Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Get Used to Unemployment
Student loans will be a major problem. It is unfortunate that many people borrow money to go to college that will be very difficult to pay back. Similar to the lending practices that caused the housing disaster, we have a combination of wishful thinking/ignorance on the part of many borrowers and predatory lending practices on the part of the lenders/colleges. The taxpayer will be left to pick up the pieces and many student lives will be affected. I do not understand why college costs continue to increase at a much higher rate than inflation. What is causing these higher costs and do they improve the education and the job prospects of the graduates? If not, then those costs should be eliminated. I always looked at college as a means to get a job that paid reasonably well. I was amazed at how many students are "undecided" and did not know what they wanted to major in. Instead of finishing college in 4 years, they were there for 6-8 years. Living in a city like San Diego, where there are excellent public schools, you can minimize your costs by staying at home and getting a viable degree at a minimal cost--though much more than when I went to school. Far too many kids make it a point to go to a school that is far from home and incur, or their parents, much higher costs than necessary. It appears that many "for profit" schools are geared to selling a piece of paper. This paper may be beneficial to someone who is already employed, but may not be beneficial to those who are using it to enter the job market. In the old days, the community colleges were excellent at providing skills to get a job that did not require a four-year degree.— August 20, 2010 12:36 a.m.
Dodd-Frank Protects SEC from Releasing Information
What else can be expected from a 2,000+ page bill co-written by a senator who is "retiring" because of special favors he received from the financial industry: a "Friend of Angelo VIP" loan and a special deal on a vacation home in Ireland. Lets see what plum lobby job Dodd lands after he ends his "public service." These "landmark" 1,000+ page bills may do some good to the general public, but they will unquestionably do much good to the well-connected in private industry and in government.— August 5, 2010 11:34 p.m.
Saks Closing Fashion Valley Store
The original store was Buffums, which was founded by the family of Dorothy Chandler. Those were the days when department stores in California were owned by California families. I believe both I. Magnin and Bullocks Wilshire occupied the space. It is perhaps the most opulent store in Fashion Valley. I think that upscale retail may have a difficult time because their prices have greatly exceeded the rate of inflation and society dresses ever more casually. Between employment insecurity and less disposable income, many of these discretionary purchases can be delayed. It is also difficult to pay their full retail prices when the items are made in China, or other low-wage countries. In fact, you can sometimes find a higher percentage of clothing made in Italy at Costco than you can at Nordstrom. I have rarely seen many customers at the Saks store. For whatever reason, I saw far more wealthy Mexicans at Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom than at Saks. At least for men's clothing, NM has the very high end and Nordstrom has more "reasonably" priced merchandise. It may be that Saks was caught in the middle between the two and Bloomingdale's took too many of their remaining customers. A sad aspect of this closure is that at least 70 people will lose their jobs. My mother has had a long-term relationship with a sales lady in the cosmetics department. We will have to call her to see what she plans to do.— May 4, 2010 11:49 p.m.
Remember: Most Scams Are Legal
Honesty, integrity and professionalism on Wall Street, or in Washington D.C., or in Sacramento, or ...? What quaint and obsolete values. After all, the Constitution and and the values that create it are so 18th century. We need modern, 21st century values so the noble ends justify any means. Does the world not revolve around me and is my aggrandizement not justified? One reason Congressional bills are so large and complicated is that there are many special interest favors in them. Clarity, transparency and actual problem solving are secondary or non-existent. I will be very surprised if this very corrupt deal is "illegal." I heard on a program tonight that Wall Street supports about 80% of the bill proposed in Congress. The "too big to fail" protection should be eliminated and the risk to the financial system minimized. I do not believe anything the political class says. Any claims about integrity are hollow when a tax cheater heads the Treasury Department.— April 22, 2010 11:57 p.m.
Local Unemployment Rate Back to 11%
On #25 I should have said: I am not trying to say that those with modest incomes DO NOT have a harder time than those who make more money, because they obviously do.— April 18, 2010 1:08 a.m.
Local Unemployment Rate Back to 11%
The U.S. dollar is being devalued. It is trading against the Mexican Peso at around 12-1 at the moment (not more than a year ago it was at 15-1) ===== Is Mexico suddenly improving, or is the US deteriorating? The exchange rate tells us that the relative position is changing in Mexico's favor. Unfortunately, I do not believe this is because Mexico is improving at a faster rate, this is because this country is on a debt binge that will destroy the dollar and our standard of living.— April 18, 2010 1:01 a.m.
Local Unemployment Rate Back to 11%
I agree that the well off have a duty to help those who are not so well off. But are the well off fulfilling their duty? Goodness, no. ===== How do you determine what fulfilling their duty is and how do you know that people are not doing it in a quiet manner? You either have the government intervene to force their perception of "fairness" on everyone, or people are free to privately do so. A study by a liberal professor in upstate NY (Albany or Rochester) published a book that said that those who regularly attend religious services give far more to charity than those who do not. Liberal church goers donated similarly to conservative church goers. Compassion is what you voluntarily do with your own money, it is not compassionate to have government confiscate other peoples money.— April 18, 2010 12:56 a.m.
Local Unemployment Rate Back to 11%
Just remember that in those years, the U.S. deficit soared out of sight. After the initial tax cuts, Reagan had to raise tax rates in ensuing years. ======= The deficit did increase because of the recession of 1981-2 that finally got inflation out of the economy, the defense build up, and the spending cuts were not followed through by Congress. Without a line-item veto power, any president has limited options to prevent spending other shutting the government down. I wish our current budget deficit were the $100-200 billion of the Reagan years instead of the $1-2 trillion today. The federal budget is an accounting disaster. Somehow I think it is intentional to make it difficult to understand what is going on. The federal budget should have both an expense budget and a capital budget. It is perfectly legitimate to borrow money to pay for capital improvements that have a long economic life. It is beyond irresponsible to borrow money for current consumption or transfer payments. I do not remember whether Reagan increased rates as you imply above. I do remember that when the 1986 tax agreement was passed, which is when the top marginal tax rate was lowered to 28% from 50%, the capital gains rate did increase from about 20% to 28%. It was part of the compromise to lower the marginal rate on earned income. You can consider this to be an increase, but taken together with the tax simplification, I consider it a very good compromise. The elimination of many tax breaks hurt people who were making investments solely for their tax shelter benefit and not for any economic benefit. If we had the same rates today, the hedge fund managers would at least be paying the same rate as everyone else.— April 18, 2010 12:46 a.m.
Local Unemployment Rate Back to 11%
Although there is a strong correlation between income and wealth, that is not always true. A friend who is an accountant in an affluent area told me that she was amazed at how many people with high incomes (>$300k) did not have any investments, i.e. wealth. There was a study about a year ago that said that most millionaires lived unassuming lives. Those with the fancy house and cars were literally living paycheck to paycheck. I am not trying to say that those with modest incomes have a harder time than those who make more money, because they obviously do. In a high-cost area like San Diego, it is even more difficult to make it because housing is very expensive. If I were just starting out, or was making $30k, I would probably move to a lower cost area. California used to be like heaven: great weather, friendly people and many good jobs. Unfortunately, the weather is the only one that has not deteriorated and the job situation has changed the most.— April 18, 2010 12:24 a.m.
Local Unemployment Rate Back to 11%
You need to define "rich" first. Is it someone who makes $100k, $200k, $500k, $1M, $5M, etc. Or is it someone whose net worth is $500k, $1M, $10M, $50M, $1B, etc.. Without creating a baseline, we can be talking past each other or we may appear to be disagreeing when we are partially agreeing. I completely agree that most of Wall Street is a con job on society with the full approval of the entire political class in DC. Just look at the revolving door between government and Wall Street--both the actual politician or bureaucrat and their spouse. It will be interesting to see what happens, if anything, with the fraud indictment of Goldman Sachs this week. I know many people who make more than $100k and have a net worth >$1 million, with the wealthiest being a retired executive with a net worth of ~$20 million. All of these individuals have worked very hard to earn their money and have managed their finances prudently to accumulate their wealth. I also have a friend who lives in Section 8 housing and is less careful with her money than I am. I am not making a judgement, just an observation.— April 17, 2010 11:56 p.m.