The State of the Union – 2013

Sorry Mr. President. Very few of your ideas will become law.

President Obama told us of his dreams to enhance American life. For the most part they are dreams that are unlikely to become reality. He offered ideas that “will not cost government a dime.” How does he propose to provide early childhood education for every child that is four years old? Where will the money come from to provide high school tech training?

His answer is take the money out of defense spending, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Tell that to AARP and the defense contractors.

We are in for four very difficult years in Washington.

Kate Upton Returns to Sports Illustrated

There is plenty to appreciate here!

Good Choice, Sports Illustrated

Impact of Technology on the U.S. Economy

If only businesses would start re-hiring all those people who lost their jobs in the Great Recession everything would be as it was. It won’t happen like that! Globalization and technology have changed everything.

The Mobile World Congress is a show of the latest cell phone and tablet technologies. It will occur February 24 to February 28 in Barcelona, Spain. The facility used is a new state of the art convention centre called Fira Gran Via consisting of eight halls. With over 1,500 exhibits, it is a reminiscent of CES and Comdex that have been held at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This is a wake-up call that the United States is not necessarily the center for new technologies.

The Gran Via Convention Centre

No business will hire employees in the western world when the job can be done for far less in developing countries. Workers in China, Mexico, and elsewhere are willing to work for $1USD an hour. Workers in the United States, Canada, U.K., Germany and other industrialized nations cannot pay their bills on that rate of pay.

Businesses of all types try to solve their employment needs by looking for automated equipment rather than hiring. The benefit is lower cost for services rendered where ever labor is needed.

From cars to bread, robots dominate modern production

On-line Digital Camera Review owner/editor Jeff Keller, “The smartphone became the preferred photo tool for many.” The web site closed down effective December 31, 2012.

Newsweek’s final print publication mailed out on December 24, 2012. The final issue is dated December 31, 2012. The cause was a decline in advertising revenue. The magazine’s owner will attempt a digital version that will be available only to subscribers.

Borders bookstores have closed. Barnes and Noble stores are closing too. E-readers are this year’s sought after device. Barnes and Noble’s Nook is one of those readers.

Modern manufacturing isn’t based on human labour; it’s based on the robot. Still, most people cannot grasp the breadth of automation in factories. We still picture plants full of human workers toiling to make our cars and furniture, just as we imagine our meat comes from animals in a barn. The truth is much more awe-inspiring, perhaps even frightening. The factories of today have some human workers, but huge portions of assembly lines are 100% mechanized. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics expects automotive jobs to decline 18% by 2018 despite expected increases in production. Robots eliminate the need for more workers.

What is the United States doing to sustain its lead in technology and grow its economy? Arguing about gun control, immigration, and government debt.

The Playbook

“keep secret its legal justification for killing without a trial”

Barack Obama is the enhanced George W. Bush!

Newsweek’s latest edition (February 1, 2013) on iPad, Android, and PC only, offers an article that describes the protocol for the targeted killings conducted by drones. According to this article the U.S. administration has been developing “explicit rules and procedures for when lethal force is justified.” Justification includes the legal right to conduct such killings of bad guys even if they are American citizens. This set of rules is referred to as “the playbook.” Newsweek reports that the playbook has evolved from the targeted killings that have been conducted in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. Playbook killings could be conducted, according to Newsweek, wherever the United States detected terrorists that are a threat to the American homeland. The playbook goes into detail about who the targeted individuals might be and does exclude drivers, cooks and others who are part of a support staff within a terrorist group. Thus Somalia, Mali, or any other place on Earth could be part of the playbook’s rules and procedures.

Not addressed in the Newsweek article is the legal justification for killing Americans who appear to be traitors, such as Anwar al-Awlaki, without a trial. The administration, I believe is skating on thin ice. The Huffington Post reported January 2, 2013 “The Obama administration will be able to keep secret its legal justification for killing without a trial an American suspected of joining al Qaeda after a federal judge on Wednesday dismissed most of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and The New York Times. Both the ACLU and The New York Times plan to appeal the decision.”

Wow! If the government can keep the justification secret then what else can the government do to its own citizens? al-Awlaki was clearly a traitor to the United States but killing him without due process is a stretch.

Is it any wonder that there are people in the United States who want to have all weapons at their disposal?

Power outage at the Super Bowl

The 49ers were asleep for the entire first half of the game. We all know that the Silicon Valley crowd would be rooting for San Francisco. It’s a good bet that during the half time show those wise guy nerds on Technology Drive in San Jose quickly devised a virus that would shut down the power feed to the Super Dome.

Their theory was that the 49ers might wake up. But alas, the Ravens were too powerful to stop. A galant effort by the nerds.

Economic Facts

I have waited to write about this until this weekend hoping that economists and responsible government officials could offer reasonable explanations. They have not!

The United States economy is in trouble and no one wants to talk about it!

The U.S. economy shrank by .1% in the last quarter of 2012. That number would not be too bad if it weren’t for the fact that the economy grew by 3.1% in the third quarter of the year. That is a change in direction of 3.2%. No one wants to admit the economy is in trouble. Instead all the talking heads and all the government leaders are talking up positive data. The reasoning appears to be “if we ignore the situation maybe it will go away. Let’s be positive.”

Some worthwhile points:

Every wage earner saw his take home pay decrease by 2% thanks to the expired payroll tax holiday.
Companies don’t expand and don’t hire when there is no demand for their products.
The real unemployment rate is not publicized because it is too frightening for most people (especially those in government) to confront. It is the “Total unemployed…” from a monthly labor report in Table A-15 called U-6. The rate was 14.4% for January. The number has been unchanged for the past three months. This real unemployment rate peaked at 17.1% in October 2009. The historical typical rate has been between 7% and 8.5%.
The United States must add more than 200,000 jobs a month to reduce the unemployment rate. 150,000 new jobs simply meets the requirements of the growing work force. This fact has been repeated on newscast after newscast. Thus 157,000 new jobs in January are not satisfactory.
Housing prices may have leveled off but they are far from those that existed in 2007.
Corporate profits are for the most part up and that has been great for those who have significant stock ownership. Most Americans consider themselves well off if they have a $200,000 in retirement savings. Government statistics indicate most families have $50,000 in savings. Most people are not major beneficiaries of the past year’s increased S&P 500.
The coming sequestration or budget cuts will result in contractor and federal government employee layoffs. Both political parties seem to have settled on this event starting March 2013. There will be a cut of $85.4 billion of both defense and non-defense spending. That is the law that congress passed.

Our Congress needs to start developing solutions rather than arguing. Politics are destroying this nation.

Credit Cards Can Be Better Than Cash

I bought a new bed using a credit card. I could have written a check for the full amount but the bed store offered a one year no interest payment plan. Why not? I thought. So the bed was to be delivered three days later.

Oh, there is one thing I neglected to tell you. The old bed had a foam topper that was purchased separately and has been on top for about seven or eight years. My beautiful wife said it’s not the topper that is sagging it’s the bed. OK, I agreed without challenging her wisdom. However, the next day, after I had ordered the new bed, she decides to remove the topper and check the mattress. “Look at this” she says, “the mattress without the topper seems quite comfortable.” I lay down on the bed and surprise. It feels identical to the new bed. I called and cancelled the bed order! Did I yell at my wife? No! Was I happy the bed was bought using a credit card? Yes!

Thus you have learned one of the benefits of credit card purchases. If you have a problem with a product you’ve purchased – it’s damaged or defective, or is never delivered you have extra legal protection if you bought the item with a credit card. Federal law gives consumers the right to withhold payment on credit card purchases in certain situations.

Try to resolve the dispute directly with the seller. If you call the seller or visit in person and don’t get a resolution, send a letter so that the issue is documented. In the meantime, don’t pay the amount that is in dispute, the California Department of Consumer Affairs says.

If the problem remains unresolved, call your credit card company and tell it you want to withhold payment for the disputed transaction. Follow up with a letter to the card company, and send a copy to the seller. This will “demonstrate to the seller that you intend to follow through with your complaint, and that will increase the chance that the seller will resolve the problem voluntarily,” the consumer agency said.

The credit card company will contact the seller and try to resolve the dispute. While the item is under investigation, your card issuer may not report you as “delinquent” for withholding payment, provided that you follow the steps above. But the card company can describe the amount as “disputed.” “Since the dispute probably will end up on your credit record, the right to withhold should never be used frivolously,” the consumer agency said.

Your right to withhold payments does not apply if the transaction was for less than $50, or if it took place more than 100 miles from your home and in a state other than your own. But those restrictions are waived if the credit card was issued by the seller – a department store credit card, for example.

You can withhold payment only if you use your card as a credit card. Using it as a debit card is like paying cash.

I Think You’re The Father of One of My Kids…’

A guy goes to the supermarket and notices a very attractive woman waving at him.

She says, ‘Hello.’

He’s rather taken aback because he can’t place where he knows her from. So he asks, ‘Do you know me?’

To which she replies, ‘I think you’re the father of one of my kids.’

Now his mind travels back to the only time he has ever been unfaithful to his wife.

So he asks, ‘Are you the stripper from the bachelor party that I made love to on the Pool table, with all my buddies watching, while your partner whipped my butt with wet celery?’

She looks into his eyes and says calmly, ‘No, I’m your son’s teacher.’

Golden Years – A Tale of Madness and Greed

A story from Businessweek magazine.

One Nevada man prepared for everything but the inevitable

By Devin Leonard

Walter Samaszko Jr. was not a guy who wanted company. He covered the windows of his house in Carson City, Nev., with cardboard so the neighbors couldn’t see inside. He made the postman stick the mail through the slot in his garage rather than coming to the front door. He was so good at keeping people away that when he died of heart failure at age 69 in June, nobody noticed until his house began to smell. Someone called the sheriff’s department. A hazmat team removed Samaszko along with part of the floor he was stuck to.

That’s when everybody found out why he hadn’t been more sociable: The dour, white-haired recluse had been hoarding $7 million worth of gold coins, most of them hidden in the crawl space beneath the house. Some were in an old washing machine. There were British sovereigns dating back to the 1840s, Austrian ducats, and South African Kruggerands. But mostly Samaszko had collected rolls and rolls of $20 American gold pieces, the kind with double eagles on them. He also had $12,000 in cash, a stock account worth $165,000-and $200 in the bank.

The person who discovered Samaszko’s secret was Jeri Vine, a local real estate broker hired to clean up his house. She spent five days combing through his possessions. Samaszko had been prepared for the worst. He owned several guns, gas masks, and survivalist manuals. His cupboards were filled with canned The person who discovered Samaszko’s secret was Jeri Vine, a local real estate broker hired to clean up his house. She spent five days combing through his possessions.

Samaszko had been prepared for the worst. He owned several guns, gas masks, and survivalist manuals. His cupboards were filled with canned tuna fish. He had a lot of Johnny Mathis tapes. Vine threw most of it out. “We had like a 33 yard dumpster on the driveway,” she says. “I filled that thing.”

On the fourth day, Vine opened a metal ammunition box in the garage. It was full of gold coins in plastic cases. She called Alan Glover, the public administrator of Carson City. “Alan, get over here immediately!” she told him. “There’s so much money it’s unbelievable.” The sheriff’s department returned to the house, this time with metal I detectors. It took Glover and three attorneys two days to count all the coins. With the help of a numismatic expert, they determined that Samaszko’s clutch was worth $7 million. The gold is being stored in a vault in Reno until a local probate court judge decides its fate.

Samaszko may have been prepared for a societal collapse, but not for his own end. He had no will. Nor did he have any children. Glover was able to locate a first cousin, Arlene Magdanz, a part time teacher in San Rafael, Calif., who hadn’t seen him in years. Glover expects the probate court to release the fortune to Magdanz after the IRS extracts its cut. (He estimates the federal government’s take will be about $800,000.) The tale of the elderly recluse who turned out to be a millionaire became a brief sensation, with Vine and Glover appearing on the Today show.

Vine eventually sold Samaszko’s house for an undisclosed price. Some prospective buyers just wanted to see if there was any more gold hidden there. “One guy had his contractor friend go underneath the house,” Vine says. “I told him we went through that place with a fine-toothed comb. Never heard from him again.”

It’s easy to see why Samaszko’s death and the revelations that followed fascinate people. How many of us would have kept $7 million in a crawl space and not touched it? It makes you wonder what other secrets died with him.