Prometheus 6

Quote of note:

Hardships like this are becoming more common in the military as high-cost easy-money lenders increasingly make service members a target market. As a result, many military people have become trapped in a spiral of borrowing at sky-high rates that can ruin their finances, distract them from their duties and even destroy their careers. The military, for its part, has done little to deny these lenders access to the troops, relying instead on consumer education.

Seeking Quick Loans, Soldiers Race Into High-Interest Traps
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
Published: December 7, 2004

From Puget Sound in the Northwest to the Virginia coast, the landscape is the same: the main gate of a large military base opens onto a highway lined with shops eager to make small, fast and remarkably expensive loans, no questions asked.

Price of Global Hawk Surveillance Program Rises
Purchase Order Scaled Back as Cost of Air Force Plan Increases to $6.3 Billion

By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 7, 2004; Page A17

The cost of a program to build high-profile unmanned surveillance aircraft, known as Global Hawks, has increased by nearly $900 million since 2001, according to a Government Accountability Office report released yesterday.

…Most of the increased cost is related to the development of a second, heavier version of the unmanned plane with enhanced sensors. The Air Force decided to buy the aircraft before all of the technology has been developed, raising concerns that costs will inevitably increase, the report said. The GAO recommended delaying the purchase of more aircraft, except for those needed for testing, until a new strategy can be developed.

One of the Most Prominent African-American Public Relations Professionals Targets Hispanic Consumers

BLH Consulting, Inc. Launches Hispanic Marketing Specialty

ATLANTA, GA--(HISPANIC PR WIRE)--Jan. 20, 2004--Betsy Helgager, through her public relations and marketing communications firm, BLH Consulting, Inc., announced today the formation of the company’s Hispanic specialty that is dedicated to creating meaningful programs towards Hispanic consumers in the United States. Alejandra Cádiz-Gómez leaves Ketchum Inc. and joins BLH with more than 8 years of public relations and marketing experience toward the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American consumers. In addition to implementing media relations and holistic communications strategies, she’ll also be providing translation services for websites, brochures, advertising and other marketing materials.

Quote of note:

They say Commerce One told industry groups that it wanted businesses to be able to use the technologies for free. And once a promise is made that a patent is royalty-free, any future owner of that patent has to honor that promise, they say.

But those selling off Commerce One's assets don't agree.

"The company has not given up any of their patent rights," said John Amster, an investment banker with Ocean Tomo, which is helping Commerce One in its bankruptcy. "Presumably, if they wanted to do so, they would have."

Auction of Web patents could be a royalty pain
By Deborah Lohse
Mercury News

An obscure auction scheduled for this morning in San Francisco's financial district threatens to make life mighty uncomfortable for many companies that conduct business with one another over the Internet.

I love the whole idea of NASA. Have loved it since the Gemini program. NASA is at least partly responsible for my reading habits (science fiction and science), the technology developed by NASA has literally changed the world for the better (and note, please, it was not and never would have been the product of a market-based effort).

But dammit, we should not still be getting surprises of this magnitude from this damned appropriations bill. It's frightening to think you can just write a paragraph funding a $16 billion dollar expenditure and

• It passes!
• Everyone is unaware it was in there
• Knowing it was added without consulting the rest of the world it will still be dealt with as valid

DeLay's Push Helps Deliver NASA Funds

I just happened to overhear the roundtable on This Week.

David Brooks has no idea what an average human's life is like. I say this because of his justifications for uncreating Social Security: that it's a "New Deal" program, and most people can afford to fund their own retirement.

How many of you can fund your own retirement? Myopia of the elites is a problem with everyone's elite.

And George Will said (in a way which leaves me unclear whether he shares the position or is merely reporting it) that the argument for this uncreation will be that it helps poor folks save, gives them a vested interest in the economy and is a good idea even if Social Security is not going broke.

I think we should reconsider the urgency with which this is being pursued.

First, let's look at the official figures on when, barring any change, Social Security is projected to become insolvent.

The maximum projected trust fund ratios for the OASI, DI, and combined funds appear in table II.D1. The year in which the maximum projected trust fund ratio is attained and the year in which the assets are projected to be exhausted are shown as well.

Quote of note:

More than two-thirds of retirees right now rely mainly on Social Security for their living expenses. Private pensions are drying up, just when baby boomers need them. Of those currently aged 45 to 54, according to the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute, 39 percent have saved less than $50,000 for retirement. This amount will pay out less than $4,000 a year. Who will make up the shortfall? Probably not the government.

Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young
by Anya Kamenetz
Social Insecurity
Attention recent grads: Your parents are charging your future.
November 30th, 2004 10:30 AM

…Jacob Hall, not his real name, has changed his entire life course because of his parents' financial situation. The 25-year-old graduated from a prestigious university, where he studied engineering and neuroscience. But instead of exploring either of his passions—a Ph.D. in neuroscience or photography and fine arts—he moved across the country to take a job in finance that pays over $100,000 a year. "There's a lot of things that I would probably be doing instead of working in New York on Wall Street if I didn't feel the imminency of a large financial crisis in my family in the near future," he says. "My parents have not been out of heavy debt for most of my life. I feel an immediate need to make money now. I don't want to be in a position where I can't help them."

Quote of note:

The capital made available under the act has helped to rebuild entire communities - in rural Maine as well as in the South Bronx. At the same time, banks have learned that lending, investing and providing basic services in low-income communities can be good business. A 2002 Harvard University study found that the law significantly changed the way banks do business in and relate to the communities they serve. As a result, the report stated, "The lower-income mortgage market has become demonstrably mainstream and more competitive over the last decade." The Federal Reserve Board, too, has deemed this lending to be safe and profitable.

Low-income families can be part of the mainstream economy only if they can buy homes, start businesses and live in stable, vibrant communities. If the United States is to compete globally, we need everyone to contribute. In these uncertain economic times, keeping the Community Reinvestment Act strong is in the interest of all Americans.

Don't Let Banks Turn Their Backs on the Poor
By ROBERT E. RUBIN and MICHAEL RUBINGER

FOR more than 25 years, a little known federal law has helped low-income communities get the bank loans and services they need to rebuild their neighborhoods. But that law, the Community Reinvestment Act, is being threatened by proposals from two federal bank regulators.

Too many people can't afford cars. Even though the monthly payments are less than monthly parking fees.

Quote of note:

The cuts in social services are largely the result of the financial problems in state government, which faces a $6 billion deficit in its $100 billion budget for the next fiscal year. But many lawmakers say there is also a more specific reason why the social service programs are being hurt: the state's decision to use federal welfare money indirectly for non-welfare spending; the pot of money is now running out.

I'm actually having a problem being less than cynical this morning. Side effect of getting enough sleep, I think.

Anyway…

Social Services in City to Lose $100 Million

There's never been a monopoly that kept prices low…except AT&T, which brings me to my second point: there's never been a case where deregulation of an industry resulted in lower prices…except the airline industry, and how often does THAT benefit you? Two, maybe three times a year?

Anyway…

Supreme Court to Hear Case on Cable as Internet Carrier
By LINDA GREENHOUSE

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - The Supreme Court on Friday stepped into one of the most heated debates over the future of the Internet: how to classify high-speed Internet cable service for purposes of federal regulation and, ultimately, for the question of whether competing Internet service providers are entitled to use the cable companies' networks to reach their subscribers.

The quote of note isn't from the New York Times article I'm linking:

"So many individual investors have no idea they're losing possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars," Bhagat said. "It begs the question of what aspects of the financial marketplace and which consumer traits are responsible for this phenomenon."

Where does it come from? One of the four links below.

One State Talks About Shifting Out of Pensions
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

Just days after the president of a huge California pension fund was ousted, some California officials are proposing that the state get out of the pension business and give state and municipal workers a 401(k) plan instead.

The title of this post is an example of the sort of reasoning we'd do if we weren't so damn…theoretical.

Anyway…

M.T.A. Seeks Tax Increases Over 5 Years
By CHARLES V. BAGLI and MICHAEL LUO

Moving to address its financial crisis, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is proposing to increase a half-dozen business, real estate and fuel taxes to raise $900 million a year to help pay for the transit network's five-year rebuilding program.

The proposal by the authority's chairman, Peter S. Kalikow, is being presented to the Pataki administration and the State Legislature as a way to deal with the authority's crushing debt and capital costs, a financial burden that has forced the authority to consider a mix of transit fare increases and service cuts when the authority's board meets Dec. 16. Mr. Kalikow is an appointee of Gov. George E. Pataki, and his plan presents a challenge to the Republican governor, an ardent opponent of higher taxes who has yet to come up with his own plan to meet the expenses.

Worried Merchants Throw Discounts at Shoppers
By TRACIE ROZHON

Got a credit card ready? The markdowns have begun.

America's merchants, shocked by a mediocre post-Thanksgiving weekend, are rushing to mark down their merchandise - way before the majority of holiday shoppers have even seen it.

At the beginning of November, merchants had reduced prices on 5 percent fewer of their goods than last year, according to John D. Morris, a retail analyst with Harris Nesbitt who keeps an annual holiday markdown index. "There's been a complete about-face," he said yesterday, speaking from the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, N.J. "By the end of Sunday, markdowns were 5 percent higher than last year - and judging by what I see tonight, that figure is accelerating."

Music Industry Turns to Napster Creator for Help
By JEFF LEEDS

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 2 - As a teenager, Shawn Fanning brought free music to the masses, creating the Napster file-swapping program and unleashing a technological genie that granted the wishes of fans seeking virtually any song at any time - gratis. Now, the recording industry is turning to the college dropout turned cult hero, with dreams of putting the genie back in its bottle.

The major record corporations, who accused Mr. Fanning's Napster of ravaging CD sales and weakening the underpinnings of the industry, now say that a licensed file-sharing system could bolster their position in their legal fight against piracy as well as increase digital music sales.

Yesterday I linked to a really clumsy attempt to spin the latest unemployment numbers. Here's the real deal.

Job Growth Is Well Below Wall Street Forecasts
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - The economy added 112,000 payroll jobs in November, the Labor Department reported today, far fewer than the month before and not enough to keep up with growth in the adult population.

The gain was well below Wall Street forecasts for an increase of about 200,000 jobs, and employment in manufacturing remained stagnant for the third month in a row.

The overall unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.4 percent and has essentially been flat ever since July, the Labor Department said.

Quote of note:

Marnie Funk, a spokeswoman for Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), said her boss put the language into the bill "to bring clarity to a situation in California that has been fraught with uncertainty and conflict." Domenici aides drafted the language for a bill overhauling national energy policy, she said, and when that bill stalled, Domenici added it to the spending measure.

Carl W. Wood, a member of the California Public Utilities Commission, said the language "shows a complete contempt for the people of California and their representatives."

Congress Fuels Fire Between FERC, States
By Richard Simon

Jobless Claims Up but Still Show Recovery
By JEANNINE AVERSA
The Associated Press
Thursday, December 2, 2004; 9:27 AM

WASHINGTON -- The number of new people signing up for unemployment benefits rose sharply last week but the overall level of applications still points to a recovering job market.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new filings for unemployment insurance increased by a seasonally adjusted 25,000 to 349,000 for the week ending Nov. 27, which included the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Some analysts were expecting a smaller rise -- of around 7,000.

Private economists and Labor Department analysts say claims around Thanksgiving and other holidays are typically more volatile -- meaning that they can bounce around a lot more from week to week in part because of seasonal adjustment difficulties.

Dollar's Fall Drains Profit of European Small Business
By MARK LANDLER

FRANKFURT, Dec. 1 - To get a sense of how fast the falling dollar can ruin a European businessman's day, talk to Udo Pfeiffer, the chief executive of a small German machinery maker in the industrial Ruhr Valley.

Mr. Pfeiffer's company, SMS Elotherm, builds machines that forge crankshafts for cars. He exports many to the United States and Mexico, selling them for dollars to manufacturers like DaimlerChrysler.

In recent weeks, the euro has been rising so rapidly against the dollar that Mr. Pfeiffer lost $10,000 in profit in the three days between shaking hands on a $1.5 million deal for a machine and signing the contract. The profit on these machines, he said, will be no more than $30,000.

Company Hopes to Take Outsourcing to a New Level: Africa
By Mary Ellen Slayter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 29, 2004; Page E05

Many large companies have reaped the economic benefits of outsourcing in recent years. Karim Morsli is trying to make money bringing those same advantages to small and medium-sized businesses -- while also spurring economic growth in Africa.

His company, Rising Data Solutions, opened the first outsource call center in Ghana, a West African nation of about 20 million people. The company circumvents the country's limited telephone infrastructure by relying on voice-over-Internet protocol.

"Outsourcing is here to stay. Period," said Morsli, the Gaithersburg company's chief information officer. "But we give people an option to India."

AIDS in India, China and Russia Nears 'Tipping Point,' U.N. Says
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 1, 2004; Page A17

The head of the United Nations' AIDS program warned yesterday that India, China and Russia are "perilously close to a tipping point" that could turn their small, localized AIDS epidemics into gigantic ones capable of disrupting the world's response to the disease.

The situation in those three countries "bears alarming similarities to the situation we faced 20 years ago in Africa," Peter Piot, a Belgian physician and epidemiologist, told policymakers in Washington. It could transform "from a series of concentrated outbreaks and hot spots into a generalized explosion across the entire population -- spreading like a wildfire from there."