Mittout Jobs May 7, 2012May 6, 2012 THE MASSACHUSETTS MIRACLE: NOT SO MUCH By now most know that when he was Governor, Mitt Romney took Massachusetts down from 37th in jobs creation to 50th. Paul Abrams compares Governor Romney’s jobs record with that of others — including Jimmy Carter. The results are telling. And what’s fun about the Internet (well, what isn’t fun about the Internet?) is how it opens the world to so many interesting voices. Who is this Paul Abrams? I know a Bob Abrams, a Jason Abrams, a Roy Abrams, a Stefan Abrams, and a Wendy Abrams . . . but this Abrams? He is identified on the Huffington Post simply as “Paul Abrams, last person on Earth not on Facebook.” Sensing immediately that he has organized his life better than I have organized mine, I clicked through to his bio. And assuming it’s all true (can anyone be this smart, well rounded, and self-effacing?), he “received doctorate degrees in medicine and in law, and a B.A. summa cum laude in Political Science & Economics, all from Yale. He is a board-certified oncologist and was editor of the Yale Law Journal. A former intercollegiate swimmer, he enjoys scuba-diving, general exercise, film, theater and plays guitar but, for the benefit of mankind, sings only in the shower.” Oh, and he was CEO of two bio-tech companies, holds 12 patents, and has published 35 peer-reviewed articles. So take a minute to read his thoughts on Governor Romney’s jobs record. (Hint: President Obama’s doing better.) AMEX POINTS TO BA MILES: CAVEATS Friday, I laid out this 50% bonus offer: If you convert American Express points to British Airways miles, you not only add 50% to your total, you’ll be able to use them on any of the One World airlines, like American. William Szczuka: “Yes, BA miles can be used on AA but with a number of caveats: (1) Forget travel outside North & South America. Way too high fuel surcharge. (2) Redemption is based on a per segment basis. If you connect somewhere it will most likely cost more than 25k / Round Trip. (3) Award tickets can only be booked for “Saver” not “Anytime” awards. Now the good part: BA awards are priced based on distance. I can fly round trip to Hawaii from the West Coast for 25k miles instead of 45k miles on American.” John Seiffer: “You can use the BA miles domestically on American – the fees are low and the flights actually cost fewer miles than with American miles. But since AA filed for bankruptcy, there have been so few seats available we couldn’t book a ticket. . . . We also wanted to use them for flights to Japan, but since BA flies there its own self, you can’t use BA miles on AA for that and the fees to use BA miles to Japan were $700 per person. Luckily we had enough AA miles. Some of this $700 was taxes because BA would have routed us through London (from JFK to Japan) and apparently there are more taxes going to Europe – even if that’s not your ultimate destination. But some of it also was fees that BA charged to convert the miles which are much higher than other airlines. My wife and I don’t remember the details since we went on AA due to those costs. However she follows this stuff on two web sites: ThePointsGuy and FlyerTalk. ThePointsGuy has a long thread on how to best use BA miles specifically because they tend to be problematic.” Tomorrow: If Fellini had one L and were French.