January 07, 2005

Boycotts Boycotted Here

Several people have sent the following email in care of the Tube City Almanac National Affairs Desk, and I've gotten so many copies now, I thought I'd share it with you:

Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend any money. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one damn dime for nothing for 24 hours.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Target ... Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter).

For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down.

This is simply a brilliant idea. Brilliant! Instead of doing something tangible, just don't buy anything for a day. What a concept!

That way, to take out your anger on the President, you can hurt some local merchant instead of the Republican National Committee. So Bill, who owns the local gas station, and the old man who owns the grocery store in my neighborhood (also known to the readers of the Almanac as "The House of Rancid Lunchmeat") can be penalized, while you walk around feeling smug.

OK, Bill and Lunchmeat Guy and the people who own the dairy store where I get my coffee won't be hurt that bad, I suppose. After all, if every leftist who gets this email acts on it, then retail sales in the United States on Jan. 20 might fall by, what? One-tenth of one percent?

Wow! I'll just bet Karl Rove has been reduced to a quivering mass of gelatin by that prospect. According to the Census Bureau, total retail sales in the U.S. for the third quarter of last year were about $916.5 billion, or $10 billion per day. A drop of 1/10th of one percent would be equivalent to $10,000,000, or about what Wal-Mart does in net sales every 20 minutes, or what Starbucks sells in a day. (I did the math.)

If the American economy was shaken to its hustings like this, could impeachment of the President be far behind?

I asked one of the people who sent this email to me if I was allowed to use the commode on Jan. 20. After all, flushing the commode uses water, which helps support the water company. I didn't get a straight answer.

Should I use electricity that day? Did Duquesne Light executives donate to the President's re-election campaign? I'm not sure! People, I need facts!

Anyway, this is just the kind of meaningless pouting that has enabled the far-right to laugh at Democrats for the past four years, and mock them as incompetent, intolerant whiners; and which resulted, in part, in the 2 percent "mandate" that the President now enjoys.

So, I say "bravo" to the organizers of the "Not One Damn Dime Day!" It's oh-so-fraught with deep symbolism and evokes a couch-potato version of Marxism, while not actually requiring any real effort on the part of the participants.

I wonder only if meaningless temper tantrums will characterize the progressive movement for the next four years. And if so, what sort of "protest" will be organized for the Jan. 20, 2009 inauguration of President Santorum? National Spin in Circles Until We Puke Day, perhaps?

...

Other possible protest actions for Jan. 20:

Go to the Bathroom in Your Pants Day: Drunken bum? Crack addict? Or angry about the war in Iraq? Passersby won't be able to tell on Jan. 20, but you'll have a nice warm feeling ... literally!

Hold Your Breath Until You Turn Blue and Pass Out Day: A classic, updated for modern times. How better to show your affinity with the "blue" states than with a "blue" face?

Bang Your Head As Hard As You Can Against a Wall Day: Self-destructive, injurious and worthy of ridicule --- what better way to sum up U.S. foreign policy since Sept. 11, 2001?

Pound Your Fists On the Ground Day: This is best done in the aisle of your local discount retailer, and should be accompanied by shrieks of "It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair!"

Donate $20 in Cash or Volunteer Effort to the Political Cause or Group of Your Choice Day: ... nah, this actually has a small chance of helping. Never mind.

...

Just in case you actually haven't been moved to teeth-gnashing, mouth-foaming fury by this point, and aren't yet banging out a nasty email to me, here's an item from the Valley Mirror. Braddock Carnegie Library has been forced to cut back its hours of operation because of what is being described as "a very tight economic environment."

I can only assume that a drop in donor funding and increased energy bills are strapping America's oldest Carnegie Library.

No one asked me, but I suspect you could help by sending a check or money order to 419 Library Street, Braddock, PA 15104. Braddock's Field Historical Society, which operates the library, is also set up to accept donations through United Way; use donor code "3965."

...

Stories You May Have Missed: The conductor and manager of the McKeesport Symphony Orchestra have resigned, reports Andrew Druckenbrod in the Post-Gazette:

Conductor Roger Tabler has resigned as music director of the McKeesport Symphony Orchestra ... and was followed by orchestra manager Lynne Cochran. ...

"I cannot overcome or endure what I feel is an environment that's unfriendly to supporting an orchestra," Tabler said yesterday. "I don't know what direction the board wants to go any more now than before. I was told I was in the driver's seat but discovered I was a only a chauffeur for other people."

Says Tabler: "There was not really an interest in being progressive."

Shocked, shocked I am that anything in Our Fair City could be accused of being less than progressive.

Seriously, I know nothing about the situation, so I'm not about to comment. I do know that the MSO has been a vital organization for a long time (since 1959) and deserves your support; their next concert is Feb. 26 at McKeesport High School's auditorium.

...

Things to Do This Weekend: Frankie Carroll plays the ballroom at The Palisades at 9 p.m. Saturday; call (412) 678-6979 ... North Braddock Volunteer Fire Co. No. 3 holds a bingo, starting at 1 p.m. Sunday. Call (412) 271-1572.

Posted at 12:59 am by jt3y
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January 06, 2005

There's No Place Like Debt

City Paper has rolled out a redesign of the dead-tree edition, and it's pretty snazzy looking. This week's cover story by Rich Lord is pretty good reading, too, and it includes a family from Our Fair City:

Look, up in the sky! It’s the Airship Liberty, one of two blimps in Ameriquest Mortgage Co.’s inflatable fleet. The other is called Airship Freedom.

And wasn’t that the Ameriquest logo -- the one with the Liberty Bell facsimile -- on the All-Star Game ballots during the 2004 baseball season? Sure was. It often showed up, too, when the highlight reels took us to Ameriquest Field in Arlington, where the Texas Rangers play.

And on Feb. 6, we’ll be treated to Paul McCartney headlining the Ameriquest Mortgage Super Bowl XXXIX Halftime Show. Ameriquest reportedly paid $15 million to snag the world’s most prestigious advertising slot. That’s quite a catch for a California company that started out in 1980 as Long Beach Savings and Loan. Back then, the firm was a bit player in the then-tiny subprime lending market, which makes high-fee, high-interest loans to people with tarnished credit or irregular incomes. The halftime sponsorship is part of what Ameriquest Vice Chairman Adam Bass has called "our long-term vision … to become the lifelong mortgage company of every homeowner in America." ...

The lending, political giving and marketing blitz "feels like it’s an attempt at legitimization. ‘We’re mainstream! We’re at the Super Bowl!’" says Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, which has studied and criticized Ameriquest’s practices. Legitimization is fine if the loans are fair, he says, but he fears some Ameriquest borrowers may get unfavorable terms "that they don’t actually deserve."

As part of his story, Lord interviewed a family from Our Fair City, and spotlights the foreclosure proceedings that Ameriquest has brought against them.

Consumer advocates allege in the story that Ameriquest issues high-interest mortgages for amounts much larger than homes are worth; builds in large penalties for re-financing or missing payments; misleads clients as to the amount their monthly payments will be; and then uses high-pressure sales tactics to close the deals.

In the case of the McKeesport family Lord talked to, their $43,200 home was refinanced by Ameriquest for $81,000; the monthly payments the company quoted didn't include the property taxes or insurance, which added another $300 per month; and when the family missed two payments, the company demanded $2,700 up front --- and wouldn't take installments.

In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I worked with Rich twice on different occasions, and I admire his work greatly. And his stories on predatory lending --- including his recent book American Nightmare: Predatory Lending and the Foreclosure of the American Dream --- were much on my mind when I bought my own house.

But at the risk of sounding like the chairman of the Republican National Committee, where was the personal responsibility on some of the people who signed these mortgages? Why would anyone take out an $81,000 mortgage on a house valued at $43,200 --- in the language of the loan business, you're "underwater" on that debt as soon as you sign the paperwork, meaning you owe more than the collateral is worth.

I don't mean to kick these people when they're hurting, but it couldn't have been a secret to these folks how much their house was worth. They owned it already, after all. Even if they weren't sure, a quick call to the city tax office or a check on the county's Web site would have told them.

Lord writes that some people took out mortgages from Ameriquest at twice the prevailing interest rates through banks or FHA, which have the potential to rise to three times the prevailing rate. Who forced them to do that?

And then there's a couple that mortgaged a house valued at $139,000 for nearly $173,000. At any point did it occur to them that they were buying more home than they could afford? Or that it was dumb to repurchase their own house for more than they could sell it for? Maybe they should have sold that house and bought a smaller one.

(Look, I realize I'm sounding like a grumpy old man here. Just last night, someone asked me, "If you're this crabby now, what will you be like when you're 80?" Balder, fatter and crankier. But bear with me.)

This isn't rocket science. In high school economics, we were told that you should never be spending more than 25 percent of your monthly income on rent or mortgage payments. (See, Mr. Rozanski? I did pay attention!) Some of the people at risk of foreclosure, Rich writes, are taking out mortgages at up to 55 percent of their monthly incomes!

I've since heard another rule of thumb: The purchase price of your home shouldn't be more than two and a half times your yearly income. Do the people with the $173,000 mortgages have incomes of $70,000? If not, then it must be too much house.

Sure, although some mortgage company might be willing to loan you that much money, here's a clue: Most private businesses aren't working with your best interests at heart. They are trying to make a buck from you. Shocking!

Lest I be hypocritical, let me admit that I do a very bad job at living within my means or managing a budget. Yet it's instructive to realize that my grandparents raised two children to adulthood in a two-bedroom crackerbox house in the Westwood Hills section of Port Vue, and that my grandfather bought used cars for most of his life. When they took vacations, they stayed with relatives. And some how they avoided bankruptcy.

Finally, yes, predatory lending companies do employ unscrupulous tactics to woo people with marginal credit. No one says that you have to sign a contract with them. Shop around, for cripes' sake! Why would anyone take the first deal they were offered? Walk out of the Ameriquest office and down the street to someone else. Hand them the Ameriquest paperwork and say, "Can you beat this deal?" Walk to a third place and ask them.

If you don't know how to shop around, there are non-profit debt counselors, federally-subsidized mortgage programs, and other third-party agencies who can help you get an honest deal. (Start here.)

In the end, I sympathize with these folks. There are many reasons that people lose houses --- sometimes a run of bad luck, like a combination of a layoff, illness and a natural disaster makes it impossible to hold a household budget together. Some of these interest rates and penalties that finance companies charge border on usury, and they have lobbied very hard to prevent Congress from protecting consumers. In fact, one of the partners in Ameriquest was a major fundraiser for the Republican Party during the last election, and Congress is expected to lift state and local restrictions on predatory lenders. Coincidence? I think not.

But I just don't know if more regulation --- which some of the people in Rich's story call for --- is necessary to protect people from making terrible choices.

Rich quotes a professor at the Wharton School of Business, Jack Guttentag, thusly: "Say out of 100 such loans, 40 were the best option available to the borrower. The other 60 [borrowers] would be better off staying put, or they had a better alternative but didn’t know it ... Yes, the 60 add up to a lot of heartache and hardship, but would we want to deprive the 40 of an option that made them better off? I wouldn’t."

Me neither, frankly.

Can you believe that I've been told I'm too liberal? Now pardon me, while I go yell at some kids for playing ball in the street, and hitch my pants up around my armpits.

Posted at 12:28 am by jt3y
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January 05, 2005

No Almanac Today

The Tube City Almanac is not publishing today because it is the seventh anniversary of the death of Sonny Bono, and also the anniversary of the births of Walter Mondale and former CIA director George Tenet.

Coincidence? I'm not saying that it is, I'm not saying that it isn't. Maybe Sonny wasn't as dumb as he looked.

And speaking of dumb, on this day in 1961, "Mister Ed" debuted.

Also speaking of dumb, I was just too busy to pound out some drollery, so those are my excuses. Hey, you may think that writing this krep is easy, but it ain't. I sometimes spend upwards of 20 minutes.

(January 5 details courtesy Wikipedia.)

Posted at 12:15 am by jt3y
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January 04, 2005

From Here to Obscurity

It was 11 years ago when I walked into the art department at the college newspaper and saw the managing editor using Photoshop to superimpose the school's logo over an image of a spider web.

"What's this for?" I asked.

"It's for our new home page on the World Wide Web," he said.

"The what on the what?"

"The World Wide Web," he said. "Haven't you been paying attention? It's this way where people can look for information on the Internet."

"Like Usenet."

"No, with the Web you can get pictures and sounds."

"Like Gopher and FTP."

"No, not really. Look, I'll show you." He opened a program called Mosaic and showed me a page of text. "See? And if you click on these underlined items --- those are links --- they take you to other pages."

"Ah. Hmm. OK. That's ... interesting." I wandered off to do something else. Who could predict that the Web would some day grow into one of the biggest time-wasters ever created by man?

Anyway, soon I was screwing around with the Web myself, and within a couple of months, I had signed up for a three-credit course called something like, "Designing and Writing Hyper-Text." Among the assignments? Create your own Web page. My topic? It turned out to be Our Fair City.

Thus, 2005 marks the Tube City Online's 10th year on the Web, having attracted thousands of visitors, several nasty emails, and one legal threat --- this is true --- from U.S. Steel Corp. I used to have several pages about U.S. Steel's old National Works, and received a "cease and desist" order in 1997 for allegedly using U.S. Steel intellectual property without permission. I wrote back with an explanation of fair use and the First Amendment, and haven't heard anything since. (Am I tempting fate?)

The first effort was pretty crude (I was actually looking through my dusty, musty archives for a copy of it, and haven't found a complete one yet). But I'm proud to say that after those pathetic efforts, I've finally elevated Tube City Online to its current, highly advanced state of mediocrity.

To celebrate, look for lots of new and exciting features in this 10th anniversary year!

Look for them, but don't expect them!

...

Unlike this site, there are a few useful corners of the Web. The Penn State Data Center, which crunches state, municipal and federal statistics, is among them. Among the features I enjoy is "Map of the Month." This month's map compares estimated population growth from 2000 to 2004 to illustrate which are the "fastest-growing" U.S. states. (Hint: Not Pennsylvania.)

The map is a PDF file, so you'll need Acrobat. But you know that, right?

...

Jonathan Potts links to a great Trib article by Brad Bumstead about the state Turnpike Commission's continual promises that better things will be created for better living if we just build six-lane toll roads to them ...

... and how those better things never seem to materialize, though we do get these great highways that allow us to speed from Delmont to Tarrs, thus greatly cutting down the commute time for people from Tarrs, Mendon and Armburst who are heading to the Delmont-New Alexandria metroplex.

Sarcastic? Me? No-o-o-o-oo.

Bumstead points out that while the Turnpike Commission often claims its projects are self-sustaining, traffic on the Amos K. Hutchinson Bypass, the Beaver Valley Expressway and the Mon-Fayette Expressway is running so much behind expectations that tax money has had to be diverted to pay for them.

Writes Jonathan:

How does the commission and its friends in the Legislature justify these projects? Why, they will be engines of economic development, of course. But as the Trib's article notes, there is scant evidence that the projects have boosted local economies, and certainly not remotely enough to justify the costs.

Jonathan blames the failure of these various highway projects on pork, patronage and corruption. I'm going to try and give the PTC the benefit of the doubt and say that they're not crooked. (C'mon, work with me, here. I'm still feeling the Christmakwanukah spirit.)

However, I suspect that like most large organizations that have been around for a long time, the Turnpike Commission is primarily concerned with perpetuating its own growth.

In other words, it's only natural that when you ask the Turnpike Commission how to spur economic development, they'll reply "Build a Turnpike!" As a wise friend often tells me: "When all you have is a hammer, suddenly everything looks like a nail."

It's just a shame that Pennsylvania doesn't have anything in its economic development toolbox except hammers.

Oh, and slot machines. Lots and lots of slot machines.

Ahem. We're doomed.

Posted at 12:13 am by jt3y
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