PinkJava's Blogspace

Elderly powerty in America

2010-10-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

"America is a nice place for the young, but for the old, it is no good",
one of the many elderly folks struggling to get by in the heart of Pasadena said to the editor who wrote the LA Times story -Elderly poverty.

The situation seems to have gotten much worse. I remember in the mid 80s walking in New York Chinatown alley one weekend morning, a friend and I got into a long heated discourse over whether it was really the right decision for these folks to uproot themselves to come to the US. The intentions might have been noble or purely economic, but thirty years later, they are still living in four square city blocks and their lives confined and defined by their neighborhood. Their children who had benefited from their sacrifices armed with university degrees had bought themselves nice big homes in upscale suburbia. Not wanting to leave the only familiar place they know, or perhaps not wanted by their children, these folks remained in Chinatown alley and will likely be there for the remaining years of their lives. While the lives of their children have improved vastly, theirs have not. Was the sacrifice really worth it? Would they have been better off remaining in their own country, in HongKong where they have extended family, friends of their age who speak the same language and prospect for better old age. Is there really any quality of life living in four dilapidated square blocks in America strewn with garbage, dirt and boxes? It broke my heart seeing it then, the image is all too vivid still today.

Elderly poverty - LA Times story

America is indeed a very hard place for the elderly, it has becomes a lot harsher these last few years for those struggling to get by. Food prices have skyrocketed, medical costs are now prohibitively expensive. For these folks living on hardly anything, a meager fixed income that is not sufficient to provide for the very basic, let alone medical care when it is needed. Their daily challenge is rationing the little sum of money and deciding whether it should be spent on food, rent or pay for prescription they desperately need. The recent financial meltdown and housing mess have turned cities upside down and streets unsafe for these vulnerable folks. We must help, each in our own little way, to bring their plights to light....and to lend a helping hand

Now here is a movement we should support

2010-04-25T07:30:00.001-07:00

It is about time we move our money from those "Too Big To Fail" Wall Street Banks to our community banks and credit unions, here is a movement started by Arianna Huffington you should support Move your Money

The financial meltdown of the last two years crippled savings of hard working taxpayers. When I think of the roles of the "Too Big To Fail" Wall Street banks played in contributing to the mess we are in now, the madder I become. Sure Main Street was partly to blame. I am a mortgage and tax professional and by late 2006 I was advising my clients against using their home as an ATM to buy the next overpriced investment property and getting into real estate investments that were about to go terribly wrong. That meant my loans business slowly grind to a halt and sure enough they did by mid 2007.However, I sleep so much better at night knowing that my clients are better off today. I simply do not want to see my clients lose their hard earned money joining mad speculators when the musical chair was about to stop. Today my clients appreciate me more than ever, knowing that I will always put their interests before mine.

Lately, I have been thinking of moving my money away from my bank (one of the 4 Big Banks) to the local community banks or credit unions and I am very glad to see that there is already such a movment gathering grassroot support. Read more on Move your Money movement here

I just ordered some "Invest in Main Street Not Wall Street, Move Your Money" bumper stickers for myself, and I hope you will do so as well and spread the word.

You can get them from MoveYourMoney.com's CafePress store and here is the link

A very interesting article on SeekingAlpha you must read:
Too Big To Fail, Time for a Controlled Demolition"

Axerold608 commented on SeekingAlpha to the article by The Prudent Investor titled Here Comes Another 'Single Irregularity' From Goldman Sachs and I quote below

"In an ethical society under the rule of law, your "right" to swing your fist ends at the other person's nose. In an ethical capitalist society, your "right" to earn a profit ends when what you make, sell or do harms others. The fact that the "leaders" of US major financial institutions are not in prison is clear evidence that we do not live in an ethical capitalist society"

I could not have agreed with Axerold608 more and you can read his entire comment here

Read the Prudent Investor's Blog here

We all need to take control of our own financial lives, educate ourselves on prudent ways to safeguard the future of our hard earned retirement savings. It is time to turn the tide.

Food for thought in this challenging economy

2010-02-23T20:29:00.000-08:00

It is not a pleasant story to read, but this prediction could very well come true in a not so distant future.

Good news, Americans are "downbeat about today. Upbeat about tomorrow," says the latest USA Today/Gallup Poll. "Americans feel battered by hard times, record home foreclosures, stubbornly high unemployment rates and war."

And yes, we are "fed up with Washington and convinced more than 3 to 1 that the nation is heading in the wrong direction," yet there's "confidence that there will be better times ahead, that the classic American dream endures and hasn't been extinguished. It's not even at its low ebb." Why? Because we're in denial!

Do Main Street's 95 million investors know something Warren Buffett's long-time partner, Charlie Munger, doesn't know? Munger is warning us "It's Over" for America. Yes, "o-v-e-r," America's in decline, at the end-of-days, coming to "financial ruin," says Munger.

More from MarketWatch.com:

• Profiting From the Next Crisis

• Corporate Insiders Are Betting This Is a Correction

• Dual-Income Households and the Future of the Consumer

Optimism has always been the enduring spirit that made us a great nation, brought us back from overwhelming challenges and impossible odds -- WW II, the Civil War, the 1776 Revolution. Yes, that spirit still burns in our soul, says the poll.

But we also know, as we said earlier in "The Death of the Soul of Capitalism," that over the long-term, through many centuries, historians give nations an average of about 200 years before they burn out. Why? Because the "blind optimism" that makes a nation great in the early years of its rise to power and glory becomes, paradoxically, its worst enemy in the end-days.

Click here to read the rest of the article on Market Watch Death of American Capitalism - The 10 Final Scenes by Paul B Ferrell

Now this story makes me really angry

2009-09-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

Wells Fargo exec used Malibu Colony home lost by Madoff-duped couple, neighbors say

By E. Scott Reckard and David Sarno
LA Times
September 11, 2009

"A top bank executive was seen spending weekends and hosting parties in the $12-million beach house. The bank says it will 'conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations' by neighbors.

Bernard L. Madoff's massive fraud stunned some of the wealthy denizens of Malibu Colony, especially when a couple devastated by the scheme surrendered their oceanfront home to Wells Fargo Bank.

But some neighbors say the real shocker came when they saw one of the bank's top executives spending weekends in the $12-million beach house and hosting eye-catching parties there. What's more, Wells Fargo spurned offers to show the property to prospective buyers, a real estate agent said.

"It's outrageous to take over a property like that, not make it available and then put someone from the bank in it," said Phillip Roman, an 18-year Colony resident who lives a few homes away from the property.............."

Read on....LA Times story link

Definitely not out of the wood and far from it

2009-07-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

Fed’s Yellen Says Interest Rates May Stay Near Zero for Years

2008 saw unprecedented private sector layoff which continued into 2009. In addition, in states facing massive budget shortfall such as California, the first 6 months of 2009 saw increasing layoff in the government sector affecting teachers, police, firefighters.....We are definitely not out of the woods, in fact we are far from it. As a mortgage broker/tax planner and someone who follows the California real estate market closely, I expect another wave of home foreclosure to hit California in the next 6 months....

On a bright note, savings rate for the first time has gone up, instead of spending more than they earn, consumers are cutting back, buying only what is absolutely necessary, saving whatever that is left, shopping for bargains wherever they can including fleamarket, instead of buying new and improved gadgets they don't need. For too long, Americans spent $1.25 for every $1 earned, living beyond their means. This financial meltdown that has affected every ordinary America has led to a new way of living, a more responsible one, to ourselves and to the environment.

You may not know but savings rate in Asia is 30-35%, that compares with the meager savings rate for most Americans until recently.

Finally a senator said what needs to be said!!

2009-03-17T06:26:00.001-07:00

I have been saying for a long time that what is missing in the American corporate culture is the sense of shame and face that is part of the Asian culture, where the first thing a company manager does is to bow deeply and apologize to the employees, the nation in public. Then they resign or commit suicide!!, The outrage of the American public is more than justified in this huge fiasco these overpaid American shameless executives got the country into.

Finally someone said the words I have been waiting to hear:

The following is quoted from CNN website this morning:

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa didn't appear to be joking, however, when he spoke with Cedar Rapids, Iowa, radio station WMT.

"I would suggest the first thing that would make me feel a little better toward them [AIG executives] is if they follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, 'I am sorry,' and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide," he said.

"And in the case of the Japanese, they usually commit suicide."

What about a sense of shame, a sense of accountability, less thick skin (as they say in the Chinese culture), take some resposibility for your actions!!

Link to CNN story on AIG bonuses

We owe oldest Americans an apology

2009-03-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

This is a re-post of what is on CNN.com Commentary

Very well said. I am a tax preparer and many folks I dealt with depend on their dividend income for basic needs and medical expenses. What was done to their retirement assets considering all that they have gone through was a despicable act, an embarrassment to the developed world. It goes to show that when capitalism is taken to extreme, greed runs amok and ruins the lives of everyone including those who had nothing to do with it and had abided by all the rules of putting money away for the golden years. They should be very angry and outraged. I see how hard life is for most of them, financially. I am furious beyond words.

By Bob Greene
CNN Contributor

"Bob Greene says oldest Americans don't deserve the anxiety they feel about the economy.

(CNN) -- As the country frets about extricating itself from the financial mess, there is one group of Americans to whom the rest of us owe the most sincere words of apology.

That group consists of the oldest of our fellow citizens -- the men and women who went through the Great Depression when they were young, who fought and endured World War II when they were just a little older, and who had hoped for a sense of peace and tranquility in their final years on this earth.

They don't deserve what they are going through. You hear it again and again from money experts: Take the long view of the economy. If you don't need cash from your stock market accounts in the next five to 10 years, leave it in there. Time will heal our current woes -- the economy, even when it's in tatters, runs in cycles. Just wait it out and be patient. Especially young people -- fiscal stability will arrive again in your lifetime. You'll see.

Nice words. Yet they leave out that one group of people -- the people who have a right to be terrified when they are told the economy will only be brutal in the short term. They leave out the people to whom the short term is all they have: our parents. Our grandparents. The men and women who never should have had to worry about their personal security again.

It's never wise to generalize, yet it is safe to say that, as a group, the men and women who endured the Depression and World War II played it straight when it came to putting their trust in financial institutions. They didn't try to game the system; they didn't believe in esoteric money schemes. As a group, they were cautious, because the two defining national events of their lives taught them that you can never really count on anything. They watched their own parents suffer during the Depression, they went overseas for years on end when our nation asked them to save the world, and when they came home, to the prosperity of the Eisenhower years, they crossed their fingers and hoped the good times were not an illusion.

The mistakes and tricks and reckless gambles of the supposedly sophisticated masters of Wall Street have wounded these men and women, many of whom, before the last year, had never even heard the names of the men who ran the biggest investment banks and brokerage firms. Which is why what those oldest Americans are going through is so unfair. Once more, in a lifetime that has been filled with sacrifices, they are having to pay the terrible price for decisions in which they had no say.

For a while, after Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation" focused belated attention on the quietly heroic lives of our parents and grandparents, it finally seemed that the oldest Americans were being allowed to take a victory lap. One of the points Brokaw made was that, for all the pain those men and women lived through, they seldom complained. They just soldiered on.

That appeared to be the elegiac theme of their final chapter: a warm acknowledgment by us, to whom they gave a better world, that we understood and honored their steadfastness -- that we appreciated and were moved by the uncomplaining way they had made it through their hardest years.

We didn't realize that they would be asked to do it again, in 2009 -- we didn't realize that our parents and grandparents, the vestiges of their retirement income suddenly diminished and threatened, would be asked once more to stoically accept hardships they had done nothing to bring upon themselves.

Think of the disdain they must feel for the Wall Street titans who have hurt them. When they hear about a brokerage executive who spends $1,400 on a wastebasket, their first thought undoubtedly is not that the man has taken advantage of his shareholders, or of the federal government. Their first thought -- remember, these men and women were children of the Depression -- is that the man must be a fool, a complete and utter sucker, to pay someone $1,400 for such an item. If you grew up having nothing, your contempt for such an idiotic expenditure is just about absolute. And you wonder about a society in which a person who would spend money that way is expected to prudently handle the money of others.

All that the oldest Americans asked for, in their final years, is a sense of safety, of stability. Twice in the nation's history, they knew what it was like to go to sleep night after night with their stomachs knotted in fear. What we as a country owed them was nights, at the end, when they never again had to feel that dread in the darkness.

Now they are feeling it, and there is nothing that we -- their sons and daughters, their grandsons and granddaughters -- can do to convince them that their fear in the night is groundless. What they are being forced to go through now is -- in the most elemental sense of this word -- a shame. I hope they know how sorry we are."

CNN article link

The Contagion - A book by John Talbott

2009-02-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

A must read if you wonder how the country got into this financial mess and what is every ordinary folk to do now.

U.S. Housing Slump Has ‘Just Begun,’ Says Forecaster Talbott - Review by James Pressley on Bloomberg

Contagion: The Financial Epidemic That is Sweeping the Global Economy... and How to Protect Yourself from It(Hardcover)

by John R. Talbott (Author)

"Tough times are ahead and Talbott argues that the coming recession will be on a global scale, affecting economies across the world. We have had no real growth in GDP for the last ten years if purchases with government and personal debt are excluded. In effect, government borrowing and spending on the war and healthcare and Social Security and corporate give-aways combined with dramatic increases in personal spending funded by credit card and mortgage debt have funded unsustainable levels of personal and government consumption. The world's banks are threatened with insolvency due to bad mortgage loans and will not be making new loans for any purposes for a very long time. Consumption, by definition, has to decline. Our financial markets worldwide are in chaos with the inability of any financial house or big hedge fund going bankrupt without pulling down the whole $400 trillion derivatives market and the global financial markets at the same time. With this as a backdrop, Talbott offers practical suggestions as to how homeowners and investors can best weather the coming storm with specific advice on where to invest by type of investment and geographic location. Stocks, bonds, TIPS, commodities, real estate, housing and currencies will all be examined."

I could not agree with her more

2009-02-02T06:24:00.001-08:00

I have fallen into recession’s web of fear

By Lucy Kellaway - Published: February 1 2009 16:25 | Last updated: February 1 2009 16:25

"This is our first experience of recession in the internet age, and so far I don’t like it one little bit. You could say that the internet makes the recession more bearable as there are all those networks to help people get jobs and there is Ebay for buying things second-hand.

Yet such things are trivial compared to what the internet is doing to our confidence. The internet has created a global psyche. The web has mentally joined us at the hip, so we can no longer put our heads in the sand. If that sounds painfully contorted, it is because it is. Just as no country can decouple itself from the ailing global economy, none of us as individuals can decouple ourselves from the ailing global psyche.

Through blogs, websites and e-mails the world’s economic ills are fed to us on a drip all day long. It is not just that we hear about bad things faster, we hear about more of them and in a more immediate way. My worries become yours, and yours become mine. On the internet, a trouble shared online is not a trouble halved. It is a trouble needlessly multiplied all over the world. After reading this article, people in Australia will surely start worrying about my paint colours, too."

A Not So Funny Story. What Was I Thinking?

2007-09-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

Early August, I spent a week up in Oregon, primarily along the coast around Seaside and Astoria as well as the famed Oregon Williamette wine country near Yamhill and Newberg. I rented a car for a week and decided that I would play tourist for a change and enjoy the beautiful countryside even if it was your typical sizzling hot summer days.

The highlight of my week long holiday was my trip to Oregon's Willamette Valley where vineyards and wineries are plentiful on both sides of route 99W. I did wine tasting at the famous Maresh Red Barn Vineyard where a charming red barn marks a beautiful vineyard surrounded by a sweeping landscape. The Pino Gris was beautiful, crisp, light, with a hint of fruit. Pino Noir was equally magnificent.

This was the last day of my week-long holiday and I was heading off to Portland airport the same afternoon. It seemed like a perfect ending to my little sojourn that I should get a bottle of my beloved Pino Gris to bring home to California, and I did.

I had traveled light, as best as I could but I still had one too many carry on bags after a little shopping here and there. So I quickly checked in one of my heavier cabin luggages which I had packed ahead of time that morning. I did not think too much about the bottle of Pino Gris in my hand, thinking I will just stuff it in inside my hand carry messenger bag together with my digital camera. This way I can be sure the bottle does not break, and I have it close to me (still thinking of how good it was when I tasted it). I stuffed the Pino Gris inside my hand carry bag hurriedly and proceeded to security gate.

"Madam, is this your bag?"

I thought, good God, what have I done now? what did I put in there that they needed to check? He grabbed my messenger bag and pulled out my nice bottle of Pino Gris (unopened, Oregon wine label clearly visible) and said: "Madam, this is not allowed, 3oz of fluid maximum!!" he exclaimed.

Of course, what was I thinking? I hit my forehead as I realised what he was referring to. My mind was racing, I was thinking how not to lose my precious Pino Gris.

"Well, do you want to go back out and put the bottle in your check in luggage?" he asked. No, I don't want to go back out and have them find my luggage that was probably sitting on the conveyor belt somewhere waiting to be loaded and cause unnecessary grief to everyone. Furthermore, what would my bottle of Pino Gris become after it has been thrown about inside my luggage as it was on its way to the plane's cargo hole assuming the bottle does not break? I cringed to think what it would taste like if it survived the flight.

"Did someone drop you off?" he then asked, "may be you can go back outside and give it to them?" No, a single woman enjoying a nice holiday alone must be somewhat out of the norm. "Did you buy this from the airport store outside? may be you can return it and tell them you will buy it at their store after security gate?" Good try, but this was a very exceptional bottle of wine that I could only buy from the vineyard. He was clearly trying to help..........

What do I do now? Go back out and drink it all? I suppose I could, but a warm Pino Gris would ruin my palate forever, seriously, not mentioning that that was not my idea of enjoying good wine. Out of utter frustration, I said to the very helpful security guy, "you know what, you guys drink it, it is on me, it is very good" To that he looked at me and smiled and replied " Madam, shall I discard it then?"

"Do what you need to, Sir" I said (respectfully).

As I walked away, he dropped my precious bottle of Pino Gris into the black plastic container with a big label "DISCARD". Ouch!! That really hurts.

What a traumatic experience! When I was paying for the Pino Gris, they were asking me if I wanted a chilled bottle and if I was planning to drink it right away. That was the omen!!! I should have taken up on the suggestion and picnicked outside the vineyard, that would have been more satisfying than my mishap with airport security.

Moral of the story, drink your bottle of wine before you go through airport security unless there is world peace. Alas, I just don't see that happening anytime soon.

An Introduction...............

2007-09-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

PinkJava.com is the brainchild of JC, who in the dotcom dog days started an e-tailer and raised over $500K of angel capital from a number of investors local and abroad. At the height of it all, she ran a company that had a brick and mortar store in Singapore, a web design team in Asia and a catalog business in the US. The business was beginning to take off, she was happy, very happy, as she had found the perfect lifestyle, allowing her to tap into her entrepreneurial juices doing what she loves.

Unfortunately the dotcom bubbles soon began to deflate, and it became increasingly difficult to grow the business as funding dried up. This led to the inevitable, and the business had to be shut down as she could no longer financially sustain the company alone. JC then made a terrible decision of not renewing the domain name she had coined for her business, the very name that held so much promise and that was partly instrumental in securing seed capital (befitting the craziness of the dotcom era, funding on an idea scribbled on a piece of a dinner napkin or the promise of a great sounding name). This was a very stupid decision indeed, she vowed never to make silly mistakes like this ever again.

In the years and months ahead, she continued to search for another domain name that would replace what she lost (her own doing really, to this day, she has only herself to blame). She goes over words and combination of words in her mind, hoping to come up with something that would again symbolize her energy, her passion and her love for the islands and colors of the world, and in a phrase she likes to say often; simple pleasures in life.

One day, while enjoying a glass of her favorite Sauvignon Blanc and watching a gorgeous California sunset, she settled on pink and java, Pink for love and passion, Java for the wonderful aromas of a great cup of coffee (Sumatran) and when inspiration comes to live. She was thrilled as she knew finally another exciting chapter of her life has begun, and PinkJava.com was born.

What is PinkJava currently? A website for ideas, mostly on matters close to her heart: people and children of the world, sharing and giving, preserving our green Earth, living simply and not joining the rat race.

JC's Links on the right included a short list of books she loves and images she captures through her camera lens. It is very simply her way of sharing what she loves to do, and a glimpse of her favorite coffee table books. The photos in her portfolio are by no means the standards of a world class photographer, but they mean something to her, and may be they will mean something to you as well.

Will PinkJava ever become another great story (at least in JC's book)? Well, that is work in progress. Stay tuned.