Don’t Just Blame the Banksters or the Bums

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It's easy, convenient, a good story line, etc. to blame the Great Recession on a-hole investment bankers trying make a quick buck, or stupid home buyers who should have known better than to buy a $500,000 house on $45,000 a year in income, but it's also wrong.  As with most things in life it's complicated, and hopefully we'll start seeing more in-depth explanations for the financial meltdown as we move out of crisis mode and into recovery/finger-pointing mode.

I might have found a good place to start in today's Wall Street Journal.  Columnist David Wessel profiles the University of Chicago's Raghuram Rajan who has an upcoming book (July publication date) titled "Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy."  Based on the quotes that Wessel provides from his interview of Rajan it sounds like the book will look at the crisis from a big-picture angle, and while the usual suspects are identified as key players in the crisis they are also seen as role players and not arch villains.  I think that's an important distinction if we're going to learn anything from this crisis and fix whatever we need to fix if we're not going to completely torch the economy.

Anyway, here's my favorite quote from the column:

 "When easy money pushed by a deep pocketed government comes into contact with the profit motive of a sophisticated, amoral financial sector, a deep fault line develops," Mr. Rajan writes.

More Proof That Times Have-a-Changed

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Check this out: The Supreme Court is losing its only Protestant to retirement.  Of course he might be replaced by another Protestant, but I don't think that's going to be one of the criteria that the Obama administration looks at when nominating a new justice.

According to the article, of the Supremes that Justice Stevens leaves behind, six are Roman Catholic and two are Jewish.  It's hard to believe that just 50 years ago it was a HUGE deal that Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic to be elected POTUS. From the article:

It was not ever thus. Presidents once looked at two main factors in picking justices.

“Historically, religion was huge,” said Professor Epstein of Northwestern. “It was up there with geography as the key factor.”

There is, for instance, no official photograph of the justices from 1924. The court had to cancel its portrait that year because Justice James C. McReynolds, an anti-Semite and a racist, refused to sit next to Justice Louis D. Brandeis, the first Jewish justice.

The fact that William J. Brennan Jr. was Catholic seemed to figure in President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s decision to nominate him to the court in the election year of 1956.

But when Justice Abe Fortas resigned in 1969 from what was considered the “Jewish seat,” President Richard M. Nixon saw no political gain from replacing him with another Jew, settling instead on Harry A. Blackmun, a Methodist.

As that progression suggests, religion, which once mattered deeply, has fallen out of the conversation. And it seems to make people uncomfortable on the rare occasions it is raised.

(h/t to Lex for the link)

Summerfield Town Council Has an Interesting Perspective on Marriage

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According to The Northwest Observer the Summerfield Town Council has decided that the spouses of Council members may serve on town committees but they can't be voting members.  From the article:

Council began discussing the issue after Town Manager Michael Brandt recommended that council members’ relatives be allowed to serve only as nonvoting committee members. Brandt said because of their relationship to council members, relatives might carry more weight on committees and it might be difficult for the town manager to discipline them if they did something wrong.

The Council applied the recommendation to spouses but not to other relatives, which leads me to think that they have a different point of view on marriage than I do.  I can guarantee you that of all her relatives I'm the least influential on my wife.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when someone tries to tell my wife she can't do anything just because she happens to be married to me.  Actually, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that explosion because I'd definitely catch some shrapnel, but you get my point.

Winston-Salem City Council Needs to Be Aware of the Law of Unintended Consequences

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According to this story on WXII's site the Winston-Salem city council is considering a new set of fees for Internet cafes.  From the story:

The city of Winston-Salem could stand to generate more than a $500,000 if City Council members approve new taxes on Internet cafes.

The City Council has proposed a $2,500 license fee and a fee of $500 per machine for the nearly 50 new locations operating inside the city. Currently, the businesses pay no taxes to the city or state.

"We're getting no revenues from these very rapidly growing businesses that are in our communities," Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines said. "Our budget is very difficult right now, so any revenue enhancement we can come up with that will not really impact a business, we're trying to look at. We believe these are very lucrative businesses and could easily afford this fee we are proposing." 

I haven't seen the actual proposal so I can't speak to the specifics, but what worries me about this is the definition of "Internet cafe".  If the definition is too loose then here are some of the businesses that could get sucked into this:

  • Any business that charges for wi-fi access – for instance Starbucks – could conceivably be charged for each person that pays to access the network.
  • Hotels that charge for internet access in rooms, or that provide internet access on computers in their business centers and lobbies.
  • Even coffee shops that provide free wi-fi could get hit for $3,000 – $2,500 for the fee and $500 for the computer/router.  They aren't making a dime off the wi-fi, but if the proposal isn't worded correctly they could get hit with the fee regardless.

It sounds to me like the City Council is trying to target a specific type of business (essentially legal gambling parlors), but sometimes when fees or ordinances are adopted to target specific types of businesses then other "innocent" businesses get caught in the crossfire.

I can guarantee you this: if every company that offers free wi-fi learns that it's going to be hit with a $2,500 fee then you can bet your bottom dollar that free wi-fi will disappear in Winston-Salem.  Paid wi-fi might survive, but you'd have to sell a LOT of daily access passes to justify it.  As for hotels that charge $15.95 a night for internet access in your room?  I'd like nothing better than to say "Hit 'em with your best shot!" since that's one of the most annoying business practices in the hospitality sector, but if you do they'll just pass it along as a higher daily rate.

That Winston-Salem is looking for additional sources of revenue is not surprising, and neither is the fact that the targeted industry is a "sin" business, but let's hope the City Council is smart enough not to tax itself.  After all, this is the city that just a few years proudly unveiled its own free wi-fi on Fourth Street.  The description of the free wi-fi service from the city's own website sounds to me suspiciously like what the rest of the world considers an Internet cafe:

Fourth Street Wireless Internet access is a free service provided by the City of Winston-Salem. Citizens in restaurants and businesses along Fourth Street can access the Internet through high-speed connections and enjoy browsing the Web, checking and sending e-mail, or chatting through instant messaging services.

Like I said, I just hope the City Council is very careful with this thing.  

One last thought: Can anyone think of other fees that are targeted at specific industries?  I'm sure there are some out there, but my fatigue-fogged mind isn't hitting on any right now.

ExtenZe at Hanes Mall? Really?

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I know I've been distracted lately, what with three teenagers needing feeding and watering, the day job going on all cylinders and me being preternaturally distracted and all, but how in the heck did I miss this? ExtenZe opened its one and only store in Hanes Mall over the weekend! From the article:

ExtenZe has predominantly marketed to the male demographic in the past. Not only with a NASCAR Sprint Cup sponsorship of the No. 37 ExtenZe Racing Ford, but also through spokesman such as Jimmy Johnson, championship winning football coach, and porn star Ron Jeremy. Also with late night infomercials, featuring Bridgetta Tomarchio – actress, model, talking to people about their personal sexual performance levels.

But now one of the hottest products is ExtenZe Women, an all-natural blend to create a female libido booster. In addition to these enhance products, the store plans to capitalize on traditional mall products with the ExtenZe logo on and engaging slogans such as “Yeah, We’re Cocky” and 
“Growing Our Fan Base One Member at a Time”.

I never thought I'd live to see the day that Hanes Mall was mentioned in the same article with Ron Jeremy. Seriously, is this a hoax or can someone confirm that there is indeed an ExtenZe store at Hanes Mall?  I go to the mall once a year (Christmas Eve, 3:00 p.m. in a panic) so I have no way of knowing for sure.

Governor’s Volunteer Service Award

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Remember a couple of months back how I wrote, incessantly some would say, about the Labor of Love project the Triad Apartment Association (my day job) was doing at The Children's Home?  Well, the folks at The Children's Home were kind enough to nominate us for a Governor's Volunteer Service Award and a bunch of us will be attending a breakfast for the Forsyth County nominees on April 29.  The project was highly rewarding in its own right, but the award process is very exciting too.  We're very grateful to the folks at The Children's Home for nominating us and hopefully we'll do them proud!

Jon’s Social Media Rules (as if the world needs ’em)

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My family and friends know I'm a pseudo-geek.  I'm not a real geek because I may know about things like Facebook before they do, but I couldn't fix a computer if my life depended on it. Anyway, as a pseudo-geek I fill the role that all consultants love: I'm no expert but some people think I am because I know more than they do.  Lately most of the questions I've gotten have been about things that could loosely be defined as social media.

As an example I get asked: "What's this Twitter thing? How does it work? Why in the heck would anyone use it?"  Inevitably the questions evolve into conversation and culminate with the ultimate statement-question: "I'm too busy to pay attention to this crap, but (insert name of someone they respect/fear here) thinks its important so I guess I have to.  How can you tell which one of these things really matter and how do you keep track of it all?"  That's when I lay out my own rules for the road:

  1. Find your sage. To determine which cool new thing to pay attention to I track people whose job it is to know these things and test the products/services they seem to be high on.  My number one resource is Fred Wilson and not too far behind him is Rex Hammock.  They don't know me from Adam, but I read their stuff religiously and pay close attention.
  2. Be patient. Usually the things that techies are high on don't seem too relevant at first.  Facebook and Twitter seemed pretty useless to me for quite a while because no one I knew was using them, but when more friends/colleagues started using them, and the network effect kicked in, they became as valuable as any online tool I have with the exception of that insipid creature known as email.  Still, it took a long time and I essentially just monitored the services until they took off.
  3. Use appropriately. I'm reminded of this by an article in Fortune about LinkedIn.  I've always thought of LinkedIn as useful, but somewhat stodgy in terms of my social media universe and that remains true.  So what?  It functions very well and does what it's supposed to do and I use it for all the tasks I need to accomplish when I'm wearing my "professional Jon" hat.
  4. Don't be afraid to cut the cord or limit your menu.  I've abandoned more of these things than not.  Off the top of my head I can name FriendFeed, Tumblr and MySpace and I'm certain there's ten times that many that I can't remember. I'm not saying that these services don't serve lots of people very well, they just never reached a critical use point for me and there's nothing wrong with that.  Do this relentlessly or you'll soon be overwhelmed.
  5. Try not to be the last one at the party.  Time really is our most precious commodity so don't waste it on something that is bringing you minimal returns.  I actually used MySpace quite a bit a few years ago because there were friends and family members using it and I found it a great way to stay in touch.  But they started leaving and all MySpace seemed to offer were really ugly pages managed by local escorts and so I said "adios." 
  6. Don't be afraid of the rebound.  Sometimes you stop using a product or service because it seems fairly useless and then out of nowhere everyone seems to be talking about it.  Before you dismiss it as simply uninformed n00bs talking out of their nether regions go back and check it out.  You might find that the service has been vastly improved, or has added a component that makes it more useful, and you shouldn't let your ego get in the way of using it.  I know this sounds a lot like 'be patient' but really it's about rediscovering something you actually abandoned (truth be told I did this with LinkedIn).
  7. If your boss (customer, significant other, kids, etc.) uses it then use it too.  You may think it's stupid, but if someone whose opinion truly matters to you is using it then you probably need to at least be up to speed.  You may not give a rats you-know-what about Facebook, but if your kids are using it don't you at least want to know how it works?  Same goes if your boss keeps spouting off about the great research potential provided by LinkedIn.  Nothing says you have to be an uber-user, but it doesn't take too much effort to get enough of an understanding to keep from looking like the kid who still had an 8-track player in his car in 1991. 

Simple, huh?  Feel free to disagree, add or delete.  

No Fumar

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The first Forsyth County biz to be hit with a fine for violating the NC smoking ban is:

Breaktime Billiards on Jonestown Road.

To get fined they had to have been cited at least three times so I guess they've been thumbing their nose at the state for a while.  It'll be interesting to see what effect, if any, the fine has on the behavior of Breaktime and other businesses in Forsyth.