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Qualcomm Lowers Forecast; Stock Plunges 9%
"I don't know the need for running copper wire now, at least for phone service." The phone companies want to eliminate the copper wire for basic voice service because of the cost. I will keep my traditional phone service as long as I can get it. 911 response is much faster and, as happened with a relative last year, it can be the difference between life and death. I also want the phone company to provide power to my phone so that I have phone service during a power outage. A cell phone will work until the battery back-up at the cell site runs out. The telephone central office has batteries and a generator for back-up during power outages.— January 30, 2010 1:22 a.m.
Qualcomm Lowers Forecast; Stock Plunges 9%
"Third World countries are ahead in cell service." Could you please be specific as to which countries are better and in what sense. Japan has certainly been a trail blazer in wireless, but NTT is not really ahead on LTE (4G) and their technology is unique to Japan. Europe developed the GSM standard and the single technology platform allowed the rapid deployment of cellular service, particularly of 2G. The relative high cost of landlines in Europe also facilitated the adoption of wireless service. The US market developed differently than most of the world. It started out as a duopoly in the mid-1980s. Since then, the FCC has auctioned the frequencies for several billion dollars. The US is one of the few places where you do not pay a termination charge when you call a wireless phone. That is why you pay more when calling a wireless phone in Mexico or another foreign country, even on Skype. Sprint and Verizon chose Qualcom's CDMA technology and AT&T and T-Mobile chose GSM. The 3G evolution of GSM is actually a variation of CDMA. What probably creates the greatest frustration is the 2-year contract that most of us have. However, we love the heavily subsidized phones that are part of the 2-year contracts. I paid $199 for my iPhone, but paid CA sales tax on $599, which implies a $400 subsidy that AT&T recovers over the 2-year contract. According to AT&T's earnings call, it has more wireless data volume than any other carrier in the world. If this is accurate, it is because of the widespread use of the iPhone and other 3G phones. Our monthly plans tend to be more expensive than in other countries, but according to the wireless industry association, the per-minute cost is lower than in most countries, particularly if you have a family plan. The charges for SMS is a rip off. The cell phone is only wireless between the handset and the nearest cell tower. The rest of the network is terrestrial and not very different from the traditional telephone network. The frequency spectrum available between the phone and the cell tower and the connection between the cell tower the rest of the network are the limiting factors for the data rate. Most cell sites today are connected by copper and have a few DS1s (1.5 Mb/s) of backhaul capacity. Fiber connections are needed to provide the backhaul capacity required by 3G/4G data-centric phones. Deploying all of this fiber is expensive and time consuming, particularly in areas that are not very densely populated. In very urban areas, such as SF and NYC, cell antennas are sometimes deployed in every block to minimize congestion.— January 30, 2010 1:14 a.m.
Pension Costs Reach 69% of City Payroll, Says DeMaio
It will be interesting to see what the rest of the city council does, particularly those bought and paid for by the unions or who have a conflict of interest with their own pensions. Mr. DeMaio provides several options that can be implemented to eliminate the worse pension abuses and possibly start the city emphasizing serving the public instead of serving the bureaucracy. Without drastic reforms, insolvency may not be too far away.— January 19, 2010 11:56 p.m.
SD's Drinking Water 9th Worst of Major Cities
Not to disagree with the study methodology or its validity, but based on personal experience with taste and odor at the tap, I respectfully disagree with the rankings. The water in San Diego does not taste very good and is very hard. I once stayed at a co-worker's home in Arlington and the water did not taste very good. There have been times when the herbaceous odor and taste of the water in Austin (7), Dallas (12) and San Antonio (29) have made the water in San Diego appear to be like a mountain spring. The water sources for San Francisco (33) and Oakland (36) is the snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada and the water tastes similar to bottled water and is very soft. In the case of Oakland (EBMUD) the water is piped from the reservoirs in the foothills across the San Joaquin Valley to prevent contamination from the farms there. EBMUD tries to prevent erosion in its Mokelumne River watershed and in the local East Bay reservoirs. It is good to know and things can always be improved, but is the water in any of these locations unsafe, or is it just comparing against an ideal objective?— January 9, 2010 3:41 p.m.
Rate of Home Price Declines Continues Dropping
A probing and independent local media is very important to bring sunshine to the political process and to all those who are seeking special favors. The more money/power a government or agency has, the more people will try to use it for their gain--it is just human nature. Sunshine laws and transparency can be very helpful. The bureaucrats are like cockroaches, when the light is turned they scurry and hide. Development is beneficial as long as no one is being subsidized and legitimate concerns are addressed. You do have NIMBY and people who will just say no to everything. Developing an accurate measure of the costs and benefits of a particular development is not easy and, depending on the assumptions used and perspectives, they can vary significantly. I am not much of a proponent of subsidizing sports stadiums, other than assisting with government rules and expediting the approval process. I remember being at Seaport Village, by chance, when it was dedicated by Mayor Wilson around 1980. Although I am sure that there have been a lot of special favors granted for developing south of Broadway, the area today is vibrant and enjoyable. I remember when downtown was ghost town after 6 p.m. and you would not walk past E street--even in the daytime. I also remember a high school teacher saying that Mission Valley was going to be the new downtown and that downtown was dead. Sunroad is another matter and it is an example of incompetence, corruption and greed. As far a Thomas Sowell's book, I do not remember any statistics being twisted. It is true that he does not spend much time with Wall Street corruption and the unethical lending industry, but the point he makes very well is that government officials are the root cause of this fiasco. Without their complete ignorance of economics and the allocation signals that prices send, this would not have occurred. They created the environment where greed and speculation could grow unfettered. Fannie and Freddie are the center of this disaster and are the worst examples of state capitalism: private and ill-gotten gains for the politically well-connected and the taxpayer assumes all the risk. FHA may be going down the same path. Other than the WSJ Editorial Page and Dick Morris Book (Fleeced?) there was very little information on all these time bombs. I always enjoy your responses. Even if I do not agree with them, I learn and understand things better.— November 28, 2009 4:18 p.m.
Rate of Home Price Declines Continues Dropping
Calling public pensions sweetheart deals is being charitable. Given that virtually everyone involved--the politicians, unions and bureaucrats--have a potential conflict of interest in their own retirements, what has happened is apparently not illegal, but OJ was legally "not guilty." The DROP program is indefensible and is equivalent to looting the taxpayer. The politicians have an additional conflict of interest in that having union support usually improves their chances of staying in office. I grant you that the unions' power comes from their political contributions that convinces a majority of voters to support candidates that will not make difficult fiscal decisions. Ultimately, it is the voter's fault for voting for these knaves and their supporters. I look at who paid for political mailings that I receive and they are more likely to get me to vote against their proposal than for it. I still know very little and I am oblivious to most of what goes on. About 15-20 years ago Contra Costa County (SF Bay Area), which is almost as bankrupt as the City of San Diego, did a "comparable worth" study that determined that about half of the positions were "underpaid" and about half of them were "overpaid." The "underpaid" positions were typically filled by females with non-technical college degrees; the "overpaid" positions were typically filled by males with high-school degrees and required physical work. In typical government fashion, the compensation for the "underpaid" positions was increased to the "comparable worth" level, but the compensation for the "overpaid" positions was not decreased because the county needed to pay competitive market salaries to retain the employees. I would say that the market-based salaries would have been the right decision for all the employees. I believe that both policemen and firemen should be paid well to attract high-quality individuals. I also do not believe that you necessarily need a college degree to perform these jobs well. My biggest problem is the lack of transparency and public disclosure regarding the total cost of public sector employee compensation. If the pension and medical plans costs were clearly published and fully funded using conservative financial returns, like 5-6% annual returns, then I would not have much of a problem. The sad fact is that we have a ponzi-like scheme that is not sustainable in the long run and some type of insolvency and renegotiation will probably occur. The state, counties and cities are all rapidly heading towards bankruptcy and taxpayers who on average make significantly less money cannot pay much more.— November 27, 2009 11:16 p.m.
Rate of Home Price Declines Continues Dropping
I hope everyone had a pleasant Thanksgiving. Even with all the challenges we face, this is still the best country for the average citizen and we should all be grateful for living here.— November 26, 2009 11:40 p.m.
Rate of Home Price Declines Continues Dropping
Thomas Sowell referred to the Boston Fed study that was used to create the perception of unfair lending to minorities. There were some methodology problems with the study that I do not remember, but the study included the percentage of loans made to Asians, which was higher than whites. Since the fact that more Asians were given loans than whites does not fit into the discrimination theme, this data was not included by the politicians trying to prove systemic "discrimination" against minorities--i.e. blacks and hispanics. The other point that Dr. Sowell made is that the politicians focused on the loan rejection rates and not on the loan approval rates. Since the majority of all ethnic groups were approved for loans, by focusing on the rejection rate the disparity between the groups were made to appear larger than actual. The example given in the book for this sleight of hand is that if group A is approved 99% and group B is approved 98%, you can say that group B was rejected twice as much (2%) as group A (1%). While this is statistically true, it is also misleading.— November 26, 2009 11:38 p.m.
Rate of Home Price Declines Continues Dropping
"The City is facing a deficit of $200 million, at least." I do not understand why the public sector pensions cannot be modified just like private pensions. If the money is not available for the 3% sweetheart deal, then why can the pensions not revert to the 2% per year that existed before the corrupt pension boards made the change. Or at least, do a pro-rated 2%/3% for the years each was in effect. I am fortunate to work for one of the few private sector employers that provides a pension. However, to provide a point of reference, my retirement at 50/28 years my pension is about 25% of my salary at retirement; at 52/30 years my pension is about 33%; it never exceeds 50% of my salary and it is not indexed for inflation. The company does match my 401k contribution at 80% up to 6%, or 4.8%. However, the 401k contributions are made by me and are really a salary reduction. It is disturbing to hear that some public employees complain about their "low" salaries but do not include the value of all the benefits paid by the taxpayer. These benefits can sometimes almost double their total compensation. You also see the spiking of pensions by including overtime, vacation time and even car allowances. These actions are at best unethical and should really be criminally prosecuted.— November 26, 2009 11:21 p.m.
Rate of Home Price Declines Continues Dropping
"You are correct: the Congress is partly responsible for this mess. It encouraged and facilitated lending to those who could not pay off their mortgages.+ Dr. Thomas Sowell's recent book "The Housing Boom and Bust" provides an excellent view into the role government played in this debacle. He also discusses how data was selectively used from studies to promote a political agenda. The statement "Statistics do not lie, but you can lie with statistics" is very applicable to what the political class did to promote criminal lending.— November 26, 2009 10:57 p.m.