CHASE this...

I carry three credit cards.  I have one for Internet purchases, one for regular purchases, and one for backup.  I haven't carried a balance from one month to the next since ONE TIME in the 90's when they offered an interest holiday around Christmas.  I pay off the balance every month, and have for the 20+ years I have been using credit cards.

Mr. Helpful

In the eyes of the bank, if anybody were actually looking at individual accounts, I'm only a good customer because I use my cards ALOT.  They don't get any interest from me, they only get the fees they charge the merchants I shop with. 

Congress reduced that fee, the one that banks can charge merchants for each transaction.  Congress said they were fighting the greedy banks, and trying to help the consumer, and the business owner.  The same consumer and business owner who entered into the agreement freely with the banks.

A month ago, I received the "Your Credit Card Statement is Available On-Line" email.  I opened it, and saw that I had a late fee.  I checked my old emails, and could not find an email with my bill for the previous month.  I looked, and it had been just over 30 days since my last payment. 

Guptar

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but this has happened to me before.  Once in 20+ years.  I wanted to call and complain.  In the old days, I would get somebody in Kansas, or some place where they used to hire customer service representatives with no accent...but those days are long gone, and we all know I would have gotten Guptar who would read policy from a manual.  So, I paid the late fee, and rotated my credit cards - not going to use that one again, just in case.

And then today...

I received another "Your Credit Card Statement is Available On-Line" email.  I opened it, and saw that I had a $1.50 "Minimum Interest Charge."  The charge was leveled on 10/20, the end of the billing cycle.  The card had a zero balance at that time, and was paid in full at the end of the previous billing cycle.

I can not figure it out.  I don't want to call and discuss it with Guptar.

I sent an email through their system.

Topic:  Disputed Fee/Charge
Comment:  Why am I charged a $1.50  Minimum Interest Charge on a balance of $0.00?  Please remove the charge, or I will leave you after 20+ years.  Your choice. 

That is where it stands.  I say they cut and paste an automatic response, with something about the time they sent the bill, and the time I paid it, etc. 

What do you think they will do?

I'm Just Sayin'...

I'm not really feeling Rick Perry.  His new plan is detailed (kinda) on his website.  So are some attacks on Romney (you simply don't win by spending valuable time and money focused on your opponent).  The plan includes an option for taxpayers to choose a 20% flat tax. 

I believe the average taxpayer ends up paying 9% of their income in federal income taxes.  As a group, the top earners (I'm talking top 3%-ish) pay 14-19%.

Don't confuse that with "tax rates."  The richies might have a 35% tax rate - but that is on the adjusted income.  Perry's plan leaves in some deductions, so there would be some math involved...

The average American will not choose 20%.  Steve Forbes says 17%.  Race Bannon wants it lower.

The plan does do a few good things, that ALL REPUBLICANS, and FISCAL CONSERVATIVES should focus on:

• Get rid of the Estate Tax
• Minimize the Capital Gains Tax
• Reduce the Corporate Income Tax, while getting rid of loopholes
• No taxes on Social Security

The Bottom Line:  At current spending levels - the only flat tax that would balance the budget...28%.  We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Focus people! Focus!

Work...

...has been very busy lately.  That can be good, or bad, depending on how you look at it.  One thing is for sure, business is booming. 

Also, family is in town.  Which gets me thinking - work wouldn't be so busy, if more families were in town...

As Good As it Got'ed...

Born and raised in Ohio in 1942

Went to the United States Naval Academy, won the Heisman Trophy in 1963 (#12 Jersey is retired)

Drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 1964

Began playing for the Cowboys in 1969, after going to Vietnam

1971-1972 began starting in week 8, won 10 games in a row, including Super Bowl VI, named MVP

3 more Super Bowls (X, XII, XIII)

College Football Hall of Fame in 1981

Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985

Started "The Staubach Company" after retirement, sold in 2008 for $613,000,000

Roger Staubach and Bacon - doesn't get any better than that...

Its All Down Hill From Here...

...as far as the US economy goes, I think we hit bottom.  Wait.

With unemployment at 9.1%, and some projections of 10% or more by election time, Obama and the democrats proposed a $447,000,000,000-ish spending bill.  If passed, its possible that it would create temporary jobs so 8% unemployment at election time won't look so bad.

The obstructionist Republicans in the House wouldn't let that happen.  

...oh wait, this just in, the Senate failed to pass the bill, not the House.  Two Democrat Senators who are up for re-election in 2012, didn't vote for it.  Another Democrat said he voted for it because he didn't believe in the Republicans voting against it, but he would not vote for its final passing.  Yes, he was elected as a Senator.

So, the President said he wanted to at least save teachers', firefighters' and cops' jobs by having the Federal Government give money to the cities.  A mere $30,000,000,000. 





The Republicans blocked it again (with the two Democrats...again)...in the Senate.

(Didn't those two Dem's know it had no chance at all of passing the House?  Politics - they're betting on voters in their states won't knowing much).

Republicans want to protect millionaires - and they don't want to pay teachers (they probably hate puppies too!)


Biden's Fourth-Grade Economics by Mark Steyn

"Here in this school, your school, you’ve had a lot of teachers who used to work here, but because there’s no money for them in the city, they’re not working. And so what happens is, when that occurs, each of the teachers that stays have more kids to teach. And they don’t get to spend as much time with you as they did when your classes were smaller. We think the federal government in Washington, D.C., should say to the cities and states, look, we’re going to give you some money so that you can hire back all those people. And the way we’re going to do it, we’re going to ask people who have a lot of money to pay just a little bit more in taxes."  - Slow Joe

but...

"...Washington, D.C., is also broke — way broker than York City School District. In fact, the government of the United States is broker than any entity has ever been in the history of the planet. Officially, Washington has to return 15,000,000,000,000 dollars just to get back to having nothing at all. And that 15,000,000,000,000 dollars is a very lowball figure that conveniently ignores another $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities that the government, unlike private businesses, is able to keep off the books...

...Kevin Williamson pointed out that, in order to balance the budget of the United States, you would have to increase the taxes of people earning more than $250,000 a year by $500,000 a year...

...As Kevin Williamson also pointed out, to balance the budget of the United States on the backs of millionaires you would have to increase the taxes of those earning more than 1 million a year by 6 million a year...

...Since 1970, public-school employment has increased ten times faster than public-school enrollment. In 2008, the United States spent more per student on K–12 education than any other developed nation except Switzerland...

...In 2008, York City School District spent $12,691 per pupil...the district had 440 teachers but 295 administrative and support staff....

...America placed 17th in reading, 23rd in science, and 31st in math..."




...I think we are still headed downhill, and their may be a cliff at the bottom.

...and a big pile of money won't cushion our fall.

Justice...

...there is a city on the East Coast where dozens of unsolved murders, gang warfare, and (IMHO) a complete breakdown of society exists literally in the shadows of businesses designed to attract people from around the country to spend their vacation and entertainment dollars.

The Governor of the state (and possible VP candidate) "took over" parts of the city, mostly due to financial mismanagement, but partly due to the safety and security of tourists. The state police where brought in, task forces were formed, and...the in-fighting between law enforcement agencies began.

Most of the murders are "gang on gang" and don't garner much press. They don't even seem to garner much emotion from those close to the victim. This is where I believe the evidence of the breakdown in society shows itself the most. The murderers, witnesses, victims, live in an around housing projects. But I digress...

Where does a solution begin? Well, I'd have to digress a little more, but first of all...

1) Arrest bad guys when they do bad things

2) Convict bad guys when they do bad things

3) Sentence bad guys to appropriate jail terms

That would be a start. As a former boss of mine use to say, "Focus on the focusables."

FBI arrests 6 in Atlantic City murder, kidnapping case of Nadirah Ruffin

"“This investigation is of utmost importance to the FBI Safe Street Task Force due to aspects of home invasion, robbery, kidnapping, and the senseless murder of a young woman and mother,” Michael B. Ward, Special Agent In Charge of the FBI's Newark Division, said. “Such acts of violence will not be tolerated and will be met forcefully by the united efforts of law enforcement....

“I would like to thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI for their supercession of this investigation at the federal level,” Atlantic County Prosecutor Ted Housel said..."

This article was found online, I have no idea where "examiner.com" is based, or what it reports on, but I can tell you this, the people of Atlantic City do not read it.

Here is the article from the local paper:

Atlantic City teen was kidnapped, killed because she recognized armed robber, complaint states

The article details the case, as read from the Complaint. It does not mention who wrote the complaint, or who arrested the bad guys, or even why murder suspects would be brought to Federal court?

But read the comments section of the article, the area residents know...

Econ 76...

I would call it Econ 101...but its remedial stuff.

Boneheaded Economics
Magical thinking about jobs from liberal ­Democrats.  by Fred Barnes

"It’s not just the Occupy Wall Street rabble who are promoting unorthodox ideas (to put it kindly) about our economic plight and how to create jobs. They have friends in Washington. A few examples:

Barbara Lee, a House member from California, is upset about computerized checkout lines at grocery stores..., “I know that’s a job or two or three that’s gone.”

Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois is up in arms about the iPad, which he declared on the House floor recently is “now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of jobs.”

...House minority leader Nancy Pelosi has her own remedy for the jobs dearth: Extend unemployment benefits. “It injects demand into the economy,” she insists. “It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.”
 
...Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota is the champion of job creation by adding to the regulatory burden of businesses. Sounds counter-productive, right? Not so, Ellison told MSNBC. Companies will have to hire more people to comply with new regs. “If the government says, look, we have got to reduce our carbon footprint, you will kick into gear a whole number of people that know how to do that or have ideas about that, and that will be a job engine,” Ellison said...

...Democratic senator Barbara Boxer of California issued a report recently to the effect that rules promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency generate jobs. “Industries that provide environmental protection” have begot more than one million jobs, the report said. What about industries that lost jobs because of EPA regulations?..."

Quiz time:

Members of Congress, where do companies get the money to pay salaries?

a)  Laws
b)  Tax Payers
c)  Bank Loans
d)  Sales from Customers


'Just the Way Business Works'
by Matthew Continetti

“There are no guarantees in the business world about success and failure,” lectured White House press secretary Jay Carney in September. Carney, whose knowledge of the business world comes from 20 years as a journalist and a few as a press flack, added, “That is just the way business works, and everyone recognizes that.”

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, now mayor of Chicago, who has spent a whole two and half years in the private sector, told a Chicago radio station last week, “Like venture capital, sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong, and that’s unfortunate. Nobody takes losing money easily.”

And President Obama, who disliked his post-college year at a consulting firm so much he wrote in his autobiography that it made him feel “like a spy behind enemy lines,” said in his October 6 press conference, “There were going to be some companies that did not work out. Solyndra was one of them.”

...The fact that the president and his senior staff poorly grasp the distinction between private capital and taxpayer guarantees is nothing less than depressing. For the umpteenth time: When an investor risks his own money on a company, he is the only one that loses if the company goes belly-up."

Quiz Time:

Mr. President, which of the following are "businesses"?

a)  Banks
b)  Mortgage Brokers
c)  Automobile Manufacturers
d)  Community Activism