Bad Boys!

Q’s Rethinking Basketball blog is frickin’ amazing. I mainly just follow his WNBA stuff, but he writes wonderfully insightful analysis of all aspects of the game of basketball.

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It took me about three minutes to get all het up.

The major provisions of the bill are as follows:

• Interest rates can’t be raised during the first year of an account
• Customers will be notified 45 days in advance of any change in interest rates
• Bills can be paid online or over the phone without incurring a processing fee
• Customers must be over 60 days late on payments before their interest rate can be raised on balances; if the rate is raised, it will go back to the lower rate if customers make the minimum payment on time for six months in a row.
• Overlimit fees can’t be charged unless cardholders are told that the purchase will put them over their limit and they authorize it to go through anyway
• If your card has more than one interest rate on balances, then payments must be applied to the highest interest rate first
• Gift cards can’t expire for five years, and issuers can’t charge dormancy fees for unused amounts left on the card
• Credit card statements must be mailed out 21 days before they’re due
• Individuals under 21 will need a co-signer on their cards unless they can prove that they have the means to make payments on their own
• Credit card agreements will have to be posted on the internet

Someone in the comments linked to a story on the credit card industry’s likely response to the legislation.

Credit cards have long been a very good deal for people who pay their bills on time and in full. Even as card companies imposed punitive fees and penalties on those late with their payments, the best customers racked up cash-back rewards, frequent-flier miles and other perks in recent years.

Now Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.

Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.

“It will be a different business,” said Edward L. Yingling, the chief executive of the American Bankers Association, which has been lobbying Congress for more lenient legislation on behalf of the nation’s biggest banks. “Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems.”

So that’s not the part I’m het up about. I’m het up about the rest of the comments on that Consumer Reports post.

People commented about being penalized for being responsible. You’ve been benefiting from other people’s irresponsibility for years! The credit card companies are making enough money off of the “bad” people that they can afford to give you an easier ride. You are not entitled to frequent flyer miles and cashback bonuses.

You know what else? You don’t have to use a credit card. Spend cash. Use your debit card. Go back to writing checks. Really want to make a statement? Stick it to the credit card companies and stop using their product all together. If you’re as diligent and responsible as you say you are, this should not be a problem for you. Take your freedom of choice and your financial independence and do something different if you really don’t like it. Besides, if you pay off your bill every month, your interest rate shouldn’t matter that much anyway.

Suggesting that people learn to be more responsible with their credit is not helpful. That’s a separate issue. What this legislation does is create some transparency. Seriously, why is it wrong for anyone - good credit or bad - to get a heads up on an impending rate hike? What this legislation does is prevent credit card companies from making it more difficult for people who are already in trouble and trying to get out of it to make that climb out of the hole. What this legislation does is curb intentionally deceptive practices.

Anybody who’s been reading along with me for at least the last year knows I’ve struggled with credit card debt. I finally paid all that shit off a couple months ago and I’m less than a year away from paying off my car loan and being completely debt-free (on a technicality, since I don’t own our house). I don’t need to go on about American society’s culture of debt and credit and why we think we should have or need to have credit cards. Y’all know what I’m talking about.

So anyway.

I adjust my financial goals as I achieve them. As I move towards greater independence, maybe I need to rethink not just what I spend my money on, but how my cash actually flows. I now charge most things to one card and pay it off every month. I track my spending obsessively, so I always know exactly how much that bill is gonna be and I budget accordingly. But there’s absolutely no reason why I can’t pay cash for everything. None whatsoever. I can’t fathom what I’d possibly buy at this point in time that I do not currently have enough cash for. (Emergencies are another thing, but that’s not what this is about.)

This current state of cash flow redistribution makes me twitch. I like to know exactly how much is going where and on what day, far in advance. But I think I’ll ultimately have more peace of mind if I transition away from always charging things to paying cash for them. I think it would be healthy for me to learn to obsess a little less. Along those lines, when I say “pay cash” I mean “pay cash” and not “use my debit card.” Constantly using my debit card means I have to constantly recalculate my balances because I’m totally OCD about it. So when I have no green in my pocket, I’m done for the week.

That’s my new plan. We’ll see how that works.

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While far more prominent members of the administration are making the big decisions about Detroit, it is Mr. [Brian] Deese who is often narrowing their options.

A month ago, when the administration was divided over whether to support Fiat’s bid to take over much of Chrysler, it was Mr. Deese who spoke out strongly against simply letting the company go into liquidation….

Dude sounds incredibly smart and savvy. And his mom’s an engineer!

(via)

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Congratulations, Americans, you’re on the road to car company ownership. General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection today, in a deal that calls for the U.S. government to own 60 percent of the automaker.

That works out to something like an investment of $192 per taxpayer.

I’m not an economist or an auto industry expert, but as a born-and-raised Detroiter whose entire family still lives in Michigan, I have thoughts. Nothing earth-shattering, but they wanted out.

For starters, I implore all of you to not go into your friendly neighborhood dealer, especially for service, and make jokes about how you own their company. It’s rude. And you know what? Anyone that has a 401(k), IRA, mutual fund, or pretty much any investment vehicle (vehicle! ha!) that is not bonds owns a part of some company. This is not any different. Yeah, having a bad investment foisted upon you is no good. That’s a whole ‘nother issue. But whose investments are actually doing well right now? Leave the people on the ground alone. It’s not their fault. And you’re being an ass.

Next, I’m hardly one to go about spouting off about how the free market will fix this or any problem. But — and this pains me to say it — we need to let the auto industry fail and let Michigan go on with reviving itself.

It pains me to say it because, regardless of whether you or anyone you know is employed directly by an automaker or even a supplier, everyone in Michigan is impacted by the auto industry in one way or another whether it’s as some part of the supply chain, the political/legal/regulatory/tax environment, or just the general health of the economy. My family suffers because of this.

However, even if there are no more GM cars, or even if there are no U.S. automakers, there is no shortage of cars to be had. I go through a quarterly period of lust for a Smart fortwo. I’ll buy a Honda if I have to. Hell, I’d rather not have to have a car at all. I can get my car serviced at a mechanic instead of a dealership. I will not go without in the absence of GM.

I’m really curious to find out what happens to Saturn as one of the divisions GM is going to let fall by the wayside. Yesterday’s facebook status says:

How does all the news today about GM affect Saturn? GM is still actively involved in negotiations for its Saturn brand. Today’s Chapter 11 filing does not immediately affect these negotiations. We hope to have resolution soon and promise to keep you updated throughout this process.

Saturn is like the WNBA or Twitter in that there are a relatively small number of fans but they are fanatical about the product*. I’m on my third car and my second Saturn. I bought a Saturn the first time because it was a reasonable value and it was domestic. I bought a Saturn the second time entirely because of the customer service experience (and its stark contrast to the Toyota dealership I had just exited). As much as I hate to admit to emotional attachments to a brand, I hope Saturn survives for Saturn’s sake.

Insert steel industry and stages of grieving analogies here.

*That’s an impressive implentation of a Ning group.

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Supporters say her charisma, empathy and real-world government experience are the qualities she would take to the Supreme Court, currently populated exclusively by former federal appellate judges.

Due to term limits, she cannot run for Governor of Michigan again in 2010. I’m not opposed to term limits, but I’d like to see her stay. I feel like she’s done as good a job as anyone could, given the economic situation in Michigan. Maybe my friends and fam that still live there might disagree with me. But if she can’t stay in Michigan, I’d like to see her on the SCOTUS.

This was the most interesting tidbit:

“One thing that impressed me about her is that she did try to do the right thing by the law, even if it happened not to be the policy answer she would have preferred,” said Thomas L. Casey, a former Michigan solicitor general who worked during Ms. Granholm’s tenure as attorney general.

(via)

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I’m not nearly nerd enough to have earned any of these except for maybe Homonyms. My favorite badge design is definitely Family Tech Support.

(via Gillian)

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Just follow this step-by-step guide to Conversing with Marginalised People™ and in no time at all you will have a fool-proof method of derailing every challenging conversation you may get into, thus reaping the full benefits of every privilege that you have.

The best part is, you don’t even have to be a white, heterosexual, cisgendered, cissexual, upper-class male to enjoy the full benefits of derailing conversation! Nope, you can utilise the lesser-recognised tactic of Horizontal Hostility to make sure that, despite being a member of a Marginalised Group™ yourself, you can exercise a privilege another Marginalised Group™ doesn’t have in order not to heed their experience!

(via Jason)

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On ZipCar found Robin Chase’s big ideas about rebuilding the electrical grid and the role cars could play in that. Something about a smart grid and mesh networks that makes a lot more sense when you actually read the article.

There’s broad consensus that our electrical system should do more than carry electricity. It should carry information. That would allow a more intelligent, and efficient, use of power… We ask for electricity and the grid provides it, no questions asked. A smart grid asks questions and answers them. It makes the meter on your wall a sensor that links you to a network that knows how much power you’re using, when you’re using it and how to reduce your energy needs – and costs.

Let’s do it!

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The Creative Commons license is Attribution 2.0 Generic. They’re not in the Public Domain because Flickr doesn’t currently offer that as a licensing option.

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But now that the Iowa Supreme Court has unanimously declared their ban on gay marriage to be unconstitutional, heading south for a day is seeming like a good idea.

I have lots more thoughts on this that haven’t quite settled, but I just wanted to put that out there.

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Check out his super awesome new comic, Planet Wifey, too.

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Suggested changes in children’s vision care, from an advocate and the mother of a child with impaired vision.

(via @EyeBuyDirect, whom I’ve just ordered my second pair of glasses from)

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Video of an Ignite Seattle presentation from 2007. I’d heard stuff about competitive bidding, but I’d never heard anyone recommend selling your used car separately instead of trading it in. Also, while I’ve heard of people doing this, I’d never personally considered getting financing from my own bank ahead of time (probably because until recently my credit sucked) instead of going through the dealer.

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The annual White Privilege Conference (WPC) serves as a yearly opportunity to examine and explore difficult issues related to white privilege, white supremacy and oppression.

WPC provides a forum for critical discussions about diversity, multicultural education and leadership, social justice, race/racism, sexual orientation, gender relations, religion and other systems of privilege/oppression. WPC is recognized as a challenging, empowering and educational experience. The workshops, keynotes and institutes not only inform participants, but engage and challenge them, while providing practical tips and strategies for combating inequality.

I would love to attend this, if for no other reason than to find out who else attends. White privilege and racism are two sides of the same coin. We do an awful lot of talking about racism but hardly any talking about white privilege.

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A social and economic justice movement for seniors.

We are an intergenerational, multi-issue organization working to create a society that puts the needs of people over profit, responsibility over power and democracy over institutions.

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