After Copenhagen, China Steps Back Into The Climate Change Spotlight

October 5th, 2010

The problem is the same, but getting the world to agree on a solution is proving to be a challenge.

  • China and the United States emit more greenhouse gases than any other nations in the world, but during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last December, the two nations argued over who should carry more responsibility for tackling the problem.
  • After a week of similar rich-country/poor-country conflicts, Copenhagen ended without any agreement on how to address the global greenhouse gas problem. This time, China is hosting the conference and the goals are a little different: Instead of a global agreement, participants may seek smaller, more manageable deals such as corporate carbon-cutting programs.
  • The Copenhagen conference made it clear that China, though still a developing nation, is going to be front and center in the climate change debate. In addition to being the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases, China is also the world’s biggest investor in renewable energy sources.

Facts & Figures

  • China’s per-capita GDP is $3,700 per year; the per capita GDP in the U.S. is $46,000.
  • Coal accounts for 80% of China’s energy production.
  • Developed nations pledged $30 billion in Copenhagen to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions, nearly all of which has been fulfilled.

Best Quote

“China came to understand that given the scale of the country, there’s simply no way it can hide – you’re either the leader or you will be blamed. By hosting this meeting, it sends a strong signal that China is thinking about how to play a more proactive role on the international stage.” – Yang Ailun, Greenpeace China’s Head of Climate and Energy

Verizon Refunding Up To $90 Million to Cellular Customers

October 5th, 2010

Getting ripped off? It may pay to speak up – the squeaky wheel gets the $90 million dollar refund.

  • The F.C.C. (Federal Communications Commission) has been receiving consumer complaints about bogus data charges assessed by Verizon Wireless on customers without active data plans.
  • In response, Verizon announced it will voluntarily refund affected customers. The company will likely still face a fee from the FCC.
  • Many customers were charged $1.99 every time they accidentally hit a key that opened their phone’s browser. Verizon has been accused of  refusing to reverse these charges when individual customers called customer service to complain.

Facts & Figures

  • According to a Verizon executive, about 15 million customers without data plans were billed for unintentional data usage in the past few years.
  • Beginning in October, current and former customers will receive credits to their account ranging from $2-$6.
  • In the end, the refunds are estimated to total $50 million.

Best Quote

The agency is “gratified to see the repayment, but for millions of Americans it’s a day late and a $1.99 short.” – Michele Ellison, Chief of the F.C.C. Enforcement Bureau

Loan-Linked Debit Cards Sidestep College Credit Card Law

October 5th, 2010

The CARD Act of 2009 has barely been in place for a month, but companies are already turning a profit with a variation on the theme…

  • A company called Higher One has figured out how to make money on college students using plastic, despite recent regulations designed to keep credit card companies from preying on the under-21 population. And they’re not the only ones finding loopholes in the new regulations: PNC Bank has been encouraging schools to market PNC’s products to students on campus, since PNC is now barred from doing so itself.
  • With the cooperation of school administrators, Higher One links student loan accounts to debit cards, allowing students to spend their financial aid funds anywhere with a single swipe. The cards are accepted anywhere MasterCard is, and they’re often branded with the school’s emblem.
  • Though participating colleges say the card program makes accessing financial aid easier for students, many students are not convinced. The cards come with all sorts of fees, and the way the program is pushed by schools makes it look suspicious. Some schools use the cards as substitutes for student IDs, requiring everyone on campus to have one even if they don’t have a HigherOne account.

Facts & Figures

  • The penalty for not using your Higher One debit card for 9 months is $19 per month.
  • Other fees include $2.50 for ATM transactions with other banks and $0.50 per transaction made as “debit” (entering a PIN) rather than “credit” (signing a receipt).
  • 675 colleges in the U.S. participate in Higher One’s debit card program.
  • Higher One’s sales in the 3rd quarter of 2010 were $27 million.

“The [Higher One] Refund Card mailing may look like an unwanted credit card offer. PLEASE DO NOT DISCARD IT.” – From the website of the University of Maryland at Baltimore

DailyCandy Editor Lauren Lumsden On Discovering New And Cool

October 4th, 2010

It’s not every day you get to interview an editor from your favorite daily mailing list, but we somehow convinced Lauren to chat in front of our camera last week. Check out her interview to learn about the dude-ranch-to-web-editor career track and, of course, Bacon Salt.

>>TILE brings you exclusive interviews from people doing great things in SPEND, GROW, and GIVE. To view more, click on TILEcasts in the TILE Library.

Have a burning question or someone you’d like to see interviewed? Let us know – just Ask TILE!

Culprit In ‘Flash Crash’ Identified

October 4th, 2010

How one company broke the Internet stock market.

  • The SEC and FTC just completed their report on the May 6th “flash crash” that resulted in a sudden loss of more than 600 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The market rebounded, but not before a few trader meltdowns.
  • The report says that the crash resulted from a single big trade, which happened to be executed on a day when the market was already unstable due (in part) to fears about European debt.
  • Apparently a large trading company (which the WSJ identifies as Waddell & Reed Financial, a mutual fund company in Kansas) sold tens of thousands of futures contracts using a computer trading program. The sudden sale scared day traders into dumping their futures contracts and further destabilizing the market.

Facts & Figures

  • The DJIA’s 600-point crash was its fastest decline ever.
  • The trade in question involved selling over $4 billion in futures contracts at one time.
  • A total of 75,000 futures contracts were sold.

Report On Congo Conflict Identifies Neighbors As Villians

October 1st, 2010

In one of the world’s most violent and tragic conflicts, it appears that no one’s hands are clean.

  • The UN just released a controversial report about the conflict in Congo from 1993 – 2003, and the picture it paints of certain foreign governments is causing political conflict.
  • The report accuses several African nations of committing serious crimes during the conflict. Rwanda in particular has expressed outrage that its military forces were accused of committing genocide.
  • In response, Rwanda and Uganda have both threatened to remove their peacekeeping forces from neighboring countries like Darfur and Somalia, where they are helping to maintain order.

Facts & Figures

The report accuses several nations of committing war crimes with their military forces:

  • Uganda – torturing civilians
  • Rwanda – hunting down refugees
  • Angola – raping women, looting hospitals
  • Zimbabwe – conducting deadly air raids
  • Chad – setting fire to homes

Best Quote

“The systematic and widespread attacks described in this report reveal a number of damning elements that, if proven before a competent court, could be classified as crimes of genocide.” – Excerpt from the 566-page report issued by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Your Friend Can Now Lend You $20 Using A Credit Card

October 1st, 2010

Is this the end of the entire credit card business model as we know it??

  • A new company called Square is blowing the minds of credit card company executives everywhere. Square produces a little gadget that plugs into the headphone jacks of a variety of iThings and the Android phone. That’s where things get crazy.
  • The free device allows anybody with a bank account to accept credit card payments in person or over the phone.
  • Usually, only businesses accept credit cards. They have to purchase expensive equipment and then pay fee after fee just for the ability to process credit payments. Square Up changes that, eliminating equipment, setup, and maintenance fees.

Facts & Figures

  • Square’s chief executive is the co-founder of Twitter.
  • Each time you process a payment using Square Up, the company keeps 2.75% of the transaction amount, plus $0.15.
  • At first, transactions are capped at $1,000, but that cap can be raised over time or for established businesses.

Amy Butte on CNBC’s Strategy Session October 4th

October 1st, 2010

Check out Amy’s appearance on CNBC’s Strategy Session! Part I: http://bit.ly/bsKyJc and Part II: http://bit.ly/9CdV2K

Mr. Market and Behavioral Finance

September 30th, 2010

Excerpt from the 1987 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report

Ben Graham, my friend and teacher, long ago described the mental attitude toward market fluctuations that I believe to be most conducive to investment success. He said that you should imagine market quotations as coming from a remarkably accommodating fellow named Mr. Market who is you partner in a private business. Without fail, Mr. Market appears daily and names a price at which he will either buy your interest or sell you his.

Even though the business that the two of you own may have economic characteristics that are stable, Mr.  Market’s quotations will be anything but. For, sad to say, the poor fellow has incurable emotional problems. At times he feels euphoric and can see only the favorable factors affecting the business. When in that mood, he names a very high buy-sell price because he fears that you will snap up his interest and rob him of imminent gains. At other times he is depressed and can see nothing but trouble ahead for both the business and the world. On these occasions he will name a very low price, since he is terrified that you will unload your interest on him.

Mr. Market has another endearing characteristic: He doesn’t mind being ignored. If his quotation is uninteresting to you today, he will be back with a new one tomorrow. Transactions are strictly at your option. Under these conditions, the more manic-depressive his behavior, the better for you.

But, like Cinderella at the ball, you must heed on warning or everything will turn into pumpkins and mice: Mr. Market is there to serve you, not to guide you. It is his pocketbook, not his wisdom, that you will find useful. If he shows up some day in a particularly foolish mood, you are free to either ignore him or take advantage of him, but it will be disastrous if you fall under his influence. Indeed, if you aren’t certain that you understand and can value your business far better than Mr. Market, you don’t belong in the game. As they say in poker, “If you’ve been in the game 30 minutes and you don’t know who the patsy is, you’re the patsy.”

In my own efforts to stay insulated, I have found it useful to keep Ben’s Mr. Market concept firmly in mind.

– Warren E. Buffett, February 29, 1988

Today at TILE… Saving for the Low-Interested Generation

September 30th, 2010

Today at TILE we talked about saving money. What really comes to mind when you think about saving? Why is it a good thing to do? Is now a good time to start?

For many young adults in the TILE community, saving is kind of hard to get your head around. You know you should save, but you probably don’t have a lot of experience doing it. Maybe even the most basic components of savings, such as yield, risk, and time horizon, make you feel like a social psychology major in advanced physics or an English-only speaker in mainland China. It’s really not as hard as you think, though. We narrowed down the process to three steps: First, have money to save. Second, set up an account. Third, make a commitment to start saving now.

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