It’s that time of year. My favorite holiday is almost here! Thanksgiving is just around the corner! Woo hoo!
If you’re like me (and I know you’re glad you’re not) Thanksgiving in my family is always somewhat chaotic but, in the end, it all seems to come together. In that vein, here are some random thoughts, memories and menu suggestions about Thanks giving. Hopefully, in the end, it will all come together and make sense! Or not . . .
Minimum Standards for a Successful Thanksgiving Meal
* Turkey (duh!) No goose, ham or other unworthy substitutes
* Mashed Potatoes & Gravy. 800 lbs of mashed potatoes and a 55 gallon drum of gravy
* Stuffing. Nothing involving livers, gizzards, walnuts or other exotic ingredients. Bread, seasonings, liquid – mix it together and you’re done.
* Green Beans. Not that disgusting green bean, soup, French onion concoction that everyone’s grandma makes. Yecch!
* Cranberries. Not cranberry jelly – or whatever it’s called - but real cranberries
* Black Olives. One can per person. And yes, I still put them on my fingers.
* Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider. Although there are beers that go well with Thanksgiving dinner (Saison Dupont, for example) my favorite Thanksgiving beverage is sparkling cider. Period.
* Pumpkin Pie. Like vegetables, simple and traditional is best. Don’t be bringing in your Mom’s Famous Mincemeat Pie.
* Whipping Cream. You can never have enough whipped cream. (Am I right, people?) While this can be eaten all by itself, I usually disguise my obsession by eating it with a slice of pumpkin pie. Cool Whip is a sad, sad substitute and has no place at the Thanksgiving table.
Random Thanksgiving Memories
* Getting up early, making coffee and reading the paper while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
* The Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions always play games on Thanksgiving Day. My least favorite NFL team and the perennially worst NFL team. This is not a highlight.
* When our kids were very young we started a family tradition of going to a movie after Thanksgiving dinner. When we first started doing this, the theater was virtually empty. Now everyone seems to do this.
* However, due to the magic sleep potion in turkey, I pretty much always fall asleep during the movie. Movies I have missed large portions of: Toy Story, Toy Story II, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Catch Me If You Can.
Best Thanksgiving Memory
* Jeremy’s birthday is November 25th and he came home from the hospital on Thanksgiving Day. Nancy’s mother got the turkey in the oven and the rest of the meal started while I was bringing them home. It was a crummy, cold, rainy day (not unlike today in western Oregon) but when we got Jerm home, and our little family of 5 gathered around the table (with Jerm sleeping in his bassinette thingy) it became the Best. Thanksgiving. Ever!
Things I’m Thankful For This Year
* My kids and their S.O.’s. Elizabeth & Jeremiah, Jake & Rachel, Jeremy & Cassie!
* Rudy. And Elizabeth’s enormous yellow lab, Hank.
* My Mom. The unintentionally funniest woman in America.
* My Dad. He provides hours and hours of fun with his unending rants on the current state of affairs in the United States.
* My brother and sisters. Especially my brother’s rebuttals of my father’s rants!
* Beer.
* Friends.
* Great books. South of Broad, Judas Unchained, The Shack
* Trashy TV: Mad Men, Modern Family, Battlestar Gasucktica and, of course, Survivor, Amazing Race and Big Brother.
* Music: Michael Franti & Spearhead, Raphael Saadiq, Melody Gardot, Glee,
* Beer.
* Politics. I’m a junkie for all the in-fighting and stupid commentary on the news channels and blogosphere. Bless you Glenn Beck, Keith Olberman, Sarah Palin, Nancy Pelosi, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Chris Matthews and Carrie Prejean. Thank heavens we have John Stewart and Stephen Colbert to help us sort it all out.
* My job. Because where else could I work and be able to do this kinda stuff each week!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Stock Market Update: Thursday, November 19, 2009
Well, let's see what exciting news there is today . . .
Oregon's state economist declares the recession is over! (Feel free to buy that summer home in Maui you've been dreaming about!)
British singing sensation, Susan Boyle sets a pre-order sales record on Amazon. (Just one more sign of the apocalypse!)
Tim Linecum won the Cy Young Award for the 2nd straight year. (Single handedly bringing back the mullet!)
Ireland demands a rematch with France because of the screw-up during their recent World Cup Soccer match. (And still no one in the U.S. cares.)
The University of California Board of Regents are looking at raising tuition by 32% (Message to students: It's not a tumah - it's a tuition.)
And, uh, check out this fabulous headline . . .
In addition to all that interesting stuff, there was a great article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press (say that three times real fast) about some recent remarks Richard Davis made. Many of you may have had this forwarded to you already but just in case you haven't seen it, well, it's below. Definitely worth a read - if only because Richard Davis is so quotable!
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Nov. 18, 2009
Davis has mellowed in his view of TARP
But U.S. Bancorp CEO says Washington feels need to punish banks
By Ann Harrington
When U.S. Bancorp CEO Richard Davis spoke at a business leaders' forum in February, he didn't have much good to say about the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, which provided the bank with $6.6 billion — but with a lot of strings attached.
Judging by his comments at the monthly luncheon of the Association for Corporate Growth Minnesota on Tuesday, however, his opinion has mellowed somewhat — perhaps because his Minneapolis-based bank is one of the few to have completely extricated itself from TARP. Davis said he believes the program ultimately will be regarded as a decent one with decent returns.
Davis even had positive things to say about the government's stress tests for banks. He got a big laugh when he recalled, "We all went through stress tests. It worked. I was stressed the whole time." (Actually, U.S. Bancorp passed easily.)
But he's wary of what could happen to the financial system from a Washington he characterized as under pressure to punish the banks.
Davis compared the situation to a parent who needs to make a point to a misbehaving teen. It's tempting to take away the keys to the car, he said, but do we really want to chauffeur the child everywhere?
Similarly, he said, if some regulations are enacted, the nation could end up with a financial system in which it is difficult for consumers to get credit cards and businesses to get the loans that are needed to get the economy up and moving again.
Without doubt, he said, there were "some bad actors" in the financial industry, and he apologized "for some of the horrible things that happened." But not all banks are equal, he said.
And bankers aren't the only ones who should share the blame, he said. There also were "billions and billions of dollars" that consumers and businesses borrowed and then didn't pay back. "That's not cool," Davis said.
Moving forward, everyone must deal with all those bad bets, he said. He estimated that between $2 trillion and $3 trillion in assets in the financial system eventually will be written down, "and we're slightly more than halfway there."
Commercial real estate often is seen as a looming problem, but it won't be Armageddon, he said. "Just difficult."
Some banks will fail, and he said the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is doing a good job of resolving those situations. But Davis added it could move faster, alluding to "a list we all have" of troubled banks. "Some banks have been on that list for 100 days," he said.
Davis seemed most concerned about the decisions Congress and regulators will make over the next nine weeks, saying he was spending "an inordinate amount of my time in Washington" trying to help decision makers understand the long-term implications of such decisions. He said that one senator (not from Minnesota) told him recently that there was "such a sentiment that we need to punish the banks."
That's where Davis (a father himself) made the comparison with punishing the teenager, and raised the specter of a world where loans and credit become very difficult to get.
Credit is key to moving forward, he said. When asked how we tell when we've turned the page, Davis said he's watching U.S. Bancorp's open lines of credit. Because businesses are moving cautiously right now, only a small percentage of that credit is actually being used. "It's yours to use and you won't use it," he said. When that changes, we'll be making progress, he said.
And one more article about the growth of deposits in the banking industry and how U.S. Bancorp is kicking butt - or, as I like to say: putting more (quality) junk in our trunk!
Stock Price
Oregon's state economist declares the recession is over! (Feel free to buy that summer home in Maui you've been dreaming about!)
British singing sensation, Susan Boyle sets a pre-order sales record on Amazon. (Just one more sign of the apocalypse!)
Tim Linecum won the Cy Young Award for the 2nd straight year. (Single handedly bringing back the mullet!)
Ireland demands a rematch with France because of the screw-up during their recent World Cup Soccer match. (And still no one in the U.S. cares.)
The University of California Board of Regents are looking at raising tuition by 32% (Message to students: It's not a tumah - it's a tuition.)
And, uh, check out this fabulous headline . . .
In addition to all that interesting stuff, there was a great article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press (say that three times real fast) about some recent remarks Richard Davis made. Many of you may have had this forwarded to you already but just in case you haven't seen it, well, it's below. Definitely worth a read - if only because Richard Davis is so quotable!
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Nov. 18, 2009
Davis has mellowed in his view of TARP
But U.S. Bancorp CEO says Washington feels need to punish banks
By Ann Harrington
When U.S. Bancorp CEO Richard Davis spoke at a business leaders' forum in February, he didn't have much good to say about the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, which provided the bank with $6.6 billion — but with a lot of strings attached.
Judging by his comments at the monthly luncheon of the Association for Corporate Growth Minnesota on Tuesday, however, his opinion has mellowed somewhat — perhaps because his Minneapolis-based bank is one of the few to have completely extricated itself from TARP. Davis said he believes the program ultimately will be regarded as a decent one with decent returns.
Davis even had positive things to say about the government's stress tests for banks. He got a big laugh when he recalled, "We all went through stress tests. It worked. I was stressed the whole time." (Actually, U.S. Bancorp passed easily.)
But he's wary of what could happen to the financial system from a Washington he characterized as under pressure to punish the banks.
Davis compared the situation to a parent who needs to make a point to a misbehaving teen. It's tempting to take away the keys to the car, he said, but do we really want to chauffeur the child everywhere?
Similarly, he said, if some regulations are enacted, the nation could end up with a financial system in which it is difficult for consumers to get credit cards and businesses to get the loans that are needed to get the economy up and moving again.
Without doubt, he said, there were "some bad actors" in the financial industry, and he apologized "for some of the horrible things that happened." But not all banks are equal, he said.
And bankers aren't the only ones who should share the blame, he said. There also were "billions and billions of dollars" that consumers and businesses borrowed and then didn't pay back. "That's not cool," Davis said.
Moving forward, everyone must deal with all those bad bets, he said. He estimated that between $2 trillion and $3 trillion in assets in the financial system eventually will be written down, "and we're slightly more than halfway there."
Commercial real estate often is seen as a looming problem, but it won't be Armageddon, he said. "Just difficult."
Some banks will fail, and he said the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is doing a good job of resolving those situations. But Davis added it could move faster, alluding to "a list we all have" of troubled banks. "Some banks have been on that list for 100 days," he said.
Davis seemed most concerned about the decisions Congress and regulators will make over the next nine weeks, saying he was spending "an inordinate amount of my time in Washington" trying to help decision makers understand the long-term implications of such decisions. He said that one senator (not from Minnesota) told him recently that there was "such a sentiment that we need to punish the banks."
That's where Davis (a father himself) made the comparison with punishing the teenager, and raised the specter of a world where loans and credit become very difficult to get.
Credit is key to moving forward, he said. When asked how we tell when we've turned the page, Davis said he's watching U.S. Bancorp's open lines of credit. Because businesses are moving cautiously right now, only a small percentage of that credit is actually being used. "It's yours to use and you won't use it," he said. When that changes, we'll be making progress, he said.
And one more article about the growth of deposits in the banking industry and how U.S. Bancorp is kicking butt - or, as I like to say: putting more (quality) junk in our trunk!
Stock Price
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Stock Market Update: Wednesday, November 18, 2009
I ran across a headline that I thought was pretty funny:
Man raises money to fly military folk home for the holidays.
Believes that soldiers' time in unconventional combat against unseen extremists might adequately prepare them for a typical family Thanksgiving
But when I stopped to read the article I found that what it’s really all about is very cool. With Thanksgiving just a week away, I thought this was more appropriate than the usual stuff I include here about how Wall Street is doing!
Let's Bring Em Home (LBEH.org) is a non-profit organization, established in 2001, that arranges for transportation for enlisted military personnel who cannot afford the travel costs otherwise. LBEH is active primarily before and during US holidays, giving junior military personnel an opportunity to fly home and spend the holidays with their families. Travel is provided for free to the personnel who qualify. This year LBEH has raised over $13,000 so far this year but needs roughly $16,000 more to fulfill their current requests.
Is that a cool idea or what? Getting enlisted men and women back home with their families for the holidays! Sweet! (Anyone tearing up yet?) And it also reminds me of one of the coolest corporate programs I know of: U.S. Bancorp’s Employee Assistance Fund.
And for those of you who think this might be the kind of endeavor you’d like to support, I can’t vouch for how ethical or well managed they are but a cursory Google search didn’t turn up anything negative. (For whatever that may be worth . . .)
The Dow was down slightly today in light trading. (Okay, I have no idea if it was light trading, heavy trading or no trading at all. It just makes me feel like a CNBC anchor to use phrases like that!) U.S. Bank stock was down a whopping 3 cents.
Stock Price
Man raises money to fly military folk home for the holidays.
Believes that soldiers' time in unconventional combat against unseen extremists might adequately prepare them for a typical family Thanksgiving
But when I stopped to read the article I found that what it’s really all about is very cool. With Thanksgiving just a week away, I thought this was more appropriate than the usual stuff I include here about how Wall Street is doing!
Let's Bring Em Home (LBEH.org) is a non-profit organization, established in 2001, that arranges for transportation for enlisted military personnel who cannot afford the travel costs otherwise. LBEH is active primarily before and during US holidays, giving junior military personnel an opportunity to fly home and spend the holidays with their families. Travel is provided for free to the personnel who qualify. This year LBEH has raised over $13,000 so far this year but needs roughly $16,000 more to fulfill their current requests.
Is that a cool idea or what? Getting enlisted men and women back home with their families for the holidays! Sweet! (Anyone tearing up yet?) And it also reminds me of one of the coolest corporate programs I know of: U.S. Bancorp’s Employee Assistance Fund.
And for those of you who think this might be the kind of endeavor you’d like to support, I can’t vouch for how ethical or well managed they are but a cursory Google search didn’t turn up anything negative. (For whatever that may be worth . . .)
The Dow was down slightly today in light trading. (Okay, I have no idea if it was light trading, heavy trading or no trading at all. It just makes me feel like a CNBC anchor to use phrases like that!) U.S. Bank stock was down a whopping 3 cents.
Stock Price
Friday, November 13, 2009
Stock Market Update: Friday, November 13, 2009
U.S. Bank stock was down today and (according to a couple of sources I ran across) it is due to some comments by Dick Bove, (AKA, He Who Shall Not Be Named) who said today that U.S. Bank, “continues to strengthen its balance sheet but must do better in controlling loan losses . . . The bank has provided data to show that it is in better condition from an asset quality standpoint relative to its peers, but its loan quality is still eroding and this could create problems with the expansion program and the bank's success in building its balance sheet strengths."
Oh yeah? Well, yo momma’s so stupid she tried to put all the M&Ms in alphabetical order!
There, I feel better!
On the other hand, the Dow was up 73 points on news that NASA said today that there is LOTS of water on the moon. As opposed to cheese, as we were all taught in elementary school . . .
Stock Price
Oh yeah? Well, yo momma’s so stupid she tried to put all the M&Ms in alphabetical order!
There, I feel better!
On the other hand, the Dow was up 73 points on news that NASA said today that there is LOTS of water on the moon. As opposed to cheese, as we were all taught in elementary school . . .
Stock Price
The Name Game
Remember the old song, The Name Game? (I think that’s what it’s called anyway.) The one where you throw out and name and they sing it back to you in that weird rhyme thing? (“Peter, Peter, bo beter, banana fanna, foe feter, me, mie, moe, meter. Peter.”) Some names were way too tough to use. (Arcata, for example.) And some got your mouth washed out with soap. (like, uh, Chuck.)
It points out how important names can be. Recently The Edge in The Oregonian, listed some, “actual, verified human names, excerpted from the gem of a book "Remarkable Names of Real People," by John Train:”
* Primrose Goo
* Buncha Love
* Sir Basil Smallpiece
* Firmin A. Gryp
* The Rev. Caanan Banana
* Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin Pond
* Suparporn Poopattana
* Strangeways Pigg Strangeways
* Tetley Ironside Tetley Jones (of England's Tetley Tea Co.)
* Carlos Restrepo Restrepo Restrepo de Restrepo
* Melissy Dalciny Caldony Yankee Pankee Devil-Take-The-Irishman Garrison
* Anne Aass
* Virginia May Sweatt Strong
* Supply Clapp Thwing
* Positive Wassermann Johnson
* Unable To Fornicate (Native American tribal chief)
* Appendicitis, Laryngitis, Meningitis, Peritonitis and Tonsillitis Jackson (the other Jackson 5?)
* Larry Derryberry
* Mark Clark Van Ark
* I.P. Frilli
* I.O. Silver
* I.C. Shivers (An iceman. Really.)
* Humperdink Fangboner
* Baroness Gaby von Bagge of Boo
* Charles Adolphe Faux-Pas Bidet
Or, how about these from the Oregon DMV database:
* C. Clinton Biggerstaff
* Jesus A. Colon
* Seema Nema
* Jotta Fern Uren
* Lenola Urie Thweatt
* Leslie Thwingg II
So, for those of you having a baby - congratulations! Having kids is the coolest thing you will ever do! But please, please, please, be extremely careful about what you name your child. Some of the names kids get saddled with are beyond belief! For example . . .
* I knew a kid – all grown up, married and normal now, in spite of the fact her parents named her “Araya.” Nothing wrong with that, really EXCEPT that her middle name is “Sunshine.” Put the two together and you get?
* I knew another kid whose parent’s named him “Daylight.” I was convinced his middle name had to be “Savings.”
* A friend of mine who is a school teacher said she had a girl in her class one year whose names was “Female.” They pronounced it “Fee-Mall-Eh.” Apparently the word “female” had been written on the hospital information for their baby, so they assumed she had already been named and decided to stick with it.
* Back in the day, when I worked at the Center & Lancaster Branch, we used to spend way too much time filing signature cards for new accounts and pulling signature cards on closed accounts. My all time favorite (awful) name came from that experience: “Ursula Lefoifoi.”
My children’s names are “Elizabeth Jayne,” “Jacob Elias” and “Jeremiah Peter.” Before naming our first child Cruella Nancy and I decided on a couple of simple rules. Having these guidelines helped us to have a thread of consistency with their names.
1. Their first names should be classic names. Ones that have stood the test of time. They worked centuries ago and they work today.
2. Their first names should flexible. If they don’t like the full name, they should be able to shorten it or make a nickname out of it.
3. Their middle names are family related. Elizabeth’s middle name comes from my grandmother. Jake’s middle name comes from maternal grandfather. Jeremy’s middle name comes from some guy who was reportedly his father.
I should probably be more open-minded about this but I’ve always thought Congress should adopt a few practical rules that might prevent a lifetime of embarrassment for children. Such as:
1. You cannot name your kid after a country or state: India(.Arie), Chynna (Phillips), Dakota (Fanning), Flo(Rida), and Chad (McDermott) all need to change their names.
2. No nouns for names: Apple, Brick, Lyric, Soap or Lutefisk. (Okay, that last one I threw in just to see if you were paying attention.)
3. No last names for first names: Blake, Lincoln, Tucker, Paxton, Parker, Morgan, Davis, Madison (which means “Son of Maude,” by the way, so it violates rule #5, as well – unless Bea Arthur was the mother)
4. No names you’ve gotten from characters or actors in current movies or TV shows: Raven, Izzie, Serena, Echo, Turtle, Bella (or Twilight, for heaven’s sake) and certainly not Horatio or Homer!
5. Know what your child’s name means: Caleb is a great sounding name but it means “dog” in Hebrew. I love dogs but is that really what you want to name your kid?
6. If you have more than one child, do not have their names all start with the same letter. This is just a practical suggestion. If I had a dollar for every time I called Jake Jeremy OR Jeremy Jake (or just stuttered “J – J – J – J” until I could figure out who I wanted to yell at), I would be a rich man.
So, there you go. Hopefully all of you soon-to-be parents will find this information to be helpful. I would hate to have to put your child’s name up as an example of what NOT to do!
It points out how important names can be. Recently The Edge in The Oregonian, listed some, “actual, verified human names, excerpted from the gem of a book "Remarkable Names of Real People," by John Train:”
* Primrose Goo
* Buncha Love
* Sir Basil Smallpiece
* Firmin A. Gryp
* The Rev. Caanan Banana
* Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin Pond
* Suparporn Poopattana
* Strangeways Pigg Strangeways
* Tetley Ironside Tetley Jones (of England's Tetley Tea Co.)
* Carlos Restrepo Restrepo Restrepo de Restrepo
* Melissy Dalciny Caldony Yankee Pankee Devil-Take-The-Irishman Garrison
* Anne Aass
* Virginia May Sweatt Strong
* Supply Clapp Thwing
* Positive Wassermann Johnson
* Unable To Fornicate (Native American tribal chief)
* Appendicitis, Laryngitis, Meningitis, Peritonitis and Tonsillitis Jackson (the other Jackson 5?)
* Larry Derryberry
* Mark Clark Van Ark
* I.P. Frilli
* I.O. Silver
* I.C. Shivers (An iceman. Really.)
* Humperdink Fangboner
* Baroness Gaby von Bagge of Boo
* Charles Adolphe Faux-Pas Bidet
Or, how about these from the Oregon DMV database:
* C. Clinton Biggerstaff
* Jesus A. Colon
* Seema Nema
* Jotta Fern Uren
* Lenola Urie Thweatt
* Leslie Thwingg II
So, for those of you having a baby - congratulations! Having kids is the coolest thing you will ever do! But please, please, please, be extremely careful about what you name your child. Some of the names kids get saddled with are beyond belief! For example . . .
* I knew a kid – all grown up, married and normal now, in spite of the fact her parents named her “Araya.” Nothing wrong with that, really EXCEPT that her middle name is “Sunshine.” Put the two together and you get?
* I knew another kid whose parent’s named him “Daylight.” I was convinced his middle name had to be “Savings.”
* A friend of mine who is a school teacher said she had a girl in her class one year whose names was “Female.” They pronounced it “Fee-Mall-Eh.” Apparently the word “female” had been written on the hospital information for their baby, so they assumed she had already been named and decided to stick with it.
* Back in the day, when I worked at the Center & Lancaster Branch, we used to spend way too much time filing signature cards for new accounts and pulling signature cards on closed accounts. My all time favorite (awful) name came from that experience: “Ursula Lefoifoi.”
My children’s names are “Elizabeth Jayne,” “Jacob Elias” and “Jeremiah Peter.” Before naming our first child Cruella Nancy and I decided on a couple of simple rules. Having these guidelines helped us to have a thread of consistency with their names.
1. Their first names should be classic names. Ones that have stood the test of time. They worked centuries ago and they work today.
2. Their first names should flexible. If they don’t like the full name, they should be able to shorten it or make a nickname out of it.
3. Their middle names are family related. Elizabeth’s middle name comes from my grandmother. Jake’s middle name comes from maternal grandfather. Jeremy’s middle name comes from some guy who was reportedly his father.
I should probably be more open-minded about this but I’ve always thought Congress should adopt a few practical rules that might prevent a lifetime of embarrassment for children. Such as:
1. You cannot name your kid after a country or state: India(.Arie), Chynna (Phillips), Dakota (Fanning), Flo(Rida), and Chad (McDermott) all need to change their names.
2. No nouns for names: Apple, Brick, Lyric, Soap or Lutefisk. (Okay, that last one I threw in just to see if you were paying attention.)
3. No last names for first names: Blake, Lincoln, Tucker, Paxton, Parker, Morgan, Davis, Madison (which means “Son of Maude,” by the way, so it violates rule #5, as well – unless Bea Arthur was the mother)
4. No names you’ve gotten from characters or actors in current movies or TV shows: Raven, Izzie, Serena, Echo, Turtle, Bella (or Twilight, for heaven’s sake) and certainly not Horatio or Homer!
5. Know what your child’s name means: Caleb is a great sounding name but it means “dog” in Hebrew. I love dogs but is that really what you want to name your kid?
6. If you have more than one child, do not have their names all start with the same letter. This is just a practical suggestion. If I had a dollar for every time I called Jake Jeremy OR Jeremy Jake (or just stuttered “J – J – J – J” until I could figure out who I wanted to yell at), I would be a rich man.
So, there you go. Hopefully all of you soon-to-be parents will find this information to be helpful. I would hate to have to put your child’s name up as an example of what NOT to do!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Stock Market Update: Thursday, November 12, 2009
Big news from the Federal Reserve today! Effective July 1, 2010, banks “will have to secure their customers' consent before charging large overdraft fees on ATM and debit card transactions”
“Under the Fed's new rule . . . banks will be required to notify new and existing customers of their overdraft services and give customers the option of being covered. If customers don't "opt in," any debit or ATM transactions that overdraw their accounts will be denied, Fed officials said.”
This is very similar to U.S. Bank’s previously announced changes in their overdraft policies, so making the adjustment by the middle of next year should not be a problem.
In other fun news . . .
I love it when bad guys get busted! Yesterday a group of folks in Russia, Estonia and Moldova (Motto: A country so nice, we’re named after the scum in our bathtubs!) were indicted for stealing more than $9 million in November, 2008.
The cool part is how they did it! According to the indictment, they hacked into the payroll debit card information of Royal Bank of Scotland’s U.S. payment processing division in Atlanta, GA, and “cloned (44) prepaid ATM cards, which thieves then used to withdraw cash from 2,100 ATMs from 280 cities around the world, including in the U.S. The synchronized operation, which began November 8, 2008, took no more than 12 hours.”
The individuals making the cash withdrawals from ATMs were “allowed to keep up to half the cash they stole and sent the rest back to the ringleaders.” According to an FBI spokesperson, "'the losses could have been much greater had the hacker ring been able to assemble a larger network of accomplices. The size of the human network was a limiting factor, [because] some of the ATMs ran out of money.'"
STock Price
“Under the Fed's new rule . . . banks will be required to notify new and existing customers of their overdraft services and give customers the option of being covered. If customers don't "opt in," any debit or ATM transactions that overdraw their accounts will be denied, Fed officials said.”
This is very similar to U.S. Bank’s previously announced changes in their overdraft policies, so making the adjustment by the middle of next year should not be a problem.
In other fun news . . .
I love it when bad guys get busted! Yesterday a group of folks in Russia, Estonia and Moldova (Motto: A country so nice, we’re named after the scum in our bathtubs!) were indicted for stealing more than $9 million in November, 2008.
The cool part is how they did it! According to the indictment, they hacked into the payroll debit card information of Royal Bank of Scotland’s U.S. payment processing division in Atlanta, GA, and “cloned (44) prepaid ATM cards, which thieves then used to withdraw cash from 2,100 ATMs from 280 cities around the world, including in the U.S. The synchronized operation, which began November 8, 2008, took no more than 12 hours.”
The individuals making the cash withdrawals from ATMs were “allowed to keep up to half the cash they stole and sent the rest back to the ringleaders.” According to an FBI spokesperson, "'the losses could have been much greater had the hacker ring been able to assemble a larger network of accomplices. The size of the human network was a limiting factor, [because] some of the ATMs ran out of money.'"
STock Price
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Stock Market Update: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
This is probably just me being a geek but it looks like Wells Fargo isn't just going after the consumer cell phone market but the commercial one as well. And apparently, there's an app for that: "Wells Fargo Brings Commercial Banking Services Wherever You Are with New iPhone Application." Here's part of what the press release says about it:
In other exciting news (zzzzzz) Cascade Bancorp “announced today that it has called a Special Meeting of Shareholders. The meeting date is December 7, 2009 at 8:00 A.M. Pacific Time. The meeting will be held at 1100 NW Wall Street, Bend, Oregon. Proxy statements are being mailed to all shareholders on or about November 12, 2009.
Stock Price
The new iPhone application is an extension of Wells Fargo CEO MobileSM service, which enables commercial, corporate, and institutional customers to monitor account activity and stay on top of cash management functions while at meetings, in airports, across town from their offices, or doing business around the globe. Wells Fargo introduced CEO Mobile service – a streamlined version of its CEO portal – to a select group of customers in April 2007 and offered the service to all commercial customers in late 2007, becoming the only major U.S. financial services company to offer mobile banking to commercial, corporate, and institutional customers.
In the past year, CEO Mobile service also added Mobile Basic Banking, allowing small business users to access their Wells Fargo cash and credit accounts, view transactions, and transfer funds through mobile devices. Wells Fargo recently expanded its mobile capabilities to allow customers to view and manage some of their loan obligations using a mobile device. The CEO Mobile service has seen new user adoption and usage double in the past year.
In other exciting news (zzzzzz) Cascade Bancorp “announced today that it has called a Special Meeting of Shareholders. The meeting date is December 7, 2009 at 8:00 A.M. Pacific Time. The meeting will be held at 1100 NW Wall Street, Bend, Oregon. Proxy statements are being mailed to all shareholders on or about November 12, 2009.
The purpose of the proxy statement is to solicit shareholders' votes with respect to proposals to:
* Increase the number of authorized shares of the Company's common stock from 45,000,000 to 300,000,000;
* Approve the issuance of up to $65 million of the Company's common stock to investors in private offerings;
* Approve an amendment to effect a one for ten reverse stock split of the Company's common stock and payment of cash for fractional shares; and
* Rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. (Just seeing if you’re paying attention!)
Stock Price
Monday, November 9, 2009
Checked Off The Bucket List!
Last week I told you about some things I have remaining on my “bucket list” that I wanna do before I die. Luckily, I’ve lived long enough to actually get some things checked off already. Nothing spectacular but, even still, things I wanted to do. For example . . .
Be a DJ
Growing up I thought it would be a blast to be a disc jockey, so, in college I got involved with KBVR at Oregon State and even got to host the morning show a few days a week. I also worked for a year or so at a radio station in Lebanon (Motto: Uh, we grow strawberries and, well, that’s about all we got), where I found that I really didn’t like being a DJ as much as I thought. For more than a year after I quit I couldn’t listen to the radio. And I still hate all the songs from that era. Especially Funkytown!
Surprise my kids by taking them to Disneyland without them knowing until the day we left!
In 1991 we decided to take our kids to Disneyland but thought it would be more fun if we just surprised them. In the years before the trip, every time we got in the car to go somewhere I would say, “Oh heck, let’s not go to (the beach or Portland or camping or whatever) lets go to Disneyland!” The kids would scream and then I would crush their dreams by saying, “Nah, just kidding!” This time, however, we told them we were going to the beach for the weekend. When we got in the car I said (as usual): “Let’s not go to the beach - lets go to Disneyland!” Jeremy (who was 4) cried and said, “I wanna go to the beach!” None of them believed we were really going until we were almost to California.
Go to England
In 1994 I went to Greece (Crete, actually) to testify in the court martial of an Air Force staff sergeant who had stolen money and the activity in his checking account with U.S. Bank was part of the evidence presented in the case. They needed someone from the bank to come testify and, well, I was the lucky one who took the phone call! So, at taxpayer expense, I went to testify in the trial. Since I was going overseas for the first time (and my ex-wife was going with me) I thought we should take some time (at our own expense) to go to England. We spent four days in London and crammed in a ton of sightseeing stuff. (I’m convinced I saw Queen Elizabeth wave to me from a window in Buckingham Palace.)
Go to Israel
In 2001 we took our kids on a two-week trip to Greece and Israel. I was blown away with how cool, interesting and totally different a culture can be. I gotta go again sometime. Jeremy was bored and mostly threw rocks.
Go on a baseball road trip
The summer after Jake graduated from high school (2001 or 2002, I think), he, Jeremy and I took off on a two week road trip and saw MLB baseball games in Oakland, Los Angeles (Angels and Dodgers), San Diego, Phoenix and (on the way back home), San Francisco. We also took in a preseason Raiders/49ers football game – which cost more than all the baseball tickets put together.
Go on a “vacation” that is more of a missions trip kinda thing
I’ve actually done this a few times over the years and hope to do it again. The most memorable experience was over Thanksgiving in, uh, 2002(?) when Jeremy and I went to Mexico City (Motto: Holy crap a lot of people live here!) with a group from Northwest Medical Teams to help pour concrete floors in the homes of folks who scavenge recyclable materials from an enormous landfill. High point: Going to the world’s biggest Wal-Mart to buy a basketball hoop to replace the one we broke so Jerm could keep playing basketball with some of the local kids. Low point: going to a bull fight. Don’t need to see that again.
See U2 in concert
I didn’t get to see The Beatles perform – like Renee Middleton has – but I did get to see the second best rock band play. Elizabeth, Jeremiah and I went with two of their friends (Mike and Grace) to see them in Seattle (Motto: Coolest big city in America) at Key Arena in, uh, April of 2006, I think. Our seats were just about as far away as you could get but it still felt like we were RIGHT THERE! Very cool.
Going to the Final Four
I LOVE college basketball and “March Madness” is my favorite sporting event. In 2006 Jeremy and I got to go back to Indianapolis (Motto: We think we’re a cool city but we got nothing other than a sweet car race) to see the Final Four. George Mason, LSU, UCLA and Florida. Easily the least exciting Final Four I can ever remember. BUT it was a blast to be there – especially with Jeremy. I’d go again in a second.
Drive Cross Country
In August of 2006 Jake got a teaching job in Washington D.C. (Motto: As seen on TV.) That allowed me to fulfill a lifetime dream of driving cross country. We started out in Bend (with his Honda CRV fill literally to the ceiling) and drove to DC in four days. High points: Having a Polygamy Porter at Wasatch Brewing in Park City, Utah (Motto: You ain’t rich enough to even think about living here); playing a quick round of Frisbee Golf at Notre Dame with Touchdown Jesus as our first hole; Blogging about the trip from my laptop. Low point: Leaving Jake and flying home even though he still didn’t really have a place to live.
See the White House
After Jake moved to D.C. I got to see the White House a few different times. It’s just weird to be outside of it and know that the POTUS is somewhere inside. Probably. Also, it seems smaller live and in person like that.
See the Late Show with David Letterman live and in person
In January of 2007 Elizabeth got tickets to the show and a week later we made a whirlwind trip to New York City (Motto: Could there be a place with more cool stuff to see and do? I submit, there could not!)
See a play on Broadway
Same trip! We were dumb enough to go up to the Spamalot box office and ask about tickets for that night’s performance. All they had were Standing Room Only for like $30 – but it was much cheaper than the $400 seats down front and, as it turned out, we were right next to the lighting booth and the House Manager and got all sorts of cool inside info on the show! Plus it was hysterically funny.
Having Kids
Even when I was a kid I thought it would be fun to be a Dad. I used to say that I wanted to have 12 kids. When I got married, my ex-wife said she wanted to have six kids and that I’d have to get the other six somewhere else. We settled on three. It turned out to be even more fun than I expected and, even cooler, they have been fun at every age!
There are probably others but I’m really old and can’t think of any more right now. Time for a nap . . .
Be a DJ
Growing up I thought it would be a blast to be a disc jockey, so, in college I got involved with KBVR at Oregon State and even got to host the morning show a few days a week. I also worked for a year or so at a radio station in Lebanon (Motto: Uh, we grow strawberries and, well, that’s about all we got), where I found that I really didn’t like being a DJ as much as I thought. For more than a year after I quit I couldn’t listen to the radio. And I still hate all the songs from that era. Especially Funkytown!
Surprise my kids by taking them to Disneyland without them knowing until the day we left!
In 1991 we decided to take our kids to Disneyland but thought it would be more fun if we just surprised them. In the years before the trip, every time we got in the car to go somewhere I would say, “Oh heck, let’s not go to (the beach or Portland or camping or whatever) lets go to Disneyland!” The kids would scream and then I would crush their dreams by saying, “Nah, just kidding!” This time, however, we told them we were going to the beach for the weekend. When we got in the car I said (as usual): “Let’s not go to the beach - lets go to Disneyland!” Jeremy (who was 4) cried and said, “I wanna go to the beach!” None of them believed we were really going until we were almost to California.
Go to England
In 1994 I went to Greece (Crete, actually) to testify in the court martial of an Air Force staff sergeant who had stolen money and the activity in his checking account with U.S. Bank was part of the evidence presented in the case. They needed someone from the bank to come testify and, well, I was the lucky one who took the phone call! So, at taxpayer expense, I went to testify in the trial. Since I was going overseas for the first time (and my ex-wife was going with me) I thought we should take some time (at our own expense) to go to England. We spent four days in London and crammed in a ton of sightseeing stuff. (I’m convinced I saw Queen Elizabeth wave to me from a window in Buckingham Palace.)
Go to Israel
In 2001 we took our kids on a two-week trip to Greece and Israel. I was blown away with how cool, interesting and totally different a culture can be. I gotta go again sometime. Jeremy was bored and mostly threw rocks.
Go on a baseball road trip
The summer after Jake graduated from high school (2001 or 2002, I think), he, Jeremy and I took off on a two week road trip and saw MLB baseball games in Oakland, Los Angeles (Angels and Dodgers), San Diego, Phoenix and (on the way back home), San Francisco. We also took in a preseason Raiders/49ers football game – which cost more than all the baseball tickets put together.
Go on a “vacation” that is more of a missions trip kinda thing
I’ve actually done this a few times over the years and hope to do it again. The most memorable experience was over Thanksgiving in, uh, 2002(?) when Jeremy and I went to Mexico City (Motto: Holy crap a lot of people live here!) with a group from Northwest Medical Teams to help pour concrete floors in the homes of folks who scavenge recyclable materials from an enormous landfill. High point: Going to the world’s biggest Wal-Mart to buy a basketball hoop to replace the one we broke so Jerm could keep playing basketball with some of the local kids. Low point: going to a bull fight. Don’t need to see that again.
See U2 in concert
I didn’t get to see The Beatles perform – like Renee Middleton has – but I did get to see the second best rock band play. Elizabeth, Jeremiah and I went with two of their friends (Mike and Grace) to see them in Seattle (Motto: Coolest big city in America) at Key Arena in, uh, April of 2006, I think. Our seats were just about as far away as you could get but it still felt like we were RIGHT THERE! Very cool.
Going to the Final Four
I LOVE college basketball and “March Madness” is my favorite sporting event. In 2006 Jeremy and I got to go back to Indianapolis (Motto: We think we’re a cool city but we got nothing other than a sweet car race) to see the Final Four. George Mason, LSU, UCLA and Florida. Easily the least exciting Final Four I can ever remember. BUT it was a blast to be there – especially with Jeremy. I’d go again in a second.
Drive Cross Country
In August of 2006 Jake got a teaching job in Washington D.C. (Motto: As seen on TV.) That allowed me to fulfill a lifetime dream of driving cross country. We started out in Bend (with his Honda CRV fill literally to the ceiling) and drove to DC in four days. High points: Having a Polygamy Porter at Wasatch Brewing in Park City, Utah (Motto: You ain’t rich enough to even think about living here); playing a quick round of Frisbee Golf at Notre Dame with Touchdown Jesus as our first hole; Blogging about the trip from my laptop. Low point: Leaving Jake and flying home even though he still didn’t really have a place to live.
See the White House
After Jake moved to D.C. I got to see the White House a few different times. It’s just weird to be outside of it and know that the POTUS is somewhere inside. Probably. Also, it seems smaller live and in person like that.
See the Late Show with David Letterman live and in person
In January of 2007 Elizabeth got tickets to the show and a week later we made a whirlwind trip to New York City (Motto: Could there be a place with more cool stuff to see and do? I submit, there could not!)
See a play on Broadway
Same trip! We were dumb enough to go up to the Spamalot box office and ask about tickets for that night’s performance. All they had were Standing Room Only for like $30 – but it was much cheaper than the $400 seats down front and, as it turned out, we were right next to the lighting booth and the House Manager and got all sorts of cool inside info on the show! Plus it was hysterically funny.
Having Kids
Even when I was a kid I thought it would be fun to be a Dad. I used to say that I wanted to have 12 kids. When I got married, my ex-wife said she wanted to have six kids and that I’d have to get the other six somewhere else. We settled on three. It turned out to be even more fun than I expected and, even cooler, they have been fun at every age!
There are probably others but I’m really old and can’t think of any more right now. Time for a nap . . .
Stock Market Update: Monday, November 9, 2009
The Beavs win at #20 Cal while the #8 Ducks lose to unranked Stanford. And today the Dow reacts by jumping over 200 points and hits a new high for the year!
In other business news, Kraft Foods is pursuing a hostile takeover bid for Cadbury, the UK candy and gum manufacturer. While this isn't something I would normally care about, I am concerned that those disgusting Cadbury Creme (aka "Snot") Eggs that my kids love to get at Easter might now be filled with Velveeta. They're bad enough already without having a toxic substance injected into them! I can only hope that some kind of anti-trust action will keep this acquisition from happening!
Stock Price
In other business news, Kraft Foods is pursuing a hostile takeover bid for Cadbury, the UK candy and gum manufacturer. While this isn't something I would normally care about, I am concerned that those disgusting Cadbury Creme (aka "Snot") Eggs that my kids love to get at Easter might now be filled with Velveeta. They're bad enough already without having a toxic substance injected into them! I can only hope that some kind of anti-trust action will keep this acquisition from happening!
Stock Price
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Singing In The Rain: A New Hope
A match made in heaven: My favorite musical and my favorite movie series. Together again for the first time!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)