I refuse to *EVER* use a service of AT&T.

Several years back I had both billing and services issues.  First I was billed roughly $120 for services I never obtained.  My repeated attempts of convincing the company I never was given the service fell on deaf ears.  Fine, I paid the charge just to get the nightmare out of the way.

Then my existing service began to degrade, so much so that I was unable to locate a signal in my home and I lived a mile from a transmitter. Before you ask “how did you know it was an AT&T transmitter” let me tell you – I had a friend that was a network engineer for the company who informed me of the location, and also noted this was a common problem with the company.

With an annoying billing issue, suck-ass service, and the company unwilling to help I took my toys and went to play in Verizon’s sandbox vowing to never return to the evil communication giant.

Reading the latest news from the company I have to say I am more than happy that I have left: AT&T is going to cap wireless bandwidth consumption because smartphone users (read – iPhone) are pulling down two much data. The article states AT & T has a 5 Gig cap on all wireless plans, but if that is the case why does the AT&T site state:

Data Plan for iPhone includes unlimited data in the U.S. Access rich HTML email and desktop-level web browsing, as well as Visual Voicemail to listen to voicemail messages in any order you choose.

Color me confused as I always thought unlimited was defined as unrestricted.  Next thing you know AT&T will be telling us that 4+1 = 41.

If you think back about the iPhone launch you will remember AT &T was picked as the carrier of choice because they were spending the capital to upgrade their network in order manage iPhone bandwidth needs.  Now it looks as if their inability to successfully manage their network means they have to redefine words and the consumer is screwed in the process (once again).

Way to go AT&T.

This is sad and only goes to show the progressive tax system does not work.

46.9% of the U.S. population pay NO federal income taxes.

Put in a different manner – roughly every other person you meet does not pay federal income tax. As with a number of other things, I want to know where the outrage is.  I want to know why half of society must pay for the Government. I want to know why officials think, knowing this fact, it is ok to raise taxes?

Sad and wrong.

Mish – of Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis – had a different breakdown of the stimulus plan, take a look:

Math To Date

Funds paid out so far = $83.8 billion + $52.1 billion + $71.4 billion = $207.3 billion
$207,300,000,000 / 640,329 = $323,739.83 per job created

Plan Goals Math

Now let’s assume this stimulus package will eventually create (or save) 3.5 million jobs and all the money (but no more) will be spent.

Here’s the math again.

$787,000,000,000 / 3,500,000 = $224,857.14 per job created

I wonder how Jared Bernstein, chief economist and senior economic advisor to the vice president, feels about these numbers?  If the estimate of $160K/job was “calculator abuse” yesterday what does $224K (or $323K) constitute in his book?

Remember that there is no accurate way to validate the governments claims of “saved or created”. Furthermore the claim roughly 400,000 education and construction jobs, with an average salary of $92K, is flat out unbelievable.

There are a number of developments to point out this evening so let us get right into it, shall we?

FDIC Friday!

9 Banks closed were shuttered by the FDIC on Friday with a total asset base of $19.1B in total – and I thought the 7 from last week were bad .  The banks in question are:

• California National Bank, CA
• Bank USA, NA, AZ
• San Diego National Bank. CA
• Pacific National Bank, CA
• Park National Bank, IL
• Community Bank of Lemont, IL
• North Houston Bank, TX
• Madisonville State Bank, TX
• Citizens National Bank, TX

How much will the 9 closings cost the FDIC DIF fund? A nice little sum of $2.5B.  Nice, huh?

Stimulus has saved, created 650,000 – Bullsh*t

The magic of being a politician is that one can say just about anything without providing much detail about your statement or claim and very few people will have the ability to debunk your claim.  Then, if someone does attempted to make sense of your statement, you can simply attack them without using facts and claim the person questioning you is unfit or unqualified to be asking such a question.

In 2008 Mr. Obama stated he would “save or create 3.5 million jobs by 2011” including “600,000 “created or saved” this year.  There are so many problems with this claim it is laughable.

There is virtually no way to hold him accountable to this number as there is no realistic way to count a “saved” job.  So, to hear the administration claim a total of 650,000 jobs were saved due to $159B in stimulus spending is highly questionable.

If you break it down one could imply there were 650,000 new/saved jobs that pay $160,000 per year? God forbid one actually questions the administration on such a thing:

Jared Bernstein, chief economist and senior economic advisor to the vice president, called that “calculator abuse.”

He said the cost per job was actually $92,000 — but acknowledged that estimate is for the whole stimulus package as of the end of 2010.

Stay classy Bernstein.

Two areas that allegedly benefited where construction (80K) and education (325K).  You mean to have the public believe roughly 400,000 construction and teaching jobs were created AND pay 92K a year?

Really?

Look at the base average of those two groups and tell me there is any truth there.

We already know the official unemployment number reported is severely under reported, and the method of collecting data for this survey is faulty, how can anyone believe this claim?

It’s politics, pure and simple.

The coming (Commercial) Real Estate Crash

Capmark was the big signal last week that CRE lenders are really feeling the economic pinch.  While people have been warning of the CRE implosion for almost a year now, the press is beginning to really take notice of the situation.

Wilbur Ross Jr, the leveraged buyout specialist, is warning of the impending doom:

“All of the components of real estate value are going in the wrong direction simultaneously,” said Ross, one of nine money managers participating in a government program to remove toxic assets from bank balance sheets. “Occupancy rates are going down. Rent rates are going down and the capitalization rate — the return that investors are demanding to buy a property — are going up.”

Let’s put this into terms most people can relate to.

You have a mall and each vendor needs to make rent; however, you have a bad holiday season.  As a result, quarter of the vendors can no longer make their monthly payments.  Stores close, occupancy goes down. Unfortunately the property owner must have a certain occupancy rate to meet the demands of their loan.  No longer being at this threshold the property owner defaults and banks now have a “toxic” loan on their hands.

Rinse. Repeat.

This story is going on all over the United States in both retail on office. Unfortunately for CRE lenders the Federal Reserve is saying “Hey, good luck with that!”

Financial institutions that implement prudent loan workout arrangements after performing comprehensive reviews of borrowers’ financial conditions will not be subject to criticism for engaging in these efforts, even if the restructured loans have weaknesses that result in adverse credit classifications. In addition, performing loans, including those renewed or restructured on reasonable modified terms, made to creditworthy borrowers, will not be subject to adverse classification solely because the value of the underlying collateral declined.

Just a matter of time until the banks get hammered.

I cannot believe the… self-indulging sense of importance Rocco Landesman and member of Obama’s administration have.  Truly, I cannot.  However, I guess the follow isn’t too far fetched from a group that asked artists to shill for the administration.

During his 2009 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference Keynote, Landesman – the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts – made the following statement:

This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln. If you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar. That has to be good for American artists.

Really?

What about, I don’t know, say…

• Leo Tolstoy
• Mark Twain
• William Shakespeare
• F. Scott Fitzgerald

Now, assuming that Landesman meant that Obama happened to be a writer, not the best, per se, that commanded the most power due to his political position, what bout:

• Winston Churchill
• Adolf Hitler
• Vladimir Lenin

I think the case could be easily made showing other writers as more powerful in terms of both ability AND political position.  From where I sit, I’m not sure that is a good comparison to make right now.

In a time when credit is contracting banks feel the need to penalize responsible credit users.   Credit card companies are going to start placing fees on users who do not maintain a balance, pay their bills in full and/or do not send enough within a 12 month period.

Citigroup, meanwhile, has started charging annual fees to card holders who don’t put more than a specific amount on their cards, typically $2,400 a year. Other banks are charging inactivity fees if customers don’t use their credit cards during a specific period of time. You heard that right: You could be spanked for staying out of debt.

Just amazing, isn’t it?

I am still in shock about President Obama winning the Nobel peace prize.  Flat out shock. The man has done nothing – NOTHING – that would ever come close to supporting this award at this point in his career.

This isn’t a political attack, it’s simply the truth.  Thus far, he:

• Didn’t end US involvement in Iraq
• Is on the verge of escalating Afghanistan
• Hasn’t closed down Guantanamo, despite his pledge to do so, and now is looking for another place to keep the prisoners
• Continues to support the warrantless wiretaps
• Forgot to criticize Israel for the use of excessive force in Gaza

Really, folks, this feels completely political to me.

Is President Obama a Theodore Roosevelt, George C. Marshall or Martin Luther King Jr..  No. Has he done anything on the scale of Mother Teresa?  Fight for people in the same manner that the Dalai Lama has?  No.  Did he help end the Communist Era like Mikhail Gorbachev did?  No.

All of the above have won the prize, and rightfully so. President Obama has done nothing.  For crying out loud, he was nominated only a month into taking office.  Really?  Come on, really?

Oh, and why did he win the prize:  “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”

Keep waiting for your Nobel peace prize for all that you do to improve the world.

A number of experiences in life as of late have caused me to say “that’s it, I’m done” with certain things.  Be it cutting out poor performance from a service provider to removing people from my stable of friends due to idiotic behavior, I’m don’t dealing with a certain level of stupidity in my life. If something or someone cannot meet my expectations I don’t need it/them in my life.  I don’t need it in my life.

Let’s take the concept of planned obsolescence. This would be a product that is designed and produced with a very limited lifespan.  Too much wear and the product would break. Too much uses and parts may wear out, creating the need from the consumer to replace the entire unit. Whether true or not,  General Motors is commonly accused of working planned obsolescence into their goods. I now think Apple utilizing the concept to move more iPhones.

Today I dropped my iPhone and the screen shattered.  I dropped the phone on a concrete floor from all of 8” inches away. I dropped the phone on a concrete floor form all of 8” inches away AND it was in a protective case. Yes, it was 8″ as I went back to measure.  I wasn’t moving, nor was I involved in strenuous activity. I was simply picking up an item from my car and the phone slipped out of my hand.

Shattered.

What about this is planned obsolescence?

I would make the argument that any phone that breaks from an 8” fall is poorly designed, but that aside, the last information I was able to find regarding Apple repair for a 1st generation iPhone is roughly $250.  Seeing a NEW iPhone is only $199, that sure sounds like planned obsolescence to me.

Now I know, you may be saying… just buy the new phone.  Here is the kicker – I don’t WANT the new phone.  I want my phone. I want what I want, not what Apple tells me I want.

This is truly the final straw for me and my dealings with Apple. I’m no longer going to be pressured into what technology and/or service provider I should be using.  I’m no longer going to be told I can only use specific applications.  I am not longer living within Apples “don’t mess with our OS” world.

So, to use the phrase I’ve utilized a lot as of late “that’s it, I’m done.”

Just as a refresher to those who may not remember the whole event, the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing took place over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people on board and 11 people on the ground. At the time it was one of the largest air disasters recorded.

On Thursday, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi was released from his Scottish jail.  Why?  Because he is suffering from terminal cancer and the Scottish government believes that a “judgement be imposed but compassion available”

Yes, I am disturbed by the release of this killer – this mass murdere – regardless of his medical condition.  What I find even more disturbing is the “hero’s welcome” this man obtained when ariving in Libya.

A crowd of thousands, many waving Scottish flags, gathered at Tripoli airport to welcome Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi as he stepped down from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s private jet to the strains of patriotic music.

This cold killer was shown mercy and Libya, who formally admitted responsibility for the event, adds additional insult to injury by treating him like he’s some type of victor that defeated a monster. I’m quite dissapointed in the Scottish government and flat out pissed at Libyan government. While Muammar al-Gaddafi has taken great steps to distance himself and his nation from terrorist acts over the last sevveral years, treating al-Megrahi like a hero does not win favor with the international community.

In my mind if you do something wrong you pay the price for your actions. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi is a mass murderer, plain and simple. Just because the individual is facing his mortality doesn’t mean his past transgressions are suddnely wiped away.

It’s called “Life in prision” for a reason.

Just look at this title from The Guardian: Britain and US prepard to open talks with the Taliban.

A concerted effort to start unprecedented talks between Taliban and British and American envoys was outlined today in a significant change in tactics designed to bring about a breakthrough in the attritional, eight-year conflict in Afghanistan.

Really… I don’t now what to think and feel but I do know I  have problems with it.