An economic tune
Merle Hazard, a country singer who seems to specialize in economics, sings a little ditty about whether the current recession will veer toward inflation or deflation.
“Will we be Zimbabwe or will we be Japan?” he asks.
(hat tip to Edmond money manager Nick Massey)
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Vigilantes Rick roll telemarketers
Everyone has had it with the vehicle warranty calls. Oklahoma authorities have filed several legal actions to stop the annoying telemarketing pitches. Their counterparts in other states have tried similar tactics. The feds have gotten involved.
Yet the calls — “This is your second and final call notifying that your vehicle warranty is about to expire…” — continue unabated.
Michael Silveira called out the big guns, the Wall Street Journal reported. He Rickrolled them:
So last week, Mr. Silveira began calling back an auto-warranty company that has become the focus of an Internet crusade. He left it voice-mail messages that contained nothing but a recording of Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
Using phone numbers for Auto One Warranty Specialists Inc. that users posted to a Web site called Reddit.com, Mr. Silveira joined dozens of activists who have peppered the warranty company with messages including elevator music, threats and offers of rude services.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Telemarketing trevails
Oklahoma officials have filed several legal actions against three out-of-state telemarketing firms that have beseiged Oklahoma consumers with illegal phone calls offering vehicle warranty deals. The calls have been made to people whose phone numbers are on the state and federal “Do Not Call” lists. The companies are using automated dial devices, which are illegal, and are using recorded messages.
A reader today shared his experience with his attempt to stop the calls.
I have received at least 3 of these calls in the past two weeks, the last of which was last night around 8 or 9 PM. Having heard some of the details on previous TV news reports, and being registered on the National Do Not Call database, I was incensed at the content of the pre-recorded message. My anger did not reach the boiling point until after the message ended and a live body came on line.
I intentionally waited for the “human” as I was going to see if a direct message would help stop the calls. I immediately asked that person for her full name, the name of her employer, her location, and her return phone number. I also advised her my number was on the National Do Not Call database, that she and her company were in violation of Oklahoma statutes, and federal statutes and that their calls needed to stop immediately. She arrogantly said “Goodbye a – - – - – - ” and hung up on me.
Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s ability to make these annoying calls cease could go a long way toward getting him elected governor.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Newspaper nips ‘net on noodling news
I’m an Internet junkie, and love to find funny, bizarre and up-to-the-second reports by surfing from blog to blog. This week, a couple of my favorite stops have posted about the incredible phenomena of people WHO FISH WITH THEIR HANDS!
It’s called noodling. And if you’re from Oklahoma, this probably isn’t news to you. As a card-carrying member of the mainstream media, I gotta say been there, done that.
Don Mecoy
Business News
Tronox vs. Kerr-McGee Corp.
Tronox’s largest titanium dioxide plant is in Hamilton, Miss. PROVIDED BY TRONOX INC.
An example of the lively language included in the document:
Kerr-McGee devised a two-step fraudulent scheme to escape its toxic past and attempt to place its valuable oil and gas assets safely beyond the reach of the EPA, tort claimants, and other creditors.
The document is 50 pages, but is full of juicy details.
Click here to read it. (It’s a pdf file)
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Trading using behavioral science — and rats
Mrs. Kleinworth goes short in the U.S. Treasury market.
RATTRADERS.com uses “the most talented rats available” and has adapted classic behavioral theory to train the rats to respond to sounds that represent financial data and trends. The rats’ responses then are offered as recommendations.
I’m not making this up, although this smells like a hoax.
Our program is a professional service to the financial industry; rats are being trained to become superior traders in the financial markets. Using our own methodology in accordance with well-established animal training techniques, our subjects learn to recognize pattens in historical stock and futures data as well as generating trading signals. We provide solutions for tick based trading data and day based data. RATTRADERS rats can be trained exclusively for any financial market segment. They outperform most human traders and represent a much more economic solution for your trading desk.
Currently, the rats are long Caterpillar, USB and Exxon. (via Kottke)
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Twitter porn looks like ID theft scam
Twitter porn, an apparently harmless game, could trick users into revealing more than they realize, according to a PC World blurb. I’m usually fairly sensitive to scams, but this one flat eluded me.
The porn names game has a few variations, but the information that all of the versions elicit is the same. To find your “porn name” you are asked to take the name of your first pet, and combine it with the street you grew up on or your mother’s maiden name. Silly, sure. But look more closely: All of these are common security questions.
So look elsewhere for mindless Internet fun.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Why Americans don’t save
From Fail Blog, one of my kids’ favorite sites.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
A Martian view of U.S. oil industry
This 1956 cartoon created by the American Petroleum Institute, and archived by the Internet Achive, was designed to promote the oil industry. It is surprisingly entertaining. Martians, who already had developed interplanetary travel, needed help from America’s oil industry to understand how petroleum and competition can boost the standard of living for all Martians.
The oil industry information gets going in earnest at about the 7:30 mark. Notice how the oil companies use explosives to search for oil deposits. (via Boing Boing)
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
First-class stamps: getting your two-cents’ worth
The price of a first-class postage stamp rose 2 cents today (unless you stocked up on “Forever Stamps” ahead of time). I’ve always thought a first-class stamp was one of the modern era’s great bargains. Or at least I thought so until I read this article from Georg Jensen.
Just as General Motors has in effect subsidized Big Oil by continuing to build gas-guzzlers in recent years, so has the USPS continued to subsidize Big Mail by shaping its operations to encourage what it now calls, revealingly, “standard mail”—that is, advertising junk mail. Most American citizens are blissfully unaware of the degree to which USPS subsidizes U.S. businesses by means of the fees it collects from ordinary postal customers. For example, if you wish to mail someone a large envelope weighing three ounces, you’ll pay $1.17 in postage. A business can bulk-mail a three-ounce catalog of the same size for as little as $0.14.
The price of a first-class stamp has risen a bit faster than the rate of inflation, but it tracks fairly well. A look at the consumer price index calculator at the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 44 cents today has the same spending power as 4 cents in 1919. But a first-class stamp in 1919 cost only 2 cents.
To look at it from the other direction, a first-class stamp that cost 2 cents in 1919 would cost 25 cents today based solely on the rate of inflation. The 3-cent stamp, which originated in 1932, is roughly equivalent to a cost of 47 cents today.
A first-class stamp hit the 10-cent mark in 1974, which is equivalent to 43 cents in 2009.
A look at stamp prices between 1919 to present.
Year — Postage, per ounce
1919 — 2 cents
1932 — 3 cents
1958 — 4 cents
1963 — 5 cents
1968 — 6 cents
1971 — 8 cents
1974 — 10 cents
1975 — 13 cents
1978 — 15 cents
1981 — 18 cents (March)
1981 — 20 cents (November)
1985 — 22 cents
1988 — 25 cents
1991 — 29 cents
1995 — 32 cents
1999 — 33 cents
2001 — 34 cents
2002 — 37 cents
2006 — 39 cents
2007 — 41 cents
2008 — 42 cents
2009 — 44 cents
Source: U.S. Postal Service
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
