Saturday, January 30, 2010

Social Security Victory....

A victory for the future of Social Security and Medicare

When the Senate was voting on a proposal that would have given a special fast-track debt commission the authority to propose reductions to programs like Medicare and Social Security without the opportunity for full debate and amendment by elected members of Congress, thousands of AARP advocates stood up and said, "No way!" These crucial decisions should be made with full transparency and accountability – and with the opportunity for full public debate and amendment.

And your voices were heard! The Conrad-Gregg measure failed Tuesday by a vote of 53-46. Click here to learn more.

Is Health Reform Dead?

Is health reform dead?

The fight for health care isn't over yet, but it got a lot tougher with the election results in Massachusetts last week, which leaves Senate Democrats with 59 votes – one vote shy of being able to stop a filibuster.

Both the House and Senate have passed health care bills that would stop insurance companies from turning away consumers with pre-existing conditions, place stricter limits on the premiums they can charge older Americans, and provide relief from the high cost of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries that fall into the doughnut hole.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Eat This....

'Eat This' authors offer advice for nutritious home cooking

Source: Washington Post | January 28, 2010

Every time I hear that David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding are publishing another book in their "Eat This, Not That!" series, I steel myself: Having written about several already, I'm resolved not to fall prey to their charms again.

And yet here I sit.

The fellows, editor in chief and food and nutrition editor, respectively, of Men's Health magazine, have put together another compelling volume that shows how we can all bypass the hyper-caloric, fat- , sugar- and salt-laden offerings from fast-food joints and quick-serve restaurants to make our diets more healthful and nutritious.

In past iterations, they've followed a formula, comparing a better-for-you offering (eat this) with something quite horrible (not that). In their new book, "Cook This, Not That!" (Rodale, 2009), they advise taking what for some is a drastic measure: learning to cook.

The premise is that by simply mastering a few basic but tasty recipes and substituting them for takeout or other meals prepared by others, we can seize control of what we eat, how many calories we consume and how much we spend. The authors make an excellent case for eating in: In the time it takes for a pizza or some Chinese food to be delivered or for the family to pile into the car and drive to a restaurant, any of us can cook a delicious, satisfying and nutritious meal in our kitchen.

The book features more than 200 recipes, each illustrated with a full-page color photo and contrasted with a restaurant favorite. None takes more than 20 or 30 minutes to cook. The Spinach Salad With Warm Bacon Dressing, with 220 calories, 11 grams of fat (three of them saturated) and 560 milligrams of sodium per serving, is offered as a substitute for the Grilled Shrimp 'N Spinach Salad from Applebee's, which delivers 1,040 calories, 11 grams of saturated fat and 2,380 milligrams of sodium (more than the government's dietary guidelines budgets for a full day).

Some features of "Cook This, Not That!" are aimed at the reluctant or novice cook: There's a chapter with a guide to outfitting a kitchen for just $331, for instance. But because Goulding was a professional chef before he joined Men's Health, he's made these recipes worthwhile for more-seasoned cooks, too. One example: a more healthful version of chicken fried rice than the kind you'd get at P.F. Chang's, which at the time the book was written contained an ungodly 4,548 milligrams of sodium. (The restaurant chain apparently has since reduced the dish's sodium content.) The homemade version has 720 milligrams.

One thing I love about the "Cook This" approach is its emphasis on fresh, whole ingredients and its embrace of delicious items (such as the bacon in that spinach salad) that many diet and nutrition guides would consider off-limits.

"We're all about honest, simple food," the authors write. "And we're not afraid to use the real ingredients delicious food demands." They eschew light mayonnaise, Splenda, fat-free half-and-half and "sneaky tricks like folding pureed broccoli into your brownies, using Fiber One cereal as breading, or replacing butter with applesauce in the chocolate cookies."

See why I like these books so much?

Like the others in the series, this book is packed with handy tips (top your pancakes with easy-to-make fruit compote instead of maple syrup) and graphic guides to selecting the best foods, from meats and dairy products to pantry staples. And it isn't afraid to play favorites: Breyers All Natural ice cream is singled out as the "go-to brand for all your ice cream needs" because milk, rather than cream, is the first ingredient; it thus has fewer calories and fat than other brands.

"The first six books were telling people how to make smart choices when in a compromising position," Goulding told me over the phone. "They were about mitigating damage" when your only dining option is the food court.

The new book, he said, is "not about cutting out foods you really love, but about learning to produce them in an environment in which you're in control." That control lets you take charge of how much butter, salt and sugar you consume, said Goulding.

So, do the authors practice what they preach? Zinczenko said via e-mail, "I cook occasionally, but not as much as Matt." Goulding said that, even with his busy schedule, he tries to cook dinner five nights a week.

But even those who feel they can't manage that frequency can improve their diets by just cooking more often. "You'd have to try very hard," he said, "not to do better than what restaurants do for you day in and day out."

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Democrats Ponder Health Care.....

Democrats ponder health care tweaks to appease House
Source: Boston Globe January 26, 2010
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar

WASHINGTON - Seeking to salvage a health care overhaul, congressional leaders are considering a plan to pass the Senate bill with some changes to accommodate House Democrats, senior Democratic aides said yesterday.
Leaders will present the idea to the rank and file this week, but it is unclear whether they have enough votes to carry it out.
Last week’s victory by Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts cost Democrats the 60th vote they need to maintain undisputed control of the Senate, jeopardizing the outcome of the health care bill just as President Obama had brokered a final deal on most of the major issues.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, said last week she does not have the votes to pass the Senate bill without changes. Democratic congressional aides, speaking on condition of anonymity because the issue is in flux, said the latest strategy involves using a special budget procedure to revise the Senate bill. The procedural route - known as reconciliation - would allow a majority of 51 senators to amend their bill to address some of the major substantive concerns raised by the House. That would circumvent the 60-vote majority needed to hold off Republican stall tactics.
Only changes that affect taxes and government spending would normally be allowed to pass with a majority of 51 senators. It is unclear that other major disputes - for example, how to restrict taxpayer funding for abortions - could be settled similarly.
The new strategy is politically risky. There is widespread support for Obama’s goals of expanding coverage to nearly all Americans while trying to slow costs. But polls show the public is deeply skeptical of the Democratic bills, and Republicans would accuse Democrats of ignoring voters’ wishes.
Obama initially voiced doubts last week that a comprehensive bill was still viable, but he now seems to be pushing for it. Asked yesterday if the president was backing away from his pursuit of major changes, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs responded: “No.’’
“I think the president believes that the circumstances that led him to undertake greater security for people in their health care . . . existed last year, last week, and this week,’’ Gibbs said.
Among those arguing for a quick strike on health care is David Plouffe, the political adviser who helped elect Obama president and has just been summoned back by the White House to help in this year’s elections.
“I know that the short-term politics are bad,’’ Plouffe argued in a Washington Post op-ed. “But politically speaking, if we do not pass it, the GOP will continue attacking the plan as if we did anyway, and voters will have no ability to measure its upside.’’

How to Hang On To Your Job!!

How to Hang On to Your JobThese five tough tactics may keep you from becoming a target

By: Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine | Source: AARP Bulletin Today | January 27, 2010

Photo: Corbis

Careers are dead. Not just individually, for those who have lost their positions in the past two years, but collectively, including those who still have a steady paycheck. The long, steady climb up an organizational, industrial or professional hierarchy no longer exists. In this new world, working lives are erratic, filled with ups and downs, and taking perhaps two decades to taper off until retirement.

The global economic crisis that struck in the fall of 2008 may have been the tipping point, but our traditional approach to work has been on the road to extinction for decades.

We all now work in a post-career world, an unpredictable environment in which excellence, expertise and even success can lead to termination, because they go hand in hand with higher salaries and age.

Surviving in this competitive new environment, and preserving your stream of income for as long as possible, may demand a set of practical tactics that are concerned more with effectiveness than ideology. Listen up!

1. Become a hatchet man

How good you are at your job doesn’t matter. Hard-working, effective individuals can be passed over for promotions or let go, while others, far less effective, are promoted or have their positions secured.

The dirty little secret that those survivors understand, and that you need to learn, is that you don’t really work for your company, you work for your immediate supervisor. Your job is really all about making him or her feel and look good. Meet your boss’s personal needs and your job will be as safe as possible. Find out what your boss hates doing, or needs to do but can’t, and do it. If that means becoming the hatchet man, so be it.

Let’s say the new president of your company installs his brother as vice president of sales, your direct superior, a position that in the past had been responsible for the landing, closing and servicing of national accounts. As national sales manager you’ve long been charged with the administration, training and management of the company’s sales team. It soon becomes clear that your new boss, while an experienced and apparently effective manager, is a terrible closer.

To secure your own position you need to, subtly if necessary, step in and start closing the sales, even if it means adding to your already heavy workload. By doing for him what he can’t do himself, you become indispensable.

Becoming a hatchet man could be as simple as filling in for your boss at the weekly industry association dinners she loathes, or it could be as difficult as becoming the designated terminator if your superior hates being the bad guy. What matters is that you fill whatever role is needed, regardless of your job description. Do that and your position will be more secure.

2. Turn down the raise

The old mantra used to be “last hired, first fired.” The idea was that the least experienced people contributed the least to the organization’s success and so they were the ones the company could most afford to lose.

Today companies care about cost. The new mantra: “highest paid out the door.” Now it’s the most experienced and most effective who are often the first to be let go because they represent the bigger budget item.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Real Estate Corner....

Lenders’ first offer is rarely final for homebuyers with less than perfect credit

By Bradley Markano:Source Firsttuesday

Lenders often advertise excellent rates on 30-year fixed rate mortgage loans, but unwary buyers who think themselves eligible for these rates are frequently in for an unpleasant surprise. This is because the advertised rates typically apply only to buyers with top credit scores and a 20% downpayment—those who have scores lower than 740 or less than 20% down are subject to higher rates, which translate into dramatically higher payments. Buyers with a credit score under 720 often find their loan rates raised 1.5 percentage points or more.

For years, mortgage loan brokers (MLBs) in the business of offering purchase assist loans have engaged in the bait-and-switch scheme described above. At the moment, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are terrified of taking unnecessary risks, and their increased wariness of every imperfect buyer has meant higher rates for those with lower credit scores, pleasantly called risk-based pricing. Meanwhile, those who have diligently maintained a high credit score and have the money for a 20% down payment are rewarded with lower rates and better terms. Buyers who want to know their final rate up-front can take steps to encourage forthrightness from their lenders in the form of a written commitment on the rate and amount, but they should not expect good results. Just ask your lender for a written pre-approval letter with amounts and rates, and see how cheerfully they react.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Ask Ms. Medicare......

Ask Ms. Medicare: Changing Medigap Supplemental Policies

By: Patricia Barry Source: AARP Bulletin Today January 25, 2010

Q. I’ve had a medigap policy for several years, but I’d like to change to another. Is this possible? What if I have preexisting medical conditions? When is open enrollment?

A. As a Medicare beneficiary age 65 or older, you can buy Medicare supplemental insurance (also known as medigap) at any time. There are no annual enrollment periods for medigap. But with very few exceptions, the only time you can buy it with full federal guarantees and protections is during a very specific time frame—within six months of enrolling in Part B. During this period, an insurer cannot deny coverage or require higher premiums based on your age, health status or preexisting conditions.

Outside that six-month time frame, however, insurers can legally apply all these practices, which are collectively known in the insurance business as “medical underwriting.” However, some states offer more consumer protections than federal law does. (Your state’s department of insurance can give you information on its requirements for medigap policies.)

Why would you want to change policies? Perhaps you already have one of the 12 standardized medigap policies, which are labeled A through L, and are considering upgrading to one that has a more expensive set of benefits or switching to one that has fewer benefits and that costs less. Or perhaps you’re not happy with your current insurer, or want to switch to another company that you think might charge you less.

In any of these situations, it’s important to understand the possible consequences of switching policies or insurers before you opt out of your current medigap policy. Under federal regulations, Medicare officials say, the insurer:

Cannot exclude preexisting medical conditions from your coverage, or require waiting periods before coverage kicks in, if your current policy has been in effect for six months or longer.

Can temporarily deny coverage for any additional benefits that are offered under the new policy but not included in your current policy—but for no more than six months after the new policy goes into effect.

Can require you to pay higher premiums based on your current age and health status.

Can refuse to sell you a new policy.

In contrast, if you remain with the federally guaranteed medigap policy you bought within six months of enrolling in Part B, the insurer must continue to renew your policy every year, without any changes to its benefits and regardless of how your health changes, as long as you continue to pay the premiums.

Other circumstances when you retain federal guarantees

You can use a medigap policy only if you’re enrolled in the traditional Medicare program. If, instead, you’re in a private Medicare Advantage (MA) health plan (such as an HMO or PPO), you have the right to switch to the traditional program and buy a medigap policy with full federal guarantees and protections in these specific circumstances:

If you joined an MA health plan when you first became eligible for Medicare at age 65 and you are still within your first 12 months in this plan.

If you are within the first 12 months of being enrolled in an MA health plan and this is the first Medicare health plan you’ve ever been in.

If you are in an MA health plan (regardless of how long you’ve been enrolled) and the plan goes out of business or withdraws from Medicare and you choose to switch to traditional Medicare instead of enrolling in another MA plan.

In all these situations, you can apply to an insurer for a medigap policy up to 60 days before your MA plan’s coverage is due to end. But you must apply within 63 days of it ending to be entitled to full guarantees and protections under federal law.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Contaminated Food Illnesses In Cookie Dough!

FDA May Get More Power Over Food Safety

New concerns about contaminated cookie dough

By: Candy Sagon | Source: AARP Bulletin Today | January 22, 2010

Photo: Mascarucci/Corbis

Like hungry diners anxiously awaiting their meal, food safety advocates are growing increasingly impatient for Congress to act on legislation to protect millions of Americans from food-borne illnesses.

Although a groundbreaking bill to expand the powers of the Food and Drug Administration was passed by the House last summer, the Senate version remains stalled, pushed aside by the recent struggle to craft health care reform legislation.

To remind lawmakers of promises made a year ago when contaminated peanut products killed nine and sickened 700, a letter from 28 of the victims was delivered to the Senate last week, urging them to take up their version of the food safety reform bill.

New problems with cookie dough

The letter comes amid new reports that potentially deadly E. coli bacteria was discovered this month in two samples of Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough being manufactured at a Virginia factory. Last summer, 76 people in 31 states were sickened after eating small amounts of tainted raw dough, and the company recalled 3.6 million packages of its ready-to-bake product. After samples again tested positive for contamination recently, Nestlé has said it will begin using flour that has been heat-treated to kill dangerous bacteria.

An estimated 76 million Americans get sick from a food-related illness every year, including 70,000 who become ill from E. coli, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Tainted food sends some 325,000 Americans to the hospital each year, and more than 5,000 die from it, the CDC reports. Many food-borne illnesses go unreported because people don’t realize that food was the cause of their illness.

Older Americans at risk

Older Americans, in particular, are susceptible to food-related illness. For years, scientists believed that those most at risk for death from food poisoning were infants and young children, but the U.S. population is aging and older Americans now live with chronic illnesses that affect their immunity to disease. New data from the CDC clearly show that older consumers are the most likely to experience severe illness and death from contaminated food, says Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington advocacy group. “The highest rates of hospitalization and death are in the over-50 age group.”

Public outcry grows

Public outcry over recent outbreaks of food-borne illness from popular foods like peanut butter and fresh spinach had prompted both the House and the Senate to propose new food safety legislation that would significantly expand the FDA’s powers for the first time in more than 70 years.

The House passed legislation in July; the Senate version, sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., was passed unanimously out of committee in November but is still awaiting a floor vote. If approved by the Senate, the two bills will be combined into one and sent to President Obama, who has already indicated his support for stronger food safety regulations.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Transfats Outlawed in CA.

Transfats are now outlawed in CA. This is the trend throughout the country All those products that once had transfats now have either fully-hydrogenated oils or interesterified fats, which is worse than transfats - they lower the HDL cholesterol ("good") and raise the LDL ("bad"). Interesterified fat also raises your blood glucose and depresses insulin production. One more thing that feeds the pharmaceutical industry.

From Dr. Mercola's e-newsletter:
The end result of the hydrogenation process is a completely unnatural fat that causes dysfunction and chaos in your body on a cellular level.
Trans fats have been linked to:

Cancer: They interfere with enzymes your body uses to fight cancer.
Diabetes: They interfere with the insulin receptors in your cell membranes.
Decreased immune function: They reduce your immune response.
Problems with reproduction: They interfere with enzymes needed to produce sex hormones.
Obesity
Heart disease: Trans fats can cause major clogging of your arteries.

Trans fat is also known to increase blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good" cholesterol.
Trans fats even interfere with your body’s use of beneficial omega-3 fats, and have been linked to an increase in asthma.

It's no surprise that trans fats are found in fried foods like French fries, fried chicken, and doughnuts - as well as cookies, pastries and crackers. In the United States, French fries typically contain about 40 percent trans fatty acids and many popular cookies and crackers range from 30 percent to 50 percent trans fat. Doughnuts have about 35 percent to 40 percent trans fatty acids.
Due to all the bad press trans fats are getting, in recent years many food manufacturers have removed them from their products. But there’s an important caveat you should know … The FDA allows food manufacturers to round to zero any ingredient that accounts for less than 0.5 grams per serving.
So while a product may claim that it does not contain trans fats, it may actually contain up to 0.5 grams per serving. If you eat a few servings, you’re quickly ingesting a harmful amount of this deadly fat.
So to truly avoid trans fats, you need to read the label and look for more than just 0 grams of trans fat. Check the ingredients and look for partially hydrogenated oil. If the product lists this ingredient, it contains trans fats.

Trans Fats’ Unhealthy Replacement Fat

Now that the health dangers of trans fats have been clearly exposed, the food industry would do you a great favor by returning to the use of natural saturated fats. But that would mean reversing their entirely unscientific, 50-year campaign to vilify saturated fats, and would bring an end to the enormously powerful edible oil industry.
Instead, the food industry has been widely replacing trans fats with intersterified fat, another unnatural fat that you’d be wise to avoid.
The interesterification process hardens fat, similar to the hydrogenation process, but without producing oils that contain trans fats. The end product, like trans fat, is less likely to go rancid and is stable enough to use to fry foods.
However, like hydrogenation, which generates unnatural trans fats, interesterification also produces molecules that do not exist in nature.
The highly industrialized process of interesterification may result in a product that is trans fat-free, but that product will still contain chemical residues, hexanes, and other hazardous waste products full of free radicals that cause cell damage.
Studies show that interesterified fat raises your blood glucose and depresses insulin production. These conditions are common precursors to diabetes, and can present an even more immediate danger if you already have the disease.
After only four weeks consuming these fats, study volunteers’ blood glucose levels rose sharply -- by 20 percent. This is a much worse result than what is seen with trans fats.
Natural vegetable oils that have been processed in any way will create problems for your body at the cellular level. These fats are no longer in their natural state, and your body doesn’t know how to handle them. Your system will try to make use of them and in the process, these fats end up in cell membranes and other locations where they can wreak havoc with your health.
If a processed food product is labeled “0% trans fats” or “no trans fats” but is made from vegetable oils, you can be certain it contains either interesterified fats or fully hydrogenated vegetable oils, both of which you’ll want to avoid.

Eliminate processed foods from your diet.
Use organic butter (preferably made from raw milk) instead of margarines and vegetable oil spreads. Butter is a healthy whole food that has received an unwarranted bad rap.

Use coconut oil for cooking. It is far superior to any other cooking oil and is loaded with health benefits.

To round out your healthy fat intake, be sure to eat raw fats, such as those from avocados, raw dairy products, and olive oil, and also take a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fat, such as krill oil.
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Yes, folks. We can always use more gov't intervention.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Federal government: give up the comedy routine and get to work

By Nick Love • Jan 14th, 2010 • Category: firsttuesday

The Making Home Affordable program created by the current administrated has made matters worse for homeowners and the economy.

Homeowners have been dragged along with lender’s extend-and-pretend temporary loan modifications, pouring money into loans that are ultimately foreclosed on by lenders. Money wasted in trial modifications would have been saved for moving expenses and rental deposits.

Additionally, most homeowners are unaware that requesting a modification (even if all payments have been current) will damage their credit for up to two years.

Modification programs are only delaying the pain of the desperately needed real estate owned (REO) market purge.

Banks have been abusing the temporary loan modifications as a tool to keep foreclosure losses and bad loans off their loss-accounting books.

This shadow inventory of eventual REOs coupled with the lender’s refusal to agree to short sales that would move property directly onto the market leads to prices inflated by artificial inventory scarcity.

All this conduct has the nasty side effect of encouraging builders and developers to create inventory for a market that is overly-inflated, speculator-driven and headed for another severe price depression.

While on the one hand, the Treasury Department assures the public that the Making Home Affordable is successful in providing needed relief, a new program called the Foreclosure Alternatives Program will provide incentives for lenders to accept short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure. As of mid-December, nearly 760,000 homeowners had received trial modifications and only 31,000 received permanent modifications. The Treasury Department’s goal is to see three to four million permanent modifications by 2012 — an unreasonable goal considering the miserable results of the Making Home Affordable program.

2008 saw more than 1.7 million Americans with delinquent payments lose their homes through foreclosures, short sales or deeds in lieu according to Moody’s Economy.com. Last year an additional two million U.S. homes became REO properties. Projections from Economy.com indicate that 2010 will be the worst year yet for foreclosures, with numbers reaching 2.4 million nationally.

The key piece missing from all of these foreclosure prevention plans? Cramdowns — a reduction of the principle balance on the loan. Without cramdowns, homeowners who have lost all equity with no hope of retrieving it for a decade or more have no incentive to stay in their underwater residences.

first tuesday take: Banks, like every other business trying to survive in this economic climate, are unconcerned with the plight of the American and the Californian homeowner. Banks are solely concerned with what affects their bottom line – which includes reporting (or not reporting) huge lost value in their mortgage portfolios.

Lenders are taking advantage of their current alliance with a government that fully backs extend-and-pretend modification practices. It serves their purpose to escape stating the market value of their mortgage loan portfolio, avoiding the financially devastating consequences of insolvency they can only avoid with the present mark-to-management pricing of their loan portfolio.

The federal government has invested taxpayer money in these lenders, and has no desire to force them to show their cards and foreclose on their shadow inventory, allowing transparency of value to shine in. Likewise, in its quest for job creation, the federal government wants to keep REO inventory off the market and is using subsidies to get the new home inventories out of the market in order to encourage new builders to continue building homes, a bow to a construction industry which stockpiled more new housing in the 2004 to 2006 period than will be needed for four or five years into the future.

The federal government needs to wake up and get out of bed with lenders and builders. Without judicial cramdowns incentivizing lender-originated principal reduction, the real estate market and the economy will double-dip within months after the tax credits end in April 2010. The Federal Reserve Bank will raise mortgage interest rates and the next wave of foreclosures will hit as ever more adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) and modifications reset.

Brokers and agents must continue doing what they do best: set the values that properties are worth in this market in spite of seller resistance, and locate a match for buyers with properties that have equity and can actually close escrow. Remember that speculators will keep REO resales overpriced for months to come, but they stay involved at their own peril.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Investor Protect Thyself!!!

Your Financial Future: Investor, Protect Thyself

New SEC website is senior-friendly and designed to help you avoid Madoff-type schemes

By: Martha M. Hamilton | Source: AARP Bulletin Today | January 13, 2010

The Securities and Exchange Commission has drawn a lot of criticism in the past few years for not fulfilling its mandate to regulate markets and protect investors, most dramatically by its failure to take action against Bernard Madoff’s gigantic Ponzi scheme. But the federal agency has been spending time and resources on initiatives designed to help restore investor confidence.

One of the best initiatives is a new website focusing on investor education and protection. Easy to remember and easy to find, Investor.gov is designed to put as many tools as possible in one spot.

Investor.gov has three main sections:

“Getting Started” includes such basics as a glossary of mutual fund terms and a tutorial on how mutual funds work, as well as an extensive list of calculators and tools.
“Protect Your Money” provides a valuable list of questions to ask about different types of investments and the people who sell them. It also has a brief section on the original Ponzi scheme (though with no updated examples such as Madoff’s).
“For Seniors” includes, among other things, a “seniors care package” with advice about how to find a reputable financial adviser and about evaluating your retirement options.

One-stop shopping

What Investor.gov also has done is to consolidate information from other sources and make it available for one-stop shopping along with the SEC tips. For instance, there is a presentation on outsmarting investment fraud produced by SaveAndInvest.org, AARP and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

The information, used in workshops to train investors to recognize and avoid fraudulent pitches, includes illustrations of the type of pitches that should make you wary. For instance, “We have had a run on this stock like you wouldn’t believe—we only have 2,500 shares left out of an initial supply of 300,000.”

The site also features Moneytopia, the “city where money never sleeps.” It’s a game that allows you to practice managing money with imaginary stakes. I’m not much of a gamer, but it looked like a reasonably useful way to kill time when you’re sitting at your computer.

Information in Spanish

Also, in keeping with the SEC’s efforts to provide more information in Spanish, there’s a Spanish-language section, although the investor alerts, such as the one on the state of California’s IOUs, have not been translated.

“We thought that people were having a hard time finding the investor information that they needed,” says Lori Schock, director of the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy. Schock’s office is where you go if you have questions or complaints—she says every year the SEC receives “tens of thousands.”

The number is 1-800-SEC-0330 (1-800-732-0330). You can also get in touch online or by mail.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Danger Of Talking On Cell Phones While Driving

28 percent of accidents involve talking, texting on cellphones

Source: Washington Post | January 13, 2010

Ashley Halsey III

Twenty-eight percent of traffic accidents occur when people talk on cellphones or send text messages while driving, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Safety Council.

The vast majority of those crashes, 1.4 million annually, are caused by cellphone conversations, and 200,000 are blamed on text messaging, according to the report from the council, a nonprofit group recognized by congressional charter as a leader on safety.

Because of the extent of the problem, federal transportation officials unveiled a organization Tuesday, patterned after Mothers Against Drunk Driving, that will combat driver cellphone use. The group, FocusDriven, grew out of a meeting on distracted driving sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation in the District last year.

Virtually everyone owns a cellphone, and it's evident to anyone who drives regularly that huge numbers of people, including some who support a ban, use them while driving. Persuading people to break that habit could be a tall order for FocusDriven.

"It's hard because everyone's addicted to their cellphone," said FocusDriven's president, Jennifer Smith, a Texan whose mother was killed by a man who ran a red light while talking on his cellphone. "That's where we come in. We put a real, human face to it. We're going to put the pressure on legislatures."

Enforcement of a texting ban requires officers to observe an act that usually is conducted in a driver's lap, and hands-free devices make it possible to talk on cellphones without being observed. More than 120 studies of cellphone use suggest that using hands-free devices doesn't eliminate the distraction caused by a phone conversation.

"It's not easy to enforce [a ban], but it's not impossible," said Chuck Hurley, executive director of MADD, who attended Tuesday's announcement of the new group's formation. "The main reason people talk on their cellphones is because they can. Eventually, [signal blocking] technology will address that."

Smith said law enforcement needs stronger laws and better tools to enforce them.

"Using a subpoena to get cellphone records has got to be a standard procedure," she said. "Perhaps cars should have a data recorder, like [an airplane's] crash recorder to use in these cases."

Whether the political will to enforce bans on cellphone use while driving exists is another matter.

Bans on text messaging while driving illustrate the challenge. Nineteen states and the District have banned it, but in four of those states, Virginia, New York, Washington and Louisiana, the laws require that an officer have some other primary reason for stopping a vehicle.

"That makes it impossible for police to enforce it effectively," said Illinois state Sen. John J. Cullerton (D), a leading traffic safety advocate. "It's a convenient way to compromise and get bills passed in state legislatures."

Hurley put it more bluntly:

"Secondary enforcement is a huge problem," he said. "It is a sign of weak politicians. It saves very few lives."

Maryland bans drivers sending text messages but allows drivers to read them or enter phone numbers in their cellphones. Virginians stopped by police are off the hook if they say they were dialing a phone number or using a GPS device on their phone.

The challenge of legislating cellphone use by drivers is greater than similar auto safety initiatives such as those in favor of seat belts and child car seat use or against drunken driving. In each of those instances, the public safety issue was more clearly understood and, ultimately, enforcement led drivers to comply.

Hurley, who spent 21 years with the National Safety Council before joining MADD, has been involved with virtually all major traffic safety campaigns for more than three decades.

His experience suggests that new laws and educational campaigns, such as trumpeting the startling numbers the National Safety Council released Tuesday, don't provide sufficient incentive for most drivers to change their habits.

"A lot of goodwill is created, and people die just the same," he said. "Education alone is a proven failure. Education and enforcement are a success."

He cites seat belt use as an example. The "Buckle Up for Safety" campaign was well received, but only 13 percent of drivers complied. The "Click It or Ticket" campaign has been much more effective, he said.

Public campaigns featuring mothers whose children died in crashes where drinking was a factor caught public attention, but the Operation Strikeforce efforts that employed sobriety checkpoints hammered home the consequences of drunken driving.

Hurley said the best first step for FocusDriven will be to get employers to ban use of text messaging and cellphones when driving. President Obama last year imposed a texting ban on all federal employees while using government vehicles or using government-issued phones in their own vehicles.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

News from the Real Estate Corner.....

What CA loan brokers and agents need to know: the ramifications of recent mortgage loan legislation

New loan broker requirements imposed by California’s legislature will profoundly change the business activities of all real estate brokers and agents who arrange RESPA-type consumer loans secured by one-to-four residential units, called mortgage loan originators, and to a very limited extent, mortgage loan brokers arranging business, investment or agricultural loans secured by one-to-four residential units.

On or before January 31, 2010, or 30 days after they begin first acting as a loan broker or agent, real estate brokers and agents arranging loans for any purpose secured by a one-to-four unit residential property must notify the DRE of their loan origination activities. [Calif. Business and Professions Code §10166.07]

Also, on or before December 1, 2010, those real estate brokers and their agents licensed by the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) who originate consumer purpose loans, but not business or investment purpose loans, secured by one-to-four unit residential property will be required to obtain a license endorsement from the DRE. To obtain and maintain this endorsement, they will also need to register with a federal agency, take additional and different continuing education and make annual reports to the DRE. The license endorsement must be renewed every year by December 31. Those who fail to renew will be subject to fines of up to $100 per day, and may have their licenses revoked. [Bus & P C §10166.02]

This “Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act” (RESPA)-type license endorsement is California’s response to the federal government’s newly established supervision of brokers and agents who are “consumer mortgage loan originators”–arrangers of purchase-assist home loans or home equity loans for consumer purposes. All this comes in the wake of disastrous real estate consequences recently brought about by irresponsible lending. Much of the DRE’s oversight will be accomplished in collaboration with the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry, here called the Nationwide Registry. This federally-created agency is responsible for monitoring consumer mortgage loan origination activities throughout the United States.

By increasing the education requirements of consumer loan brokers/agents and increasing its own knowledge and oversight of their activities, the government hopes to improve responsibility and accountability among mortgage lenders, and increase its own understanding of what has become an opaque and unregulated business. However, the government’s objective in imposing these registration requirements is to control the loan brokers and mortgage bankers, not the lenders who allowed, and in most cases encouraged, the relaxed lending conditions.

California’s RESPA-related oversight of real estate licensees is managed by the DRE. DRE-licensed brokers and agents who arrange consumer purpose loans secured by one-to-four unit residential property, now called consumer mortgage loan originators, are required to apply for endorsement from the DRE and an ID number from the Nationwide Registry. The national component of the prequalifying exam is currently available to be taken online with the Nationwide Registry.

For the state component, the DRE requires agents and brokers who act as mortgage loan originators to fill out and submit DRE Form RE 866, the Mortgage Loan Activity Notification. This form, available at the DRE’s website, is not an application for endorsement, but rather serves the purpose of notifying the DRE of any loan origination activities. Agents and brokers who fail to fill out this form will be subject to fines and possible license suspension. The DRE has not yet created its application form or set clear prerequisites for license endorsement. These materials should be available in late February, 2010 (look to first tuesday to alert you when this form is available).

Also, applicants to the DRE for the license endorsement will be required to successfully complete a minimum of 20 hours of education, including education on federal and state law related to fraud, fair lending and consumer protection and training in lending standards for nontraditional mortgages as a requisite for receipt of the RESPA loan origination endorsement and registration. [Bus and P C §§10166.06, 10166.09 and 10166.10]

Brokers and agents who apply for an endorsement and have successfully completed the endorsement education will also be required to pass a written exam, prepared and administered by the Nationwide Registry, on ethics, loan origination law and laws related to fraud, consumer protection and fair lending issues. If the licensee fails the registration exam three times, they will be required to wait a minimum of six months before making another attempt. Applicants will also be required to submit to background checks of their criminal history, civil and administrative records, credit history and other information.

Once endorsed by the DRE, the endorsement must be renewed annually. Renewal requirements involve still more education: eight hours of ethics, federal law, and nontraditional mortgage standards to be completed yearly. All qualifying courses must be approved by both the DRE and Nationwide registry. The registered loan broker or agent may not take the same course more than once every two years.

To improve public recognition of endorsed loan brokers and agents, these individuals will be required to include their nationwide Registry ID number and their DRE identification number on any advertising intended to be the first point of contact with customers. This includes all purchase agreements for which the endorsed licensee, while acting as the buyer’s loan broker, also acts as a transaction agent – the listing or selling agent. [Bus & P C §10140.6]

To some extent, improvements in the public’s well being are likely to result from all this endorsement, registration, background investigation, net worth requirements and education. In the meantime, however, brokers and agents arranging consumer purpose loans secured by one-to-four residential units will find themselves subject to a variety of new and arduous licensing requirements which are most likely to drive the majority of them out of the market entirely, expecially those that arranged purchase-assist loans for buyers of SFR properties.

In contrast, consider a seller who carries back a note and trust deed on the sale of a one-to-four unit residential property to a buyer who will occupy the property as his principal residence. The sale is an installment sale, and thus no new loan is involved (although an assumption of an existing loan is possible). In this situation, are the listing and selling agents arranging the carryback financing effectively “loan originators”? That is to say, are they required to be endorsed by the DRE and registered with the Nationwide Registry and complete the corresponding education requirements, background checks, etc. in order to arrange this financing and collect their sales fee?

No! RESPA and DRE license endorsements and registration are for consumer purpose loans on one-to-four units and are limited exclusively to loans, not extensions of credit, except for the carryback sale of homes by a builder. State law has always distinguished money loans from extensions of credit on the sale of real estate. [Boerner v. Colwell (1978) 21 CA3d 37]

So which DRE brokers and agents need to undergo this arduous endorsement hurdle, and who is exempt? These requirements do not apply to mortgage loan brokers (MLBs) who solicit, arrange or service investment, agricultural or business loans, regardless of whether those loans are secured by one-to-four residential units, or any loans secured by other than one-to-four unit residential property. These brokers are required to continue to report their activities to the DRE as they have in the past, but they will not need a separate DRE endorsement or federal registration. Also exempt from the endorsement and registration requirement are those service providers affiliated with real estate transactions, such as escrow officers and title companies, who receive and collect information to be used in arranging or processing loans but do not actually arrange or make the loans themselves.

The immediate results of this legislation are not difficult to predict. Institutional lenders have always preferred to lend directly to the homebuyer or homeowner. Direct lending allows them to avoid the expense of paying a loan broker and losing the interest rate spread from par to the note rate they charge. Thus they fulfill their objectives of increasing profits and avoiding competition, another extension of the deregulation of lenders which began with a vengence in 1982. The arduous requirements of endorsement and registration will effectively push all brokers and agents out of the business of placing purchase-assist home loans sought by homebuyers with the most competitive lender.

The mortgage loan broker who was formerly accustomed to acting as an intermediary between the homebuyer and mortgage lender will now be forced to reconsider whether their work is really worth the aggravating endorsement, registration, educational requirements, background checks, increased oversight and compensation disclosures. Some will not be able to meet the creditworthiness scoring standards or the net worth requirements to become endorsed. Lenders, on the other hand, will now be able to limit their loan solicitations to the “transaction agents” – selling agents – who represent homebuyers, although they will not solicit them for the purpose of making loans through those agents or paying a kickback as they did during the 2005-2006 period to get the loan business. Instead, the selling agents will be used for the purpose of bypassing all real estate licensees, dealing directly with the homebuyer once referred.

Save some uncommon cases, consisting probably of a few of the very largest real estate brokerage offices who establish a controlled financial business, we have seen the last days of the omnipresent residential mortgage loan broker. Lenders will now package their own loans, their way, exclusively. The buyer’s selling agent will control which lender now gets the loan, but will not be paid by the lender for making that decision – unless endorsed by the DRE, Registered with the National Registry, and fully compliant.

Source of text: Firsttuesday Newsletter

To get more information you can visit them at www.firsttuesday.us

Monday, January 11, 2010

$5.37

That's what the kid behind the counter at Taco Bell said to me. I dug into my pocket and pulled out some lint and two dimes and something that used to be a Jolly Rancher.

Having already handed the kid a five-spot, I started to head back out to the truck to grab some change when the kid with the Emo hairdo said the harshest thing anyone has ever said to me.

He said, "It's OK Sir. I'll just give you the senior citizen discount."

I turned to see who he was talking to and then heard the sound of change hitting the counter in front of me.

"Only $4.68" he said cheerfully. I stood there stupefied.

I am 62, not even 65 yet?"

A mere child!

Senior citizen?

I took my burrito and walked outside & into the truck wondering what was wrong with Emo.

Was he blind?

As I sat in the truck, my blood began to boil.

Old?

Me?

I'll show him, I thought.

I opened the door and headed back inside.

I strode to the counter, and there he was waiting with a smile.

Before I could say a word, he held up something and jingled it in front of me, like I could be that easily distracted!

What am I now? A toddler?

"Dude! Can't get too far without your car keys, eh?"

I stared with utter disdain at the keys.

I began to rationalize in my mind.

"Leaving keys behind hardly makes a man elderly! It could happen to anyone!"

I turned and headed back to the truck.

I slipped the key into the ignition, but it wouldn't turn..

What now?

I checked my keys and tried another.

Still nothing.

That's when I noticed the purple beads hanging from my rearview mirror..

I had no purple beads hanging from my rearview mirror.

Then, a few other objects came into focus.

The car seat in the back seat.

Happy Meal toys spread all over the floorboard.

A partially eaten doughnut on the dashboard.

Faster than you can say ginkgo biloba, I flew out of the alien vehicle.

Moments later I was speeding out of the parking lot, relieved to finally be leaving this nightmarish stop in my life.

That is when I felt it, deep in the bowels of my stomach: hunger!

My stomach growled and churned, and I reached to grab my burrito, only it was nowhere to be found.

I swung the truck around, gathered my courage, and strode back into the restaurant one final time.

There Emo stood, draped in youth and black nail polish.

All I could think was, "What is the world coming to?"

All I could say was, "Did I leave my food and drink in here?"

At this point I was ready to ask a Boy Scout to help me back to my vehicle, and then go straight home and apply for Social Security benefits.

Emo had no clue. I walked back out to the truck, and suddenly a young lad came up and tugged on my jeans to get my attention. He was holding up a drink and a bag.

His mother explained, "I think you left this in my truck by mistake."

I took the food and drink from the little boy and sheepishly apologized.

She offered these kind words:

"It's OK. My grandfather does stuff like this all the time."

All of this is to explain how I got a ticket doing 85 in a 40.

Yes, I was racing some punk kid in a Toyota Prius.

And no, I told the officer, I'm not too old to be driving this fast..

As I walked in the front door, my wife met me halfway down the hall.

I handed her a bag of cold food and a $300 speeding ticket.

I promptly sat in my rocking chair and covered up my legs with a blanky.

The good news was I had successfully found my way home.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

READ BELOW !

Just in case you weren't feeling too old today.

The people who are starting college this fall were born in 1991.

They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.

Their lifetime has always included AIDS.

The CD was introduced two years before they were born.

They have always had an answering machine..

They have always had cable.

Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.

(until recently)

Popcorn has always been micro waved.

They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.

They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.

They never heard: 'Where's the Beef?', 'I'd walk a mile for a Camel ', or 'de plane Boss, de plane'.

McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.

They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.

Pass this on to the other old fogies on your list.

Notice the larger type? That's for those of us who have trouble reading.

P.S. Save the earth. It's the only planet with chocolate.

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