Reflections

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is up for confirmation in the U.S. Senate. As one financial expert said today on CNBC, Bernanke should be confirmed by acclamation for doing an extraordinarily good job in an extraordinarily diificult situation.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said today that “Ben Bernanke is far and away the best person to lead the Fed going forward. He should be reconfirmed as soon as possible.” (CNBC – January 22, 2010)

But it is not a pretty site in the Senate as both Republican and Democratic senators try to out do each other in adopting the populist opinion that “Bernanke must go”. It started with some Republicans and now some prominent Democrats have taken up the “me too” chorus. Why? I ask. There can be a profound difference between populist opinion and what is best for the country and the economy.

By most accounts, Bernanke has done as well as most anyone could have done in navigating us away from the financial precipice we were so close to in the fall of 2008, just 16 or so short months ago. The Fed made some mistakes in a financial situation with catastrophic potential, and they freely acknowledged those mistakes. But far more important, they got most things right. Difficult as our situation is right now, it could be significantly worse. We could be in the midst of another Great Depression.

But politics are at play and economic sense can go out the window when the two sides of the aisle are trying their best to outmaneuver each other.

I should hasten to point out that Congress had opportunities to head off this crisis long before it got so severe, but they were more focused on politics as usual than safe-guarding the best interests of the American people. Just one example.  In 2005, the Senate ignored its chance to head off the housing crisis at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In 2005, Senator Chuck Hagel sponsored legislation that would that would have regulated Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, but it died in the Senate. I wrote about that here.

Alice Rivlin, former Federal Reserve Vice-Chair, said today that Ben Bernanke is the best person to lead us through the difficult decisions that still need to be made by the Fed. She has been joined by other financial experts who are endorsing Bernanke, and candidly saying that the talk in the Senate is “just crazy.”

But the nightly news will quote Senator Barbara Boxer’s criticisms of Bernanke, not Alice Rivlin’s endorsement, despite Rivlin’s impeccable credentials.

Rivlin “was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1968 to 1969. In 1971 she authored Systematic Thinking for Social Action.

“She was the first director of the newly established Congressional Budget Office during 1975–83, where she was a persistent and vociferous critic of Reaganomics as head of the CBO. In 1983, she won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award.

“Under President Bill Clinton she served as the deputy director of Office of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1994, director of OMB from 1994 to 1996 (becoming the first woman to hold the position), and a governor of the Federal Reserve from 1996 to 1999, during which time she served as the Fed’s vice-chair.”  (source)

I would take Rivlin over Boxer any day of the week (and twice on Sunday) when it comes to economic policy.

The idiocy in Washington D.C has been reflected in the markets this week which had their worst week since March 2009.

If you value the economic future of the U.S., write to your senators this week and urge them to confirm Ben Bernanke.

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Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist, in a note to clients. “Bernanke has earned his stripes for masterful leadership of the Fed, and other monetary and banking policies, since October 2008, when it became clear that the U.S. economy, in conjunction with other major industrialized countries, was moving into a deep economic recession with major systemic risks to the financial system.”

“Most economists would have said absolutely reappoint him,” said Gregory Rosston, deputy director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, in an interview. “He’s done a phenomenal job.”

Former Fed Vice Chair Alice Rivlin says Bernanke is “about the perfect person [for] this job. He has coped with a very difficult situation.

(source for the prior three quotes)

Martin Luther King Jr.

Today is Martin Luther King Day in the United States. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born January 15, 1929. He was a Baptist minister and a prominent civil rights advocate. King was the youngest person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize when it awarded to him in 1964. He was assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

One of his most famous speeches was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial August 28, 1963. Often referred to as the “I have a dream” speech, it is one of the most significant and powerful speeches of the 20th century. A portion of the speech follows. Links to the full speech and an audio file are at the end of this post.

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U.S. Gas Price Heat Map - January 18, 2010

Driving across the country, I have learned which states have better gas prices. If I am headed east on I-70 in eastern Missouri, I always buy gas before I cross the Mississippi River into Illinois where the prices are much higher. I don’t by gas again until I get to Indiana.

If I am in western Nebraska on I-76 and headed for Colorado, I try not to buy gas until I get across the Colorado state line. If I am in Pennsylvania on I-84 and headed for New York, I always fill up before crossing the New York state line.

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Sunstar Over Turnagain Arm, Alaska. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

May the wonder and joy of the season be yours.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What are the best places to live inexpensively in the U.S.?
The article.  The list of cities.

If the article goes away, the list follows:

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NASA Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin Walking on the Moon

Photo details: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, walks on the surface of the Moon near the leg of the Lunar Module (LM) “Eagle” during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA). Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the Lunar Module (LM) “Eagle” to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the Moon, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) “Columbia” in lunar orbit.

Sending astronauts to the moon seemed like an amazing thing in 1969. They landed 40 years ago today. Like millions of others, I was glued to the TV set.

When Sputnik was launched by the U.S.S.R. in 1957, it was a shock to the scientific community and to the U.S. psyche, and the “space race” was on. A few years later, newly elected U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced the goal of putting a man on the moon within the decade. On July 20, 1969, it happened. It was an amazing accomplishment, not without high risks, and the country was justly proud of NASA and the space program.

The NASA web site is commemorating the Apollo 11 trip to the moon. There are times that the site seems to be overloaded and/or overwhelmed with visitors today. You can view moonwalk video, listen to Apollo 11 onboard audio recordings, listen to real time mission audio that tracks everything as it happened 40 years ago, and a lot more.

Earthrise. The crew of Apollo 8 captured this view of Earth about five degrees above the lunar horizon on Dec. 22, 1968.

Read this article: Buddy Could You Spare Five Trillion Dollars?

The first part is about the white paper, Toxic Equity Trading Order Flow on Wall Street which you can download as a pdf and read. Then write to the SEC and complain.

The rest of the article is about other interesting issues.

Soldiers from the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry take defensive positions at firebase Restrepo after receiving fire from Taliban positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan’s Kunar Province on Monday May 11, 2009. Spc. Zachery Boyd of Fort Worth, TX, far left was wearing ‘I love NY’ boxer shorts after rushing from his sleeping quarters to join his fellow platoon members. From far right is Spc. Cecil Montgomery of Many, LA and Jordan Custer of Spokan, WA, center.  (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

From Yahoo News (link below):
“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday praised an Army soldier in eastern Afghanistan who drew media attention this month after rushing to defend his post from attack while wearing pink boxer shorts and flip-flops.

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If you have too many people in one state, when they get out on the city streets and highways, are they like too many mice in a cage?

I spend a lot of time driving across the country. Last summer, after a trip across part of the central and western U.S., I was tempted to write an article about my observations.

I had concluded quite some time ago that Michigan drivers were worse than the drivers in Colorado, Nebraska, and Iowa. A few years ago I came to the conclusion that Ohio drivers are even worse than Michigan drivers. Maybe that’s because I made several trips to Columbus Ohio over a period of 6 months and on every trip I saw at least one accident on the city streets where a car was on its side or on it’s roof.  You have to work hard to get cars on their sides or upside down when driving on streets where the speed limit is 35 or even 25.

My trip last summer reinforced my conclusions.

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According to data gathered by the American Lung Association, six out of ten people in the U.S. live in counties with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution.

Complete information is available in the “State of the Air 2009″ report.

Here are the 25 cities with the worst ozone levels (click more):

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The advice in this article will help.

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Les Miserables is one of my favorite musicals with beautiful music, impressive staging and a moving story line adapted from the novel by Victor Hugo. If the previous post whetted your curiosity, you can listen to the whole arrangement of “I Dreamed a Dream” in this video.

“Fantine” sings of dreams gone by. Abandoned by the man she once loved, the father of her daughter Cosette, she is unemployed and destitute and trying to provide for her daughter. Read more about her character in this Wikipedia article.

And as long as I’m at it, here’s “A Little Fall of Rain” which Eponine, mortally wounded at the barricade, sings with Marius as she dies in his arms.

Watch this wonderful video from the TV show, “Britain’s Got Talent”. 47 year old Susan Boyle, an unemployed contestant, surprises and wows the judges.

The song she sings is from the wonderful musical Les Miserables.

I love it when stuff like this happens. It reminds me of this wonderful moment on the same show.

Part of page one of the Obama’s 43 page income tax return.

One of the joys of being the President and Vice President is having your tax returns available to the general public. This has been going on for a long time. When Al Gore was Vice President I was surprised to note that he and his wife gave a surprisingly small amount of money to charities.

Now it is the Obama’s and Biden’s turn and the public is pouring over their tax returns. And you can too.

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A news report tonight talked about parents who use software to read all the text messages that their children send and receive with their mobile phones. The children in the news report are aware that their parents monitor their messages.

Why do parents do this? Lots of reasons. One is the incentive it gives children to be more careful about what they send by text message.

The software parents are using is from SMobile Systems.

It’s bad. It attacks Windows computers.  (Mac’s are safe from this particular worm.)

Go here to download and run Microsoft’s most recent Malicious Software Removal Tool:

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx 

According to this article, it is a growing problem for “debt collectors to hound the innocent”. Debt collection is a growth industry. Along with that growth, there are more and more “cases of mistaken identity, in which the abused consumer owes nothing at all.”

You can take action to stop the phone calls.

Google the phone number in the title to this post. You will come up with a lot of web sites like these:

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-748-4956

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/8887484956

http://whocalled.us/lookup/8887484956

http://phoneowner.info/Number.aspx/8887484956

http://www.callferret.com/888-748-4956.html

http://www.numberzoom.com/en/888-748-4956

These websites are filled with hundreds of messages like the ones that follow, all from people who are being called from 888-748-4956:

“This number calls me every day six or seven times a day and hangs up or leaves an automated message about “an important personal matter.” I am in good standing and owe no money to anyone. This is very annoying as I have never owned a Capital One credit card in my life.”

“Allied Institute called demanding my personal information. I do not have a Capital One Card. I have never had one! The woman: named Rose demanded my attention to “an important personal matter”! This is very disturbing. The woman is very aggressive and assertive. I do not owe them any money!”

“This number has been calling our house non stop for about 2-3 months now. They start calling about 8 am to about 9:30 pm at night. My machine picks it up but no one is there and no message is left. The calls come about every 20-30 minutes apart, 7 days a week. This has to stop, this is clear harassment. The only thing that comes up on our caller ID is the number . Don’t know who these people are.”

“The company is Allied Interstate, a collection agency. I’ve been receiving calls from them since I got a new phone number. They’re looking for Katherine and I told them that my family does not have a Katherine and they’ve got a number that was transferred to me. They promised to take my number off in December. But I still got three or four calls per day. I called them again today and they said that the number will be removed. Let’s see if it does stop. Next stop will be some government agency to make them stop.”

“This number calls me three or more times a day. They even call on the weekends. I answered once and they were asking for a Richard. When I told them I did not know any Richard they told me my conversation was being recorded. I asked to be taken off their list but they still call me every day. They called me again on Friday and I demanded to be taken off their list again. The person I was speaking with wouldn’t tell me their name and they have called me everyday since.”

Allied Interstate Inc. is in Minneapolis Minnesota.  Google the name of this company (along with the city and state so you don’t find companies with similar names), read a few articles, and ask yourself why this company is still in business.

If you are being harassed for bills that aren’t yours, you can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The web site is here.

You should also contact the Attorney General’s Office for your state (just Google “Attorney General” and the name of your state). They probably have an online complaint form.

According to several online news reports (like this one), the Minnesota Attorney General sued Allied Interstate. “Under the settlement, Allied agreed to stop making telephone calls to innocent consumers who have already told the company that it had contacted the wrong person or did not owe the debt.”

If more of us reported companies like this, maybe more states would take action against companies like this.

How do I know all of this? I was getting several calls every day from 888-748-4956.  I repeatedly told them that they had contacted the wrong person but they kept calling. Last Friday I reported them to the office of the Attorney General of my state. I also reported them to the FTC.

I got 10 calls from Allied this weekend, six calls on Saturday and four more calls on Sunday.  Today I heard from the office of the Attorney General.  The phone calls have stopped.

Yes, I do like the burritos at Chipotle. But how many calories are there in my favorite burrito? I did a quick Google search and found the Chipotle Nutrition Calculator at ChipotleFan.com. Just put check marks in the boxes and watch the Nutrition Facts section add up the calories, fat grams, sodium, and other nutritional information.

I started with my favorite barbacoa burrito in a bol (the bowl itself adds no calories unless, for some odd reason, you like to eat the plastic bowl). With rice, black beans, and green salsa, my burrito has 435 calories, 11 grams of fat and 1140 mg of sodium (see above). Not too bad.

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How happy are the people in your state and how does it compare to other states?

Utah, Hawaii, Wyoming, Colorado, and Minnesota are happiest states. Except for the state of Nevada, all of the states in the Rocky Mountain west are in the top 20 or top 40% of the happiest states (see the map at the end of this post).

West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, and Arkansas are the unhappiest states.

Based on extensive polling, Gallup ranked states and congressional districts by a number of categories which range from how happy people are about their life and their work, to their physical and mental health. These were combined to create a “Well-Being Index”.

The top 20 states with their well-being index and their rank out of 50

According to the Gallup-Healthways web site: “The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index™ has been developed to provide the official measure for health and well-being. It’s the voice of Americans and the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to measure what people believe constitutes a good life.”

“Over the next 25 years, the Well-Being Index will collect and measure the daily pulse of the nation’s well-being and provide best-in-class solutions for a healthier world. By helping Americans understand how work impacts life and health and conversely how life affects work and health, we can work together to improve well-being for a better way of life.”

I have lived in two of the 20 happiest states (Colorado and Nebraska) and four out of the 10 unhappiest states (Missouri, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Ohio). I wonder what that means?!

The bottom 10 states, ranked from 41 to 50

Seeing these lists reminded me of a life expectancy study. The 7 counties in the United States with the highest life expectancy are all in Colorado. Over half of the 25 counties with the highest life expectancy are in the west. If you are curious, of the 25 counties in the United States with the lowest life expectancy, 5 are in Mississippi, 2 are in West Virginia, and 2 are in Arkansas.

What is it about the west that makes people happier and live longer? Maybe John Soule and Horace Greeley are right: “Go west young man”.

All 50 states from the top 20% to the bottom 20%

You can create a report for all 50 states by going here and using the “Quick Report Builder”.

More information is at the Gallup-Healthways web site.