Herman Cain

Enough already.

Jamie, you're not listening

Bumpy received another opportunity to be a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card holder, the card "that completes your lifelist."

Yesterday, I suggested to Mr. Dimon that he direct his credit card division to quit sending solicitations to  my 89-year-old, living in a nursing home, father-in-law and instead send him a bottle of 18-year-old Scotch.  Yet, in today's mail, another solicitation for the Sapphire card arrived.

Jamie, let me assure you, Bumpy's lifelist is dominated by two things, seeing his family as often as possible and a peaceful death.  I've searched the vast amount of paperwork in the Sapphire envelope and could find nothing about either of those lifelist items; even in the small print. In fact, the average age of the people in your promotion appeared to be about 31. I'm betting a good number of them are sitting in tents right outside your office.

About the only thing I could find that might entice Bumpy is that the points never expire. We'd all be happy if you could make that same never expire offer to Bumpy.

Jamie, Jamie, Jamie, let me be more precise; Macallan Single Malt, 18 years in the barrel.  That's what Bumpy wants along with his two sons sitting beside him each with a glass in their hand.

That's on Bumpy's lifelist.

What's in Bumpy's Mail

My father-in-law moved to a nursing home over a year ago.  Shortly after discovering ridiculously high late charges on his Discover card invoice because he forgot to pay the bill on time, my wife took over his finances, and she changed his mailing address to ours so she could handle his affairs in a timely manner.

Bumpy as we call him was and is one of the most kind and generous people you would ever meet. We knew that because he was a wonderful father and father-in-law.  We also knew it from the volume of organizations to which he donated small sums every month.  No issue with that. What was most striking was the amount of credit card solicitations he receives each month.  (My late mother-in-law still receives offers for new cards as well.)

Anyone who thought the credit card industry had cleaned itself up should think again.  I started to keep track of all the cards then quickly realized that all the credit card issuing companies were sending offers.  Most of them claim to be pre-approved with a simple phone call to insure activation. Bumpy could run up quite a bill right from his wheelchair. All he'd need is a computer next to his bed and creative license.

Jamie Dimon doesn't follow this blog, but if he did, I'd tell him to quit wasting wood pulp on soliciting Bumpy for a credit card.  If he want's to send something to Bumpy, send him a nice bottle of 18-year-old Scotch and someone to drink it with.

The Shame of College Sports

I was sent a copy of this article from The Atlantic.  My recommendation? Read it.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/8643/

As I get sick of hearing about how good Texas is and how lucky the Cardinals are.......remember this

Any parking lots that need to be repaved or painted?

In Sunday's Money section of the NY Times, Richard Thaler explores how human nature and the depressed global economy are colliding with an unfortunate outcome.

"Fear and anxiety don't bring out the best in anyone," Thaler writes. "Along with making people irritable, uncertainty can create paralysis."

Thaler notes an experiment conducted by Princeton psychologist Eldar Shafir that illustrates how people, faced with a decision in the face of uncertainty often simply don't act or  wait "to see how things shape up before they act."

American corporations are setting on bundles of cash - shit loads to those of you looking for a more crass way to illustrate the quantity - Google, for example, is holding on to $39 billion dollars.  Why?

According to a survey of chief financial officers by Duke University, they are "waiting for economic uncertainty to decline."

To that Thaler responds that we have infrastructure throughout the country that needs repair and replacement especially bridges.

"We can begin the inevitable process of rebuilding this infrastructure now, when construction costs are low and borrowing costs are essentially zero...."

"If Greece defaults, American cars will not suddenly become amphibious."

Yet, Congress is too paralyzed to act.  Businesses too.

"As a shareholder, I would worry about a company that says it can't find investments that can reasonably be expected to earn well above the tiny return of its cash."

Then Thaler cites a compelling statistic.

"Loosening the purse strings just a little could have big effects on the economy.  Suppose that American companies reduced their domestic  cash holdings by just 10 percent and invested that $200 billion in productive investments ..... these investments would spur growth in gross domestic product next year by about 1.3% and reduce unemployment by almost 0.7%."

Households aren't immune to the failure to invest at a time when costs are so low.

"Some homeowners are already embracing the idea: one of the economy's few encouraging signs is that residential remodeling permits were recently up 24 percent over the previous year."

It's time for all of you who are not facing personal financial dilemmas to return to the economy and make the car purchase you've been delaying, replace the aging furnace or buy the snow blower you're probably going to need this winter.

Or just repave your driveway.

And while we're on the subject of Caddy Shack........