Monthly Archives: December 2008

Yes! Weekly’s Barber Asks ‘Who cares about homeless and hungry?’

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Yes! Weekly's Keith Barber asks if it's wise for the city of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County to spend public funds on the new baseball stadium considering that our social services are stretched to the max.  From his piece:

The official unveiling of the Winston- Salem minor league baseball team’s new name at the Millennium Center on Dec. 4 seemed a world away from the harsh realities facing many of Forsyth County’s residents. The general gaiety of the event enjoyed by an estimated 700 people felt like a scene out of the Roaring ’20s, like the day before the stock market crash of 1929…

At the end of October, the NC Employment Security Commission reported Forsyth’s unemployment rate at 6.3 percent. The number of unemployed individuals in Forsyth has risen 35.4 percent since the same period in 2007. Since Jan. 1, 2008, nine Forsyth employers have reported layoffs and 30 area businesses have shuttered their doors, putting more than 1,000 people out of work. And those are just the ones that have been reported.

Despite the hard times in Forsyth, the show went on at last week’s ceremony to announce the new name of the team formerly known as the Warthogs. Baseball Downtown and Mandalay Baseball, the managing entity of the minor league franchise, spared no expense at the event called “Baseball New Year.” When the team’s multi-millionaire owner, Billy Prim, and Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines unveiled the team’s new name — the Dash — the crowd roared its approval. All of this left me to wonder: Why would the city and the county agree to loan a multimillionaire upwards of $24 million to build a downtown ballpark when those funds could be more wisely spent on the needs of the homeless, the jobless and the hungry in Forsyth County? The Winston-Salem City Council agreed to put up $12 million toward the construction of the downtown ballpark in November 2007. In March of last year, the Forsyth County Commissioners approved a resolution allowing Prim’s company, Sports Menagerie LLC, and Brookstown Development Partners to receive economic development incentives up to $12.5 million to be paid in annual installments over a 25-year period. At that time, the economic outlook in Forsyth wasn’t as bleak as it currently is, but the picture wasn’t rosy by any stretch. In fact, Joines and the city council are four years into a 10-year plan to fight chronic homelessness. Andrea Kurtz of the United Way of Forsyth County is tasked with implementing the plan. Kurtz said the recession has pushed the resources of Forsyth’s social service agencies to their breaking point.

I've never liked the idea of public funding for ball parks that benefit private companies or individuals and my thinking on the Winston-Salem ball park has focused mainly on my disagreement with the philosophy of the use of public funds in this way.  Until now I hadn't thought of the opportunity costs associated with the city's decision to fund the stadium, but when you do think about it they are substantial.  Yes the city is due to get its money back eventually, but as Barber points out in the mean time the money could have been used to bolster social services now that it's really needed but it's tied up in the stadium project.

Since we've come this far I truly hope that the project is a success and that we see a revitalized downtown come out of this, but as a community we need to have a serious discussion about how tax dollars are used for private enterprise.  What happens the next time an entrepreneur comes calling with an idea for a new theater, entertainment complex or indoor stadium that will be used as a cornerstone for some new revitalization effort in some other part of town?  Do we whip out the checkbook or do we say "Good luck" and then provide as much help as we can to make it a reality  by expediting permits, assigning someone to help them work through the red tape, etc.?  As you might guess my vote would be for the latter.

In the News: Obama’s Grandpa’s Private Parts

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I received my Harpers Weekly Review email this morning and as always it contains a ton of interesting info in just a couple of paragraphs.  To give you an idea of how they do it I've included one paragraph below and put in bold what I found to be the most interesting item:


It was reported that Barack Obama's grandfather was imprisoned and tortured by the British in 1949 during the Mau Mau uprising. "They would sometimes squeeze his testicles with parallel metallic rods," said Sarah Onyango, 87, called "Granny Sarah" by the president-elect. "That was the time we realized that the British were actually not friends." Tony Blair praised Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Aleksy II, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, died at 79, and after nearly 28 years in a coma Sunny von Bulow died at 76. Psychiatrist Robert Zajonc–who correlated birth order with I.Q.–died at 85, and Oliver Selfridge, a student of Norbert Wiener and an artificial-intelligence researcher who invented "intelligent agents," which he called "demons," died at 82. Scientists at Berkeley found that as compared to rich-child brains, the brains of poor children are often more like those of stroke victims, with less response in the prefrontal cortex. "This is a wake-up call," said a
neuroscientist. Researchers studying Canadians found that older brains are less efficient at filtering out distractions, while researchers in Brazil found that medical students are often depressed. A statistician in California said that humans would soon reach their maximum running speed. "Men are still on the upward trend," said Mark Denny of Stanford University, but "they are getting near that plateau." Horses and dogs are already running as fast as they can.

It tells you something about me that I find it more interesting that the British put Obama's grandpa's balls in a vice than that poor kids might have different brains than rich kids.  BTW, I'd totally understand if Obama chills relations with the Brits.

If you'd like to subscribe to Harper's Weekly you can do so here.

Modern Schadenfreude

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Definition of schadenfreude: Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.  Greatest opportunity to engage in schadenfreude in at least two generations. Why? Vanity Fair has it here.  Want to know why it's the greatest opportunity in memory?  Here's a taste:

The new thriftiness takes a bit of getting used to. “I was at the
Food Emporium in Bedford [in Westchester County] yesterday, using my
Food Emporium discount card,” recounts one Greenwich woman. “The
well-dressed wife of a Wall Street guy was standing behind me. She
asked me how to get one. Then she said, ‘Have you ever used coupons?’ I
said, ‘Sure, maybe not lately, but sure.’ She said, ‘It’s all the rage
now—where do you get them?’”

One former Lehman executive in her 40s stood in her vast clothes
closet not long ago, talking to her personal stylist. On shelves around
her were at least 10 designer handbags that had cost her anywhere from
$6,000 to $10,000 each.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I guess I’ll have to get rid of the maid.”

Why not sell a few of those bags?, the stylist thought, but didn’t say so.

“Well,” the executive said after a moment, “I guess I’ll cut her from five days a week to four.”

And then there's this:

Alexandra Lebenthal, a New York–based wealth manager for investors
with between $2 million and $20 million in assets—the modest to
mid-level rich—offers a keenly authoritative portrait of a
thirtysomething Lehman banker, married with kids, in a guest column
called “What It Costs” on the Web site NewYorkSocialDiary. Blake and
Grigsby Somerset are fictional, their finances all too plausible.

Before Lehman’s stock began to plummet, Lebenthal suggests, Blake’s
annual compensation was $9.5 million—much of that in company stock. He
was carrying a $2 million loan used for a house in the Hamptons, but
felt perfectly able to afford his annual expenses: the Park Avenue
apartment maintenance ($120,000); the Hamptons house mortgage
($75,000); the nanny and driver ($100,000); his wife’s clothing
($100,000); the personal trainer three times a week ($18,000); food,
including restaurants ($30,000); charitable benefits and other
nonprofit causes ($200,000); private school for three children
($78,000); Christmas in Palm Beach ($15,000); spring in Aspen
($15,000); and a wedding-anniversary diamond necklace for Grigsby
($50,000).

At least Blake has been hired on by Barclays. But his Lehman stock
portfolio is now worthless. He and Grigsby have to cut their annual
living expenses from about $1 million to a fraction of that, and do it
in ways that don’t show, for the worst—the worst—would be the public disgrace of falling out of their social class.

First to go: vacations, the trainer, the driver, and entertaining.
No restaurants, no shopping excursions, no new ball clothes for Grigsby
(last year’s will have to do). But, for now—for appearances—the
Somersets will scrimp to keep the kids in their schools, and the nanny,
and the Hamptons house. For now.

If the Wall Street Geniuses Created a National Health Insurance System

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A sadly realistic take on how to finance a national health insurance program:

1. Set up a large, well capitalized hedge fund. About $5B should do it.

2. The prospectus of the fund should note its purpose is to “Seek
out profit opportunities via arbitraging inefficiencies in the markets
and health care system of the United States.”  Include standard
“Socially Conscious” fund language in clauses such as Do well by doing good.

3. Launch the fund — and promptly max out your leverage. Today’s
environment makes it difficult to go 50 to 1, but getting 10 or 20 to 1
should not be much problem.

4. Use the money to write Credit Default Swaps with a notational
value of $3 trillion dollars. The premia on these CDS should be about
10-15% or so.

5. Rollover the cash premiums — about $350 billion dollars worth —
into a national fund. Use it to buy health care insurance for all US
citizens.

6. Declare that due to current credit conditions, your unfortunately
must announce to your counter-parties that you will be defaulting on
these CDS. Note that significant amounts of this paper are held by JP
Morgan and Citi. Another trillion is held by China and Japan, with
Sovereign Wealth Funds owning the rest.

7. Send out a press release announcing “systemic risk.” Tell the
Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve Chief that your imminent
collapse will wreak global havoc. Apply for bailout.

The author then says just repeat the process to pay for things like global warming, school vouchers, missile defense, etc.

Williamsburg Weekend

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WilliamsburgTrip_InTheCondo_081207
Celeste and I spent the weekend in Williamsburg, VA with our very good friends the Figuracions.  It was their 14th wedding anniversary and they asked us to spend it with them, which we were honored to do.  We had lots of fun and it really came at a good time since we really seemed to need the break from our routine.  On the left, the four of us in the condo we stayed in over the weekend. Bobby and I were roommates in college and the fact that he would remain my friend after that says all you need to know about the man.

We spent a lot of time this weekend talking about our kids, or should I say commiserating with each other about living with kids, and it occurred to me at some point that we are very lucky to have friends who have literally been there through everything: wedding, kids, moves, job changes, etc.  Hard to believe they've already been married 14 years or that it's been over 20 years since Bobby and I roomed together at George Mason U.

WilliamsburgTrip_PotteryFactoryHardwareWineCheeseSign_081206
We spent the majority of the weekend puttering around the Pottery Factory, browsing the aisles of the Christmas Mouse and picking through the selections at the General Store.  To the left is a pic from the Pottery Factory; only there would you find a 'Hardware, Wine & Cheese' store.

Much thanks to our friends the Campbells for letting the kids stay with them for the weekend and shuttling them back and forth to take care of the pets.  That's some serious duty that we really appreciate.  Then they topped it off by feeding us dinner last night when we came over to pick up the kids.  We had a couple of hours to sit around and catch up and honestly that's about as good as it gets. A great weekend all the way around.

Bartering

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Fec has assembled a compendium of interesting information on bartering:

Green Apple is making it work in Pittsburg:

Green Apple works through a credit card system. If someone with a Green
Apple credit card buys goods or services, those are offset against what
they can sell to someone else with the card.

Green Apple charges retail prices, so there is no price break when using the Green Apple credit card.

The company also has a string of brokers who spend their days on the
phone trying to hook up potential trades. Last week the Green Apple
brokers had $2 million worth of John Deere commercial equipment they
were looking to unload.

Ithaca Hours are available in New York:

Over 900 participants publicly accept Ithaca HOURS for goods and
services. Additionally some local employers and employees have agreed
to pay or receive partial wages in Ithaca Hours, further continuing our
goal of keeping money local.

From Riding Out the Credit Collapse by Douglas Rushkoff:

The more connected you are to the real world, and the more consciously
you reject the lure of the speculative ladder, the less of a willing
dupe you’ll be in the pyramid scheme that’s in the process of
collapsing all around us at this moment.

Think small. Buy local. Make friends. Print money. Grow food. Teach
children. Learn nutrition. And if you do have money to invest, put it
into whatever lets you and your friends do those things.

Victoria, BC deals with the shortage of Canadian dollars:

Members open an account by paying a registration fee.
When members sell goods or services they earn Green dollars, and their
accounts are credited. When members buy goods or services they spend
Green dollars, and their accounts are debited.

Staples Looking for Ten Thousand Winners

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Staples is running a promotion called Gift It for Free that is a sweepstakes that will have 10,000 winners who can fill up a shopping cart and get all the items for free. The promotion is running until Christmas Eve so visit the site and enter to win.

The promotion came to my attention because a rep from one of their agencies emailed me about it and about their social media efforts for the promotion, including a Facebook fan page, a Twitter profile, and several YouTube videos.  They've created a character called Coach Tom who believes there should only be one winner in anything (a play on the 10,000 winners) and they have fun with that theme with the videos.  I've pasted one below and if you click through to YouTube you'll see that there's several videos and they're pretty good. 

Update on the Dash

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Since I posted earlier about the new name for the Winston-Salem Class-A baseball team I've found out a little bit more.  First of all here's the team's website.  There you'll find the new logo, which I think is fine but over at the Journal they have lots of reader comments (126 as I write this) on their article about the announcement and one of the commenters thinks it looks like an elongated p—s.  I'll let you fill in the Dashes.  You gotta love the high level of discourse we're getting on the local sites, eh?

BTW, the team is having a name the mascot contest.  I could have sworn it was "Dash" but I guess it's going to be "—- Dash" kind of like it was "Wally the Warthog."  I am officially announcing here that my nomination is "Balder".  You'll get it eventually.

Update:  My oldest just got home from school (sophomore in HS) and without any prompting he said the logo looks like a "weener" and that kids at school draw a remarkably similar image on desks all the time.  It's not lost on me that I'm wallowing in the gutter here, but honestly these folks can't be the only ones who correlate the logo with an anatomical part.  I'm thinking the team may want to make some subtle adjustments to the logo so that they don't continue getting this kind of feedback.

Update #2: The Journal's managing editor noticed the comment too, and talks about an internal debate they had about the choice of leaving the comment up.  He points out that they probably would have taken it down if the writer had used any number of synonyms for p—s, but since he used the correct anatomical term they let the comment be.  I think they made the right choice.  FYI, I'm using dashes in my spelling to be both coy about the team's name and because I really don't feel like turning up high in searches that feature that particular anatomical name.

Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!

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Winston-Salem's Class-A Carolina League baseball team is moving to a new stadium next season (hopefully) and in the process they are being re-branded.  Today the team's owner announced that the team formerly known as the Warthogs will now be known as the Dash.  The dash refers to the dash between Winston and Salem in the city's name, which often causes confusion in computer systems and with anyone who's not from the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina.

If you visit the article in the Winston-Salem Journal that I linked above you'll see in the comments that many people find the name less than desirable.  Personally I don't think it's as bad as the Miami Heat, which I consider one of the all-time bad team names.  What's a "heat"?  How weird is it to a call a player a "heat"?  I'm assuming that Dash players will be called "Dashers" but maybe I'm wrong. 

Reindeer
I'm also wondering what the mascot will look like.  They were supposed to unveil it today, but there wasn't a picture accompanying the story in the Journal so I'm not sure if they did.  Perhaps they'll go with a reindeer like, you know, Dasher.  Or maybe they'll go with some variation of the punctuation mark, which leaves the question, "Will it be an em dash or an en dash?"  Or even better maybe they'll go with some variation on The Flash (I'd vote for this one). 

Whatever.  I'm with the commenters on the Journal page: the name is lame, especially when you consider that it was chosen over the Rhinos, Aviators, Wallbangers and Racers.  People probably would have squawked at the Rhinos name because the team's owner, Billy Prim, made his fortune as the founder of Blue Rhino and they would have seen it as too self-promotional, but I would have been fine with it because as the owner it's his prerogative and because I happen to think that you could do some really cool stuff with a Rhino mascot.  The Aviators would have local meaning since Winston-Salem has a rich aviation history, and the Wallbangers and Racers would have been a nice tie to the areas rich car racing tradition.  As I said, though, it's Prim's team and he can name it what he wants. It's just my opinion that he picked the weakest of the five candidates.