Just Say No

Two weeks ago I remarked upon the reason I no longer sign up for ID-theft services:

They always involve sharing with yet another company very detailed information, such as date of birth, social security number, bank account and brokerage account numbers, where one has lived for the past forty years, whether one owns or rents, etc. To me the risk of that new company being breached by a hacker or a crooked employee is greater than the benefit of that company's protection.

In other words information can't be stolen if it wasn't out there in the first place.

(WSJ image)

One's Social Security number is among the items that should be most zealously guarded. That, along with one's date of birth, allows access to one's medical and financial records over the phone. (I speak from recent personal experience.) However, many companies who have no legal necessity. such as tax reporting, to have the social security number of customers routinely ask for them. [bold added]

In many cases, there’s a simple solution to this: Just say no. According to privacy and security experts, in many situations we shouldn’t have to turn over our number. And if we refuse to give it, organizations often will back down.

“Skip it if you’re filling out something that isn’t a legal document, related to a loan or opening a financial account,” says Rachel Tobac, chief executive of SocialProof Security, which helps companies protect themselves from malicious hackers. “If somebody then comes up to you and says, ‘Unfortunately, it stinks, but we really need to get your Social Security number to verify you,’ you can simply ask them to access your records with some other form of ID and see what happens. Sometimes, they should be able to.”

I'm so old I remember when one's social security number was routinely printed below one's address on checks. Now writing a check itself isn't safe:

When you write a check, you're providing a wealth of personal information, including your name, address, bank account number, and signature. This sensitive data can be exploited by fraudsters for identity theft or other malicious purposes, putting your financial security at risk. ‍

Life is much better than it used to be, but not in every case.

Illegal Bookkeeping

Donald Trump, as is his wont, sucked all the air out of the news room tonight when he was found guilty of 34 felony counts by a Manhattan jury earlier today. (Mercury News early Friday edition front page, right.) If you need a summary, dear reader, here's a link to the Wall Street Journal.

Since everyone's pontificating on the story, your humble non-lawyer blogger will add a few observations.

Improper bookkeeping was the first crime on which the entire case hinges, and the Manhattan D.A. got to 34 felonies by counting individual checks as separate crimes all related to the same subject. From the D.A.'s summary: [bold added]

After winning the election, TRUMP reimbursed the Special Counsel [blogger's note: Michael Cohen] through a series of monthly checks, first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust – created in New York to hold the Trump Organization’s assets during TRUMP’s presidency – and later from TRUMP’s bank account. In total, 11 checks were issued for a phony purpose. Nine of those checks were signed by TRUMP. Each check was processed by the Trump Organization and illegally disguised as a payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement. In total, 34 false entries were made in New York business records to conceal the initial covert $130,000 payment. Further, participants in the scheme took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the reimbursements.

Were I a bookkeeper in the Trump organization I would have routinely classified all payments to lawyers as "legal expenses." That satisfies both accounting and tax requirements, while protecting my employer because the payments, the invoices, and supporting documents would fall under attorney-client privilege. So far there's been no assertion by anyone that a Trump accountant below the level of CFO would know that this was wrong.

The Manhattan D.A. asserted that the CEO (Donald Trump) and the CFO (Allen Weisselberg) knew that the payments to Michael Cohen should have been called "campaign contributions" but purposefully misclassified (or let the accounting system misclassify) them as legal expenses. This is the first crime that led to another unspecified crime (there had to be two crimes in order to make this a felony, else the purported legal-expense misclassification was at worst a misdemeanor on which the statute of limitations ran out years ago).

I'm a humble retired accountant who thinks it's crazy that an alleged accounting mistake on $130,000 could cause me to be thrown in prison seven years later, but again I'm no lawyer.

Sentencing is on July 11th, so this story will recede in a few days, then come back in early July. Meanwhlle we have a debate to look forward to, and possibly the naming of Donald Trump's running mate.

Let's Have More Gaslighting

Erika Minkowsky, co-owner of personal chef service The
Heirloom Chef, cooks at her Richmond, Calif. home
on a gas range. (Mercury News photo)

Earlier this month we noted how Berkeley's 2019 ban on natural gas in new buildings was successfully challenged in court by the California Restaurant Association. Other Bay Area cities who had followed Berkeley's lead are now suspending their bans: [bold added]

The Sunnyvale City Council recently temporarily suspended its ban on natural gas in new buildings, which was first adopted in 2022 to help cut Sunnyvale’s greenhouse emissions in half by the end of the decade.

Recently, Cupertino announced the city will suspend its gas ban until this fall. In the East Bay, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors earlier this month agreed to pause their all-electric building requirement and gas ban in unincorporated areas of the county. San Mateo County and San Luis Obispo also recently suspended their bans.

Except for his grandparents' house before 1961, your humble blogger has never lived in an apartment or home with a gas range and likely will never do so. Although I agree with the nanny staters that cooking with gas is riskier to health and safety than electric, I don't agree that the decision should be made for people.

Besides restaurants, there are many home chefs who prefer gas--in Chinese cooking, for example, electric cooktops cannot heat woks to the temperature required--and they should be allowed their choice.

Sure, bombard everyone with warnings about the potential dangers to themselves and "the planet," but one of the country's basic principles is that informed citizens should make their own decisions instead of having decisions purportedly made for their own good by a government bureaucrat.

Can you feel it? The tide hasn't turned, but it has been stalled.

There But for the Grace of God Go I

Everyone I know has had a family member--sometimes it's my acquaintances themselves--who's had cancer. Whether or not the patient survives, it's a grueling experience for everyone. Years of tests, chemotheraphy, surgery, and/or radiation, plus the financial strain of paying for everything, await.

Fortunately--I realize that's not the appropriate word--most of the cancer victims I'm familiar with were retired or close to retirement, which means that they had Medicare or other health insurance to absorb most of the costs, and they probably didn't need to work to make up money shortfalls.

There is a growing cohort of Americans who are diagnosed long before retirement age, and, even if they survive the cancer, experience financial ruin. [bold added]

The economic burden of a cancer diagnosis is getting strikingly worse in the U.S., as drug and medical costs soar and more patients live longer with the disease. About 55% of cancer drugs introduced between 2019 and 2023 cost at least $200,000 a year, according to Iqvia’s Institute for Human Data Science. And an increasing number of patients are working-age, a group more likely to report financial hardship after diagnosis compared with older adults.

Nearly 60% of working-age cancer survivors report facing some financial difficulty. Many patients struggle to afford care and end up taking on debt, with some getting payday loans or running up credit cards. Cancer alone accounts for some 40% of medical campaigns seeking financial help on GoFundMe, research shows...

Among common diseases, cancer creates a uniquely difficult financial strain known as financial toxicity. Treatments with expensive medicines start immediately and come with a string of nonmedical costs. Chemotherapy and other treatments can leave patients too weak to work for weeks or months. This can result in a twofold blow, with patients losing income and their employer-sponsored health insurance. The financial fallout can last for years...

Many patients have to take time off—or actually stop working—after a cancer diagnosis. Patients who get chemotherapy are more likely to stop working within four years than those who don’t.

Could one straightforward way of relieving the financial burden be to buy up medical debts--for cents on the dollar because they've been sent to collections--then forgive them?

Undue Medical Debt (aka RIP Medical Debt) does exactly that--it's rated four stars by Charity Navigator--and is a 501(c)(3) organization that my church has donated to. RIP Medical Debt opened its books to economic researchers to find out whether paying off medical debt made a difference in people's lives. The results were disappointing:

[Stanford Prof. Neale] Mahoney and his collaborators find no evidence that buying and then forgiving medical debts that are in collections improved on average beneficiaries’ finances, access to credit, or their physical or mental health. People were even less likely to pay existing medical bills after their debt was eliminated.

Prof. Mahoney and other researchers, as well as RIP Medical Debt, are studying if earlier interventions might be more helpful.

Meanwhile, we're just lucky that we were able to enjoy good health during our working years. If either of us had been diagnosed with cancer in our 40's and 50's, when we didn't have much savings and had mortgages and tuitions to pay, then our lives would be immeasurably more difficult.

Memorial Day, 2024

Dad, near Tokyo in 1945

On this Memorial Day my thoughts turn to my father and his five brothers who wore the uniform during and after World War II.

They were raised in a dirt-poor household of nine children in early 20th-century Honolulu and were expected to help out with family finances after high school. World War II disrupted everyone's plans, but they all answered the call--some were drafted and others enlisted--but it was inconceivable that they wouldn't.

After the war, two went on to college, and all of them led "normal" lives--raising families, buying a house, and retiring in modest comfort.

They all live in my memory, and my appreciation for them has grown mightily over the years.

May you, dear reader, only have good memories today.

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

(Image from Today show)

Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker gave the commencement address at Benedictine College, a private Catholic college in Atchison, Kansas, on May 11th. He espoused traditional Catholic values in a way that offended America's dominant secular culture. For example, [bold added]

For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.

Thousands called for his firing by the Chiefs from other statements:

Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values in media, all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.

Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time is delusional enough to make the Sign of the Cross during a pro-abortion rally. He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I'm sure to many people it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice.

Some commentators cited the NFL's apparent hypocrisy in not firing Harrison Butker while it blackballed Colin Kaepernick for kneeling when the National Anthem was being played. For the record, I supported the former 49ers quarterback then, but there is a clear difference between the two: CK expressed his views in full uniform while millions had to watch, but HB was speaking as a private citizen on his own time to a Catholic audience. Most Americans agree that employers have the right to fire employees for workplace behavior that could damage customer relationships.

(To be fair, there were liberal celebrities, like Bill Maher and Whoopi Goldberg, who came to HB's defense while disagreeing with the content of his speech.)

To this humble blogger, what was most interesting about the speech was the importance he placed on the traditional Latin mass:

I've been very vocal in my love and devotion to the TLM and its necessity for our lives. But what I think gets misunderstood is that people who attend the TLM do so out of pride or preference. I can speak to my own experience, but for most people I have come across within these communities this simply is not true. I do not attend the TLM because I think I am better than others, or for the smells and bells, or even for the love of Latin. I attend the TLM because I believe, just as the God of the Old Testament was pretty particular in how he wanted to be worshipped, the same holds true for us today. It is through the TLM that I encountered order, and began to pursue it in my own life. Aside from the TLM itself, too many of our sacred traditions have been relegated to things of the past, when in my parish, things such as ember days, days when we fast and pray for vocations and for our priests, are still adhered to. The TLM is so essential that I would challenge each of you to pick a place to move where it is readily available.

Three years ago Pope Francis gave local bishops the authority to ban the Latin mass. Even this non-Catholic sees the benefit of a tradition that has great meaning to some, so why not keep it optional? Is Pope Francis on "the other side" in the culture wars?

After the break is the text of Harrison Butker's speech from the National Catholic Register:

Anglerfish: Two Become One

Male anglerfish fuses with larger female (scitechdaily)

We can't avoid lingering on the sensational aspect of anglerfish reproduction before getting serious: [bold added]

These anglerfishes, called ceratioids, reproduce through sexual parasitism, in which the tiny males attach to their much larger female counterparts to mate. In some species, the males bite the females and then release once the mating process is complete. In others, the male permanently fuses to the female. In a process called obligate parasitism, the male’s head dissolves into the female and their circulatory systems merge. He transforms into a permanent sperm-producing sexual organ.

The theory is that it is so difficult to find a mate at the bottom of the ocean that the male latches onto the female and becomes a "permanent sperm-producing sexual organ." (Insert jokes here.)

Somehow the female's immune system does not reject the male's foreign tissue, as it would in every other species. Despite her absence of protective "killer T" cells, the female is able to stave off infection by other means. Research into the anglerfish mechanisms could have profound implications for human health, where foreign tissue rejection is a major problem for transplant surgery.

“Better understanding how deep-sea anglerfishes lost adaptive immunity could one day contribute to advances in medical procedures, such as organ transplants and skin grafting, where suppressing immunity is crucially important,” [Yale Professor Thomas Near] said. “It’s an interesting area for future medical research.”

The science is interesting and important, but my takeaway is that the next time your friend says he's lost his mind over a woman, tell him that's nothing compared to the male anglerfish.

An Economist's Approach to Immigration

2023 millionaire migrations. (Visual Capitalist)

Economics professor Richard Vedder and Matthew Denhart of the Coolidge Foundation want to allow immigrants to buy their way in: [bold added]

One way to modernize our immigration laws would be to allow market forces to decide who should become new citizens. Consider America like a club, with initiation fees required for admission. Instead of choosing immigrants based on where they are from, admit them based on likely contributions to America.

An example: Sell 8,000 visas to the highest bidders for 250 days a year. Suppose the average price is $30,000. Of the $60 billion in annual visa revenue [blogger's note: 250 days x 8,000= 2,000,000 immigrants per year. 2MM x $30,000=$60 billion], devote one-third to more-intense border enforcement, one-third to income-tax reduction (an “immigration bonus” to taxpayers), and one-third to increasing the anemic defense budget. Or apply the money to debt reduction, helping delay the fiscal armageddon threatening the pensions and healthcare of elderly Americans.

Those buying visas could get access to huge labor and capital markets. Productive potential newcomers would avoid years of waiting to enter the country, and America would gain largely productive citizens.

Once we set aside the romantic notion that all immigrants must be hard-working, law-abiding poor who just need a break, this proposal makes a lot of sense. Immigrants who can buy their way in are unlikely to claim welfare benefits but become immediately productive members of society and not run afoul of its laws. [This concept is already contemplated--but not explicitly with a price tag--through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program.]

Think of it as a fast track lane through airport TSA where "only" two million can get through. There's still room for many more to enter in the traditional, terribly inefficient way. This proposal is worth a try.

Caltrans: Back to its Basic Mission

The Yolo 80 Corridor Improvements Project

Traffic from the Bay Area to Sacramento has gotten worse. Thousands of households (and their cars) have relocated to the Central Valley from LA and SF because of cheaper housing, newer schools, and the friendlier regulatory environment.

Meanwhile, we who remain in the Bay Area like to go on holiday to Lake Tahoe, Reno, and points beyond, which means taking I-80.

We do our best to avoid peak congestion hours, but lately it's been impossible to circumvent the traffic. Last summer it was stop-and-go in 107°F heat throughout the 100 miles to Sacramento.

After years of deliberation Caltrans has finally approved the addition of lanes to I-80 along the "Yolo Corridor," the worst bottleneck. Of course, the coastal environmentalists who don't have to endure the traffic regularly like the hoi polloi, object: [bold added]

Environmentalists balked, viewing the Yolo 80 Corridor Improvements project as a retreat from California’s ambitious climate goals. Many predicted that by adding two lanes to the interstate, Caltrans would lure commuters out of Capitol Corridor trains and into cars. But the California Transportation Commission voted unanimously last week to secure $105 million in state funds for the first phase of the project, all but ensuring construction will break ground.

It’s a shining moment for Yolo county and the city of Sacramento, a seat of governance in a rural valley, where road projects don’t usually draw massive infrastructure grants. At the same time, the Yolo 80 Corridor has become a flash point for two competing visions of transportation in California — one focused on managing congestion, the other aiming to wean people off cars.

...Collective misery about traffic, particularly among Californians who can’t afford to live near their jobs, often dwarfs concerns about carbon emissions, [UC-Davis Prof. Susan] Handy said. Politicians and agencies have to respond and show they’re taking action.

As a result, major highway infrastructure projects are proceeding throughout California. Caltrans is doubling the width of Highway 37 in the North Bay from two to four lanes for seven miles. In Los Angeles, a plan to add lanes to Interstate 710 is inching forward.

Sustainable transportation advocates argue that increasing the capacity for traffic only encourages people to drive, perpetuating the problem that engineers hope to solve. They cite the “bold climate agenda” that Gov. Gavin Newsom invoked in a 2019 executive order, which made reduction of fuel emissions a top priority for transportation spending.

Despite the highest gas taxes in the nation, California supposedly doesn't have the funds to pay for the additional lanes and will make them toll roads. Little matter, the wonder is that the project has been approved at all.

It's too much to hope that climate alarmism has peaked, but for now it looks like the government is paying attention to the immediate needs of its Central Valley citizens rather than the worries of the coastal elites that their grandchildren will get their toes wet in a hundred years.

Obsessed by a Pittance

One of my New Year's goals (it's an aspiration, not a resolution) was to write letters regularly.

I've been averaging five letters per week, which requires frequent stamp purchases. It's a personal predilection, but I prefer to pay full price for a first-class stamp, currently 68¢, and pick out the images that I like. (One can buy slightly discounted stamps in bulk at stamps.com or big box stores.)

Yesterday I bought eighty stamps (picture) but didn't bother putting them in an envelope.

The smallest plate block was missing when I took inventory. Retracing my steps, I searched the car several times. After 20 minutes, I gave up, rationalizing that what was lost was only $13.60 (20 x 68¢), nothing in the scheme of things.

The next morning the first thing I did was search the car again. Et voilà! The manatee block was at the bottom of the driver-side storage compartment. I felt a brief moment of elation, then sobered immediately.

This chronicle of events was not about commitment, writing letters, buying stamps, or money.

I had been obsessed by a pittance, and I need to fix that.

Financial Therapy

(WSJ Illustration)

When I was going to business school 50 years ago, I admired the select few who were in the JD/MBA program. They had to be accepted separately to both the law school and business school--each of which was tough to get into--and devote four years to complete their studies.

But I'm not impressed by this latest dual credential, the financial therapist: [bold added]

The goal of financial therapists ultimately is to help people make good financial decisions, typically by raising their clients’ awareness of how their emotions and unconscious beliefs have affected their sometimes messy experiences with money...

Financial therapists tend to come from mental-health and financial-planning disciplines, and there are signs that their ranks are rising: The Financial Therapy Association has 430 members, up from 225 in 2015. Still, according to the group, fewer than 100 financial therapists have completed its certification process, introduced in 2019. You can be an association member without being certified by it...

Still, there are possible pitfalls when hiring a financial therapist. One major drawback: Anyone can claim they are qualified to practice financial therapy.

No government agency regulates the young profession. Candidates for certification by the Financial Therapy Association must take online courses designed by the association covering financial and therapeutic techniques, counsel clients for 250 hours and pass a 100-question test. But you can call yourself a financial therapist and not be certified by the association.

Meanwhile, the cost of financial therapy varies widely—from $125 to $350 an hour, [Financial Therapy Association President Ashley] Agnew estimates. Insurance rarely covers the tab.

Because of recent well-publicized policy mistakes, "experts" have lost the deference that their credentials used to afford them. However, credentialing and licensing do have their place in verifying that a person has a certain level of knowledge to practice often-complex professions.

The fact that there are zero certification requirements in "financial therapy" will result inevitably in scandal, defalcation, and possibly worse outcomes for clients. I wish it weren't true, but sad experience teaches otherwise.

There Once Was a There There

What did Oakland use for traffic control before stop signs? Traffic lights!

Oakland is now replacing traffic lights with stop signs due to homeless encampments stealing from Oakland's electrical boxes: pic.twitter.com/Y2lFQ8BJsM

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 19, 2024

Don't blame Republicans. John H. Reading was Oakland's last Republican mayor from 1966-1977. Wikipedia:

In 1968 Charlie Finley moved the Athletics baseball team from Kansas City to Oakland during Mayor Reading's tenure. The Oakland Athletics won three World Series while Reading was mayor. He was instrumental in gaining funding and supporting construction of the new Oakland Coliseum and expansion of the Oakland International Airport.

Pentecost 2024

In contrast to the sparse attendance of last year, this year's Pentecost was a well-attended, joyous affair.

Half the congregation was dressed in red, symbolic of the spiritual fire that swept through the early Church, and a children's choir and guest soprano enlivened the music.

Four readers took turns reading the passage from Acts 2 in English, Cantonese, French, and Spanish:

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

It's wishful thinking, but I'm hopeful we're on the verge of another Great Awakening.

Loud Budgeting

I missed this new term in personal finance: loud budgeting.

Lukas Battle (Instagram)

Loud budgeting began as a joke, said Lukas Battle, the 26-year-old comedian who coined the term in a December TikTok video after a night of overspending.

When Battle’s friends then messaged him asking to go out to an expensive Italian restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood, he proposed they all cook dinner at someone’s house and have a game night instead. It was a riff on “quiet luxury,” the trend of favoring well-made, expensive, but understated fashions.

Battle’s video took off, generating over one million views and more than a thousand comments. Hundreds of people have shared their own examples of how loud budgeting helped them save money.

“People want a break or some sort of relief from this constant need to be spending and buying,” said Battle, who lives in New York.

Loud budgeting has helped some combat the peer pressure to spend.

Madeleine Burke (WSJ)

Madeleine Burke, 26, said her best friend visits the nail salon every two weeks for a manicure and pedicure. The last time Burke went with her, she paid $45 for a pedicure and instantly regretted the decision.

“I cannot believe I paid for that and I could’ve done it at home,” said Burke, who lives in New Orleans. The next time she was asked, she felt more comfortable declining. She credits loud budgeting with helping change how she approaches spending.

Burke said her friends now host more potlucks at each other’s homes and go secondhand shopping together.

Your humble blogger admits that during his career he yielded to social pressure by going on expensive outings that he didn't want and couldn't afford--or, to be more accurate, could pay for if he defunded activities that had a higher priority (e.g., retirement savings, replacing a 15-year-old car).

If proclaiming publicly that you don't have the dough gets your non-wealthy status out in the open, that's a welcome improvement over "my spouse and I have other plans" or "we can't find a babysitter." Any friends you may lose aren't really your long-term friends anyway.

Satisfaction

Free shredding last Saturday

More than half of the companies (financial, telecommunications, medical) that I deal with have experienced data breaches. To allay customers' worries they always offer a year's free subscription to a security service that will monitor suspicious activity--for example, new credit cards taken out in customers' names--and provide insurance against ID theft losses.

I signed up for one or two of these protective services in the past but have stopped doing so. They always involve sharing with yet another company very detailed information, such as date of birth, social security number, bank account and brokerage account numbers, where one has lived for the past forty years, whether one owns or rents, etc. To me the risk of that new company being breached by a hacker or a crooked employee is greater than the benefit of that company's protection.

So I go back to the traditional method of checking credit card statements and reconciling (what's that kids? look it up) financial accounts monthly--stuff I had been doing for thirty years before the internet existed. Other than a few times my credit card number has been stolen to make some purchases for several hundred dollars, I have never had a problem with ID theft (knock on wood).

As for preventing leaks from paper sources, we bundle the documents that need to be destroyed--old tax returns are too voluminous for our home shredder--and take them to City Hall for Foster City's free-shredding Saturdays.

There was a grinding sound as the papers were lifted into the machine and pulverized. You can't get that satisfaction from cleaning a hard disk.