely returned from computer hell. (Thanks for the good wishes.) As usual, your feedback – on a wide range of topics – has been considerably more interesting than my feed. But first . . . Guess who has SAKS’s corner windows on Fifth Avenue and Forty-Ninth Street? Get out there and buy those clothes! Put them on a credit card, who cares what the interest rate is? Raid your retirement fund if need be. Pay full retail! And now . . . on a variety of topics: REAL ESTATE Jim G: ‘Michael Kinsley’s article on whether there is a real estate bubble (Bye-Bye, Housing Boom) was insightful but incomplete. The falling dollar has put America on sale. Here in Pinellas County, Europeans are snapping up real estate, particularly waterfront, at outrageous prices by our standards, but in their currency, it’s a deal. Seeing the mounting budget and trade deficits, the smart money is already into inflationary hedges – land and gold. The only way this country will be able to pay off its debt is to inflate its way out of it. Real estate was probably undervalued at the end of the 1990’s because everyone was throwing their money in the stock market. It may be overvalued now, but maybe not as much as you may think.’ ☞ And for the opposing view (and lest you think the Economist writes only about gays in the military) . . . Flynn Monks: ‘Have you seen the March 5 Economist? It posits that renting is now more attractive than buying. It also hints at possible bubble damage in cities like San Fran, D.C., Boston, London. Indeed, where first-time buyers are priced out of those cities, and that’s where the jobs are, it’s hard to imagine something won’t fall to earth. God only knows what.’ GOOGLE SYNTAX Thanks to Ralph Sierra for this by Leslie Walker in the Washington Post: Googlespeak has a new dialect — a new syntax to use when typing a search at the Web site to pull up showtimes and reviews for flicks. Typing in movie: man of the house, for example, produces information about the new Tommy Lee Jones film, “Man of the House.” Add the word review to the end of that query if you only want reviews. Add a Zip code to the query, or save any local address on Google, to see movie showtimes and directions. Don’t know what you want to rent, but have a mood in mind? Try “movie: bikini beach mystery” or “movie: tornado disaster” and see what pops up. Or if you’re in a hurry for a date and haven’t a clue what’s playing, type movie: followed by your Zip code or city and state to get a page listing titles and showtimes of everything playing nearby, with links to reviews. YOU COOK, YOU CLEAN John Critchlow: ‘Your data is spot on. I shared an apartment with 4 other guys for two years in college. The first year, we tried the I-cook,-you-clean approach with each assigned their nights. The clean-up was pretty gruesome. The second year, we did both on one assigned night. I washed a lot less dishes that year.’ Robert Pohl: ‘I first read this ‘law’ in a wholly wonderful book, The Saskiad. Wasn’t about a share house, rather a commune, but same difference. And same reasoning given, of course.’ James M: ‘When on vacation with my parents we would split into two teams. Each headed by one parent. One team was ‘on’ for two days, the other the next two. You cooked, washed-up and most importantly shopped. (If you alternate too quickly the ‘on’ team gets food the off team does not know what to do with.) It was fun going out into the French markets and shopping for a meal, preparing and then washing-up the pans you used. This system causes creative menus like picnics with fresh bread, fresh fruit, wine and cheese but no clean up! It’s much simpler to think, this is my job for two days and then to have wonderful catered days when you don’t have to lift a finger. The two team system works because there becomes a rivalry to produce the better meals.’ John Ebert: ‘I thoroughly and whole-heartedly agree. I practiced this for years with a roommate when I was single. Each of us cleaned up after ourselves, and things seemed to work out well. I also advocate it in my family now that I’m married. It has not caught on.’ Doug Mohn: ‘I can’t help but think one of Bush’s problems is that he’s like a cook who doesn’t have to clean-up.’ GOOD ADVICE FROM JEZEDIAH Jezediah Squimatsu: ‘Instead of making backups, consider making IMAGES. I faithfully make a weekly computer IMAGE of my entire PC hard drive to an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE with a (cheap – under $40) program called ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE. There are other good competitors out there (like Norton Ghost). The advantage of IMAGES versus BACKUPS is that in the event of a hard drive failure (or other computer issues), you can just RESTORE the IMAGE to another PC and have your OLD PC programs and data EXACTLY as they were on your old PC. The IMAGES take me about half an hour for 20gig with USB2. And the images can be password protected. EASY. FAST. And you sleep really well! Please do not use my real name if you talk about this in your column.’ ☞ Not his real name. Rob Myhre: ‘If the problem with your old laptop is not with the drive itself, you could buy a USB enclosure like this. Get out your jeweler’s screwdrivers and extract the drive from your old computer. (A Google search will probably turn up directions on how to do this for your particular model.) Then put the old drive in your new USB enclosure and plug it into your new computer. You’ll be able to access all your stuff on the old drive and copy it to the new.’ Bob Novick: ‘Bought a Western Digital one-touch backup ($60 after Circuit City REBATE – USB2, holds 80GB – I keep 3 backup copies of my data files (about 18GB) plus burn a DVD with the retrospect software that comes with it. The one touch does a complete backup at the touch of a button. Definitely worth the $60.’
The Little Engine that Could But Will It? March 4, 2005March 1, 2017 OUR LOTTERY TICKET Borealis claims to be ‘one week ahead of schedule and on budget’ for its April test of the Chorus Motor that will drive a 767 around the tarmac like a golf cart. The prudent thing to do is assume delays or disappointment. But the company seems to believe this will work; and the Boeing engineer I spoke with several weeks ago, overseeing the effort from their side, seemed cautiously optimistic. So the lottery ticket remains live. The company is currently valued at $40 million (5 million shares at $8 each; no debt). If the little motor does prove itself, that would seem to suggest significant potential for this technology . . . if it can tug a 767, how about a forklift, an elevator, or an electric car? . . . and suggest, also, that some of the company’s other supposedly revolutionary technologies may be real. You would expect a crazy speculation like this to be selling for ten times as much – because if it is real, it could then sell for ten times that. The fact that it doesn’t is just one more red flag I can’t explain. As always: You should invest in Borealis only funds you truly can afford to lose with a laugh rather than a tear or a spasm. But it’s the best lottery ticket I’ve seen. GENERALISSIMO FRANCISCO FRANCO Joe Rigo: ‘So . . . are you still DNC treasurer?’ ☞ Yes. Send me all your money. (And, in a related note that SNL viewers of a certain age will recognize, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.) But far more to the point, our new chair, Governor Dean, was elected the same day, February 12, and is already off to a great start. Stay tuned. SHOOTING STRAIGHT Of the US military, this week’s Economist opines: . . . According to a recent poll of enlisted men, more than half thought gays should be allowed in the armed forces. In the current time of overstretch, even the older, more conservative, officer class seems to be changing heart. . . Congress should look at the British example. In 2000, when the queen’s army jumped out of its closet (so to speak), many senior officers were aghast. Their arguments then were similar to American fears now: sooner or later, showers and bars of soap were mentioned. Four years later, recruitment has not suffered; most new recruits are unfazed about meeting gay comrades. And with gays subject to the same rules governing appropriate behaviour as heterosexuals, the showers need hold no fears for happily-married men. Come on, Rummy, what are you afraid of? ☞ I think this may actually be the year we wise up. The ‘Military Readiness Enhancement Act’ was introduced this week by Representative Marty Meehan and more than 50 Democratic co-sponsors. It would repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ under which thousands of service members – including 54 Arab linguists – have been dismissed. Several retired generals and admirals have signed on to the cause. Is this a great country or what?