Jennifer Meacham,  April 22, 2007

NCR Seeks to Broaden Self-Serve Business talks about the plans of the financial automation giant to expand ATM services from withdrawing cash to selling theater tickets, renewing driver's licenses, paying bills, and even buying bus and lottery tickets. This isn’t a new concept; indeed, many of the ATMs I use already offer it in some form, like buying postage stamps. But what incited this blog was a quote from NCR Corp.'s chief executive: [M]arket research has shown that consumers between 18 and 35 prefer self-service to clerk-assisted service. “This is the Internet generation," he said. "This is really a movement.” Will focusing too much on the “Internet generation” of 20- to 30-somethings turn away the important boomer client base? The most recent research I could find on the age of ATM users, from AICS Research’s Goldbook findings of credit union members, placed the average age of ATM users at 40.3 years old. That certainly doesn’t appear to be skewed towards 20-to-30-somethings. Would you be interested in trying out these new services, if offered by your bank through its ATM? I’d love to get the real scoop.

Cecily O'Connor,  April 19, 2007

It is encouraging to see lending companies like Wamu and Freddie Mac helping strapped homeowners by taking steps to minimize borrowers' home-mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures. Let's face it, borrowers and lenders are in the subprime mortgage mess together. When consumers went looking for loopholes to purchase their homes, lenders were more than happy to turn on the high-risk credit spigot. A recent Associated Press story indicated some members of Congress are ruling out the possibility of a bailout, and I feel that's a smart decision for now. A bailout is not the best use of taxpayer dollars to remedy the situation.

John McGowan,  April 14, 2007

What exactly is it about living in a goldfish bowl that politicians and public servants don’t understand? You want to give your girlfriend a $50,000 raise or arrange governmental college loans for companies in which you own stock, or, for that matter, get a blow job from an intern? Go work for corporate America. But you can’t do that stuff while working in a public institution. It will find its way into the newspapers every time. And yet, again and again, people do these things—and tell the silly little lies about how they didn’t do them. They get caught, again and again. What makes someone think he is invisible when so many others were not? The same thing, I guess, that leads to the prior belief that the rules don’t apply to him. Paul Wolfowitz is supposed to take on corruption worldwide. But arranging special favors for his girlfriend, that’s not corruption.

Jennifer Meacham,  April 11, 2007

There’s a new kind of tax fraud in town. The story Felon Tells How He Ripped Off IRS gives the skinny on how identity thieves are scooping in on people’s tax returns, depositing the money – undetected – into their own bank accounts instead. Though this type of fraud has been reported to the Internal Revenue Service for nearly a decade, it only set up its Identity Theft Program Office two years ago. The office has calculated how many of the 45,000 fraudulent claims received by the IRS in 2006 were filed under stolen identities. Last year alone, by the IRS tally, it sent out nearly $42 million dollars total to people other than those of us actually waiting to get our money back. For me, this news is good reason to file tax returns early (it’s free now through the IRS website), before the bad guy does; have returns deposited directly into checking accounts to avoid someone swiping it from the mail; follow up using the IRS’s tax return tracking feature; and, if the return isn’t received within 27 days of the IRS mailing date, launch a refund trace. This year, make sure your refund finds its way home.   

Jennifer Meacham,  April 11, 2007

The Fed–America’s monetary policy maker–released the minutes of the last meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the group that sets interest rates. The press has already reported the bullet points from the March meeting: federal fund rates maintained at 5.25 percent; prediction of “moderate” economic expansion; and indications of elevated core inflation that likely will be mitigated with future fed action (see Fed Focused on Inflation in March). But reading through the minutes show an even more detailed, and interesting, picture. “The determinants of household spending were mixed. Disposable personal income was estimated to have risen sharply in January, but the increase was partly the result of special factors, such as pay raises for federal and military personnel and cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security payments. Meanwhile, readings on consumer sentiment, which had been favorable in recent months, edged down in early March. The boost to consumer spending from earlier gains in wealth was likely being muted by the lagged effects of the upward trend in borrowing costs. In addition, recent declines in equity prices and slowing house price appreciation pointed to a modest reduction in households’ wealth-to-income ratio in the first quarter.” There you have it. It’s costing more to borrow, but are cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security actually keeping pace? You be the judge.

Jennifer Meacham,  April 7, 2007

I just finished reading the most eloquent article on foreclosures I’ve seen to date, Mortgage Mess Forcing People from Their Homes. The narrative tells one couple’s story, of their run into home ownership and their jump out. It’s definitely worth a read for anyone. But my post here isn’t about foreclosures. It’s about another real estate issue I learned about while researching a follow-up to the above article. Here’s the quote from Oregon real estate agent John Bacon of SoldinOregon.com: “I haven’t worked with clients worried about foreclosure lately. But what I am seeing is a call from baby boomers for master bedrooms on the main floor. My clients that are 50-plus are saying “I don’t want to climb stairs for the next 50 years.” And no one seems to be listening. We’ve been squeezed into these little lots, where the only way to get square footage is to build up. They don’t mind putting the kids in rooms upstairs when they come, but accessibility for them is key. I belong to the Home Builders Association and there are some builders that are actually catching on to this. But there’s a huge, huge pent-up demand for masters on the main.” May this be food for thought.

Jennifer Meacham,  April 4, 2007

The RedwoodAge.com article, US: 32,000 People Are Owed Pensions, covers the news that the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is holding average unclaimed benefits of nearly $5,000 for 32,000 people owed money from terminated defined benefit pension plans. To search if your name is on the list, go to the Pension Search directory. The PBGC’s booklet “Finding A Lost Pension” also provides tips, suggests potential allies, and details numerous free information sources. It is particularly helpful for those trying to find pensions earned from former employers whose identity may have changed over the years because of changes in company ownership. The booklet is available on the PBGC’s web site (which, by the way, appeared to be down when this blog was filed). Over the past 12 years more than 22,000 people have found $137 million in missing pension benefits through PBGC’s Pension Search program. Here’s hoping you’ll soon be one of them.