The Season of Gifting

When some of us sit down to make New Year’s resolutions, it’s fair to say that cutting back on spending will be a popular choice, if circumstances haven’t already forced that on us.

In our family, we make a pre-holiday resolution to have a “little Christmas,” meaning, we’re going to cut way back on gift-giving, though we never quite make it. True, we did spend less this year, but that was largely because stuff cost less, as the merchants were desperate. A big thanks to Amazon for the free shipping.

A lot of the spending has to do with annual gift-giving to other branches of the family. Some may say this is wasteful and the result of false obligation, but there is something to be said for tradition. At least, if you’re going to cut people off after umpteen years, you owe them an explanation. Sometimes you don’t even know that you have a family until you get their boxes of pears or whatever.

For me, the wrapping of the gifts is the hard part. This time I will hear from the green freaks who will complain about the waste generation and damage to the environment. Nevertheless, wrapping is important to us, so much so that I almost feel as if we’re grading each other. Paper selection, 9.1; color coordination, 8.7; Scotch tape use, 7.3; degree of difficulty, 5.9. My wife and I work as a production team. She hates working with paper and I hate ribbons and bows, so we divide up the work.

I must say there are few things more satisfying than finding exactly the right gift for someone, when you know they need it or crave it, even if it costs a little more. For the others, there is always the gift card, if you defeat the cop-out feeling.

But gifts don’t always have the expected effect. A friend’s little girl, who is just over a year old, was showered with gifts, including a teddy bear and such. But what most interested her was the wrapping, not the gifts themselves.

If your experience as a giver or receiver or both was less than perfect, well, there’s always next year’s holiday season. And birthdays are pretty good practice in between.

There, now I’ve said it.

Did Obama Pull a Sarah?

President-elect Obama’s decision to have Pastor Rick Warren deliver the invocation at his inauguration has ignited the expected firestorm. Pastor Warren opposes abortion rights and same-sex marriage, and how could a liberal Democrat like Obama make such a choice?

Similar criticism was aimed at Republican John McCain when Sarah Palin was named as his running mate. as many of her views were far to the right of his. If the goal was to appeal to the GOP’s conservative base while hanging on to McCain’s own constituency, it didn’t work.

While the choice of Palin may have seemed like a Hail Mary pass, Obama was on solid pastoral ground when choosing Warren, who is considered one of the most influential of his ilk in America today. He has been invited to speak at the U.N. as well as other prestigious venues. As the Billy Grahams and Robert Schullers fade into history, it will be clergy members like Rick Warren taking their place.

But what was Obama trying to say with this choice? It’s OK to try to turn your administration into some kind of big tent. But others who have tried forced inclusiveness have found that it’s a bad strategy, and I agree with those who believe Obama made a mistake with this selection.

Then there’s the question of consequences. Pastor Warren will go down in history as the invocation giver, but then his job is done. It’s not as if Obama named him a cabinet secretary. I think it did damage to Obama’s image, but certainly not irreparable damage.

While it seems Obama’s trademark ears were made of tin in this case, there are a lot more important issues to worry about now, which may be his saving grace from a PR standpoint. But you just can’t put all kinds of kids in the sandbox and expect them to play together nicely.

There, now I’ve said it.

Past Due Notice

If there’s anything out there that’s really past due, it’s this set of restrictions on credit card companies.

Credit cards are truly instruments of the devil, but I guess you could also say that about guns, and the argument you get in return is, it’s the user, not the instrument, that’s the problem. In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I have a credit card balance and as far as I know, the card companies I deal with have always treated me fairly.

After hearing the horror stories from others, though, I was waiting for the day when I might be treated unfairly, so I could file my multibillion-dollar class action lawsuit. That would be the day I was late on a utility bill and found my interest rates jacked up to 29 percent by all my card issuers. But I am never late with anything, knock on wood, so that day hasn’t come.

I found that practice especially offensive, whereby being late on one bill would trigger mass rate increases among all creditors. As far as I’m concerned, if you have a relationship with one creditor, all that creditor should be concerned about is your check or payment arriving on time to them. What happens in other relationships is none of that creditor’s damned business. I’m glad this is an abuse that will be corrected under the new rules approved by the Office of Thrift Supervision (in 2010, if we last that long). Exactly what has the Office of Thrift Supervision been supervising all this time?

The credit card companies are warning that if rules are put in place to keep them from playing the games to which they have become accustomed, costs will be going up for current users, and it will be harder for many people to qualify for new credit cards. Perhaps that’s a good thing, compared to hidden fees and unexpected rate hikes.

It has always been curious to me why they raise rates to penalty levels for those who have been late on payments. If someone is late on a payment, is that an indication that they may have trouble paying even the current interest, much less covering the penalty?

The card companies are perfectly within their rights as creditors to be strict with their customers – as long as they do it transparently and for good cause. Credit – even unsecured credit – is one of those things that all of us – even the most responsible – need from time to time. Few of us are taught to use it responsibly, and in that regard, the card companies have been little or no help.

For these companies, there must be a middle ground between drowning us in credit and forcing us to die of thirst.

There, now I’ve said it.

Trader or Traitor?

Just at the moment when our confidence capital is in its shortest supply, the Bernard Madoff scandal is another black eye for the American financial system.

Everyone, of course, is innocent until proven guilty, but should the allegations be true, Mr. Madoff’s actions are, in my view, right up there with treason, in terms of the damage done to this country’s standing in the world. The only mitigating factor is that treason probably wasn’t his intention, but the result is about the same.

You may not have a lot of sympathy for the Madoff clients in Palm Beach rushing to pawn their Ferraris, but many individuals who thought they had a comfortable retirement suddenly have nothing. Some cities face an instant financial crisis, as well as some of the most respected charities. A big problem, though, is how many foreign banks have been affected and the resulting loss of faith in the American system, especially our system of regulation.

The difference between this situation and the mortgage-backed securities meltdown is that this crisis is the result of alleged criminal activity, a giant Ponzi scheme. Wikipedia defines that as “a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying abnormally high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from profit from any real business.” The earlier Wall Street shenanigans were at least legal, so far as we know now.

If Mr. Madoff did what he’s accused of doing, he will likely get what’s coming to him. It’s pointed out that the analysts for many of his investors should have taken the time to find out what he was doing and figure out that the deal was just too good to be true. As is typical with these situations, the stain of blame has begun its rapid spread.

But what about that international crisis of confidence? Do we in the United States have an obligation to make the foreign Madoff victims whole, or as whole as possible? Instead of letting our own banks continue to stuff the bailout funds in their vaults, maybe some of the $700 billion should be reserved for the foreign entities that have been scammed. The necessary restitution isn’t available from Mr. Madoff or those folks who should have known better, including those in our own regulatory system, if there is one.

Restoring international confidence in our economy is practically a matter of national security. We have to show the world that whatever legitimate loss is the result of the Madoff case, the United States is good for it. And then we have to get about the business of plugging the holes in our regulatory dike. That is, if we want to continue to be proud to be Americans.

There, now I’ve said it.

You'll Always Need Them

Long before the Big Three auto companies got into trouble, the bloodletting was well underway at media companies, especially newspapers. Journalists are losing their jobs by the boatload, and some of the most respected daily papers in the country aren’t even printing a daily edition anymore. Critics blame the failure of media giants to adapt to the online world, but even those that have adapted can’t figure out a way to make it pay – at least the way it used to pay.

So the quality of news coverage is going down as staffs dwindle and those who remain are expected to gather audio and video as well as prepare written pieces on almost constant deadlines. Editors are losing their jobs, too, and it shows clearly in the product. My local paper, for example, did a cover story involving the Marriott hotel chain, with a huge front-page graphic that had the name Marriott misspelled.

I used to be a newspaper editor myself, and I was constantly telling reporters worried about their jobs that their talents would always be needed -- it was just a question of the market figuring out a successful business model. There’s always going to be a need for local reporters to tell you what’s really going on at city hall,the trends that will affect your bank account or the fascinating story you didn’t know about your neighbor. Editors are also needed, not just to make sure the second “t” is on the end of Marriott, but to steer the product in the right direction.

Journalism is one of those professions that many consider superfluous. You know you need police officers, firefighters, doctors and nurses, plumbers, auto mechanics and teachers, just to name a few. You don’t know you need journalists until they’re missing. It’s also one of those pursuits in which every amateur considers him or herself an expert. For those who complain that the New York Times and CBS News aren’t telling you the real story -- how do you know the average political Web site is telling you the truth? It’s great that consumers have choices now, but most consumers don’t have time to make them or are able to evaluate what they’ve chosen. For that, you need editors.

For those of you who are considering journalism as a profession, don’t be discouraged about what you’re seeing. Someone is going to figure out not only that there’s a demand for you and that what you do is vital to the functioning of a democracy, but a way to market it. Maybe you’ll be working for a nonprofit, or maybe some high-minded person in your community with money will pick up the ball that the big media chains have dropped. But I submit that it’s just a matter of time.

There, now I’ve said it.

Is the Glass Half Full?

Does this economic collapse have an upside? I hesitate to even go there because of the perceived insensitivity to those who have lost their jobs in the middle of the Christmas season. But even forest fires do have a cleansing effect.

First of all, what’s happened has been necessary. The Wall Street whizbangs were flying too high. There was no accountability for bad loans. These are lessons that needed to be learned.

And many of our captains of finance and industry needed to be shocked out of their comfort zone. The economic calamity is having the effect of hastening the death of failing enterprises, or if not that, forcing those in charge to rethink what they’ve been doing. If there had been no economic meltdown, the automakers could all continue with business as usual for that much longer. I used to be in newspapers,, and we’ve all known for a long time how much that business has to change. But now it’s really do or die, and for many, it’s too late to do.

What about all those people out of work? The immediate prospects are dire. But for many who lose their jobs, it’s a new opportunity. To do what, most of those out of work don’t know right now, and that’s an uncomfortable place to be.

A friend of mine who was a newspaper editor quit the position in a huff about a year and a half ago. He was angry about the way the corporation was doing business and how it was treating its people and its customers. He spent the next few months on his blog bashing the company. But this doesn’t put food on the table, so he took some real estate courses, got his California license and is now a Realtor. You’re going to say, not such a good time for that business, either. But people always need places to live, and while home prices are down, sales volume will pick up as bargain hunters move in. He admits that if you told him 18 months ago he was going to be in real estate, he would have laughed pretty hard.

Somehow, I have faith that the harder these hard times are, the faster we’re going to get through them – and the world will be a better place for it on the other side.

There, now I’ve said it.

Redistributing Wealth

Remember the campaign – seems like a year ago now – when John McCain caught Barack Obama saying to Joe the Plumber that he wanted to “spread the wealth around”? Critics tagged Obama as a socialist.

Now we’re in desperate need of having the wealth spread around. I’m not talking about changing tax policies. I suspect there’s plenty of wealth around – it’s just not being spread. The feds gave it to the banks, but are the banks making it available to borrowers?

When you buy something, your wealth is being spread, to the vendor from whom you bought it, to the wholesaler from whom the vendor bought it, all the way back to the manufacturer or provider. But it depends how wealthy you feel. If you have a lot but you think there’s only a limited supply of whatever it is beyond your holdings, you tend to hoard. That’s subjective, of course. Some millionaires feel poor because they used to be billionaires. Poorer people might feel wealthy if they had even some of the millionaire’s shrinking pie. But if you don’t feel comfortable doing something with what you have, then no one gets ahead.

Some folks are scrambling to invest in government bonds that are giving them zero percent return. They’re too scared even to put their money under a mattress – actually, it’s the ultimate mattress, at least for now.

If the bailout plan was supposed to stimulate the economy, it’s not working. I hope someone finds out why not, and soon. Get some money into people’s hands so they can spend it.

But there are some of you out there who have plenty. I hate to sound like George Bush after 9/11, but please, if you’ve got some wealth sitting around, now’s your chance to spread it. You could actually help stimulate the economy. The government can’t seem to get the job done, but you can. It’s a great time to buy something. Cash really is king, and it would help if some of us actually got off the throne.

There, now I’ve said it.

Keeping Score

I looked up my credit score the other day. I won’t tell you what it is, because it isn’t really the point. It’s about scores, ratings and reviews.

Look, I’m not against the reasonable use of scores. I was never in favor of the abolition of grades in school, even when mine weren’t good. But almost every part of life has a number attached to it, and the credit score is just one. And it gets more complicated as we go along. We used to measure ourselves by height and weight. Now they check you for your cholesterol level and your percentage of body fat and so forth. It goes on and on.

If it isn’t numbers, it’s stars, or bullets, or light bulbs, or little men jumping out of chairs. Everything is rated.  And even if numbers aren’t used, EVERYTHING is reviewed. Doctors.  Plumbers.  Restaurants, Airlines, Hotels. Do the review sites themselves get reviewed? 

The only unfortunate thing about all this is, no matter how great a product, service, professional person, hotel, or restaurant is, there’s always someone who had a bad experience that one time, and posts an awful review which lowers the average. I’d love to become an eBay seller but am in mortal dread of getting bashed by someone who just doesn’t like the cut of my jib, or maybe is simply in a bad mood, and down go the numbers.

But don’t let that stop you from rating this blog. I’ll take an audience anytime, whether they cheer or boo. If you like it, tell your friends. Tell them even if you don’t like it – they may need a punching bag some day, too. We’re here to please.

Is that a little man I see, asleep in his chair?

There, now I’ve said it.

Party Monster

So your company has decided not to hold a holiday party this year. Or instead of flying you and all the other employees to Maui for dinner, they told you it’s your job to bring the spinach dip.

They used to be called Christmas parties. Now we call them holiday parties so as not to offend anyone – except perhaps those who don’t observe any holidays this time of year. But be honest – are they really all that much fun?

Your boss puts on the event in part to thank you for all your hard work and in part to update you on the state of the company. The second part, maybe you can do without this time around.

As for conviviality with your colleagues,  probably most of you are convivial with those you want to be convivial with the rest of the year. And, of course, you can’t be too convivial at a company holiday party – there are prices to pay for that when you go back to work.

I guess it all depends on the approach. If the company puts on a party out of a sense of obligation, then your presence at the party is an obligation, too. It’s different if the atmosphere involves everyone getting together to try to have a little fun in spite of what’s going on. But what most of us don’t need this year is another obligation.

So if the boss tells you there’s no party this year, well, worse things could happen and may already have. Be grateful that you have an extra few hours of free time, which are precious at this season.

For the rest of you – ask around and see who has the best price on spinach dip.

There, now I’ve said it.

Baby, You Can Fly My Plane

Look, it makes no difference to me how the Big Three auto bosses got to Washington. I would have been fine with it if they plane-pooled. Making a seven-hour drive from Detroit to Washington was kind of a slog. I guess that if they made the trip in hybrids, they found out how well their new products worked on a trip.

It’s satisfying to bash the auto companies. They want us to bail them out after they dragged their feet for years on developing vehicles that weren’t gasoline-dependent. Sure, they claim they started modernizing three years ago. That was only about 27 years too late.

Fine. But the current economic crisis certainly wasn’t all their fault. It wasn’t entirely the reason people aren’t buying cars. The financial services industry bears a large part of the blame, but as we’ve said in this space before, all of us enjoyed a prolonged period of avoiding reality. The auto companies were not first in line for the handouts, and the farther back you are in line, the harder time you have.

The problem is, the bailout money handed out so far to stabilize the economy has come with almost no strings. If you’re a college student, you get into financial trouble, and your parents bail you out, don’t you think they would demand to know how you were going to spend their bailout money – if they gave you any say-so at all?

I don’t think we should let the auto companies fold up. There are few things more American than the auto industry – we started it, and we should be leading it. But if any bailout money goes to the auto companies, even in the form of loans, it ought to come with serious conditions. Forcing the auto executives to drive instead of fly doesn’t accomplish anything substantive. While I’m the first to tell you that symbolism is important, it’s not substance.

There, now I’ve said it.

The More, the Merrier

I'm talking about brain cells. President-elect Obama has announced his national security team, and there are more than a few such cells to rub together. That’s refreshing.

That’s not to put down everyone that’s on the Bush team, but you can’t accuse Obama of filling positions with old cronies. If you do, well, he has a better class of cronies.

Maybe it’s just that he realizes there are people out there with more experience than he has and he needs their help – his challenge will be to make sure these folks know that he is the decider, to borrow an expression, but he is reassuring us that he’s aware of that. 

It doesn’t bother me at all that I don’t feel like I could have a beer with any of these people, much less the President-elect. There are plenty of people I could have a beer with, and maybe some of them could run the country -- but beer-sharing is not a qualification for high office, as far as I’m concerned. 

John F. Kennedy had to digest a lot of conflicting opinions as he was deciding how to handle the Cuban missile crisis, and even then, he was taking what most historians now consider a terrible risk, which worked out in his favor.  When he took office, he didn’t have all that much more experience than Obama.

Because of what didn’t happen with the Russians and what later happened to President Kennedy, many have elevated him to near sainthood. Obama’s name is often mentioned in the same sentence, or at least the same paragraph, as is the case here. While Kennedy was President, he was a mere mortal, as is Obama. I don’t think Obama is going to be able to walk on water, but I’ll be OK with it if he walks on the rocks for a while.

There, now I've said it.