Let’s try to be understanding. The Congo has to raise money to fight poverty while growing its economy. That is why government authorities have announced that they will start selling off oil and gas drilling permits to attract major investors. The drilling will take place in Virunga National Park as well as tropical peatlands. Both areas have been protected habitats for endangered families of Gorillas. The peatlands can be a particularly rewarding investment as they are home to massive amounts of carbon. But just about 20% of Americans believe in evolution and think that mountain gorillas, who share close to 97% of human DNA are distant, very distant relatives of ours. 

We are not all familiar with the Brassica juncea species of mustard seed. But the French know it well – and hence the looming tragedy. These seeds are dying in the heat of Burgundy. The backup source in Ukraine has quite literally dried up, and what there is of the seed is stalled in shipping logjams of biblical proportions.

French chefs depend on the seed for Dijon mustard which is a beloved product with no suitable substitutes, Although it is rarely done in public, the French like to spread a bit of Dijon on freshly-based baguettes. Yes, they have honey mustard and that yellow stuff the British seem to like. But nothing is bringing the drought and the effects of climate change home to the French more dramatically that the sight of empty shelves where the five or six varieties of Dijon once dwelled. 

And yet, Tony Sirico, or as we know him, Paulie Walnuts of Soprano’s fame, became a fan favorite. He decided he would learn to act while he was a guest in Sing-Sing prison in New York and watched a “lousy drama” put on by fellow inmates.

The United States worked with its business partner, Russia, from 2006 to 2020 to purchase airline seats. Well, not exactly “airline” seats. The US has paid Russia to take 71 astronauts to the International Space Station during those years. Perhaps we did it because it was a “good deal” – we paid the Russians $56 Million per seat according to the New York Times.

Every time you book a hotel, book a cruise or any travel tour,  on the supplier’s 800 number, you are considered to have made a “direct” booking. No travel advisor/agent/consultant was involved in the transaction. You did it yourself.  So how/why are they charging you the built-in travel agent commission anyway? Since they are not paying any travel agent, these hotels, cruise lines, and tour operators get to pocket the extra cash you have paid them. They simply take out the travel agent commission and add it to the profit they have already created in their pricing – doubling their profit!

But wait – is this legal? In some states, it is likely illegal, a violation of state consumer protection laws. You cannot be charged for services you neither requested or received. If no agent was involved, how can you be charged as much as 15% of the total cost to pay an agent commission when you’re the “agent”?

No one in the travel industry talks about this. Travel writers who work for publications heavily dependent on travel industry advertising dollars never mention it. This is the travel industry’s big “dirty little secret” worth many billions in additional annual revenue. 

Sure you are entitled to get the money back -but since you’ve never asked ………..

Here is a summary of how it works in each of the major industry sectors:

Airlines stopped paying commissions to travel agents many years ago. Most agents survive by charging fees to process airline tickets. Pursuing a commission refund with the airlines would be both inappropriate and a waste of your time. 

Rental car firms have intricate contractual arrangements with travel providers and often commissions are not included. Again, many agents simply tack on fees for this type of transaction. Again, likely a waste of your time.

Hotels are a different story. All hotel pricing includes a travel agent commission of from 8-10%. If you are not using a travel agent, you should be entitled to a refund of the agent commission. Savvy guests always request a return of the agent commission at check-out. Do note however that refund on a direct booking will be lower for a hotel booking than it would be for the cruise or escorted tour refund which can run as high as 17%.

Cruise lines and tour firms follow the same general policies. They always include the travel agent commission in the price charged to those who book direct. That commission will normally range from 12-17%. These are funds, theoretically,  set aside for payment to travel agents for the services they provide.

All direct booking pricing always includes the travel agent commission. When you do not use a travel agent, common sense would dictate that you are entitled to have the commission taken off your invoice.

In States with strong consumer protection laws like California, New York, and Massachusetts, for instance, it is our opinion that retaining the travel agent commission when none was used, is likely a violation of consumer rights provisions in the law. But, to our knowledge, no one has ever questioned this practice legally.

That may change as consumers and the consumer press starts revealing this major industry secret and rather extensive consumer rip-off. 

There are a number of rather mature, stable businesses that you can invest in that payout dividends annually. And they do this even in bad markets. They do this because they are not in a position to really need capital to invest. They likely have some serious savings. Fortune Magazine did an analysis and found that from 1973-2021, companies that paid quarterly dividends managed an annual return of 9.6% per year compared to non-dividend stocks that could only manage returns averaging 4.8% during that same period. Is this one of those extremely rare financial no-brainers? 

News of the latest sexual orientation classification came from a competitive archer who announced she was attracted in a sexual way to inanimate objects. She has openly discussed her former marriage to The Eifel Tower in Paris in 2007. Sadly, the marriage did not last and she is now “romantically linked” with a wooden fence she claims is structurally “perfect”. Discuss among yourselves.

In 2021 statistics show that the total losses attributed to identity fraud in the U.S. were just north of $24 billion. On the “dark web” identity-related shopping options recently included a G-mail account, lots of them, that had been hacked. You can buy one for $80. We are all taught to do everything possible to hold on to our Social Security numbers. Last month, you could purchase them in bulk for $2.00 each. Isn’t it interesting that no politician seems intent on going after the dark web despite its demonstrable negative impact on personal security and the US economy? 

In 2022 – the price of a new car averaged 26% higher than the same car pre-pandemic. Average monthly car payments are now approaching $750 per month.

Meanwhile, the best car strategy, assuming one wants to buy an ICE car, is to choose the best foreign model with the highest consumer ratings from Consumer Reports. Choose a car that is more expensive than what you think you can afford. Then, hold it for a minimum of ten years. You will be driving a high-quality “dream car” and it will still retain some significant value when you go to sell it in ten years.

That would be a definite “Yes”. The implications in the workplace are rather staggering.

Pre-pandemic, for those who can recall that time, saw the average professional office worker engaged in meetings 14.2 hours per week. Now, with all of the logistical and staffing issues created by the pandemic, in-office meetings now account for an average of 21.5 hours per week.

It would seem essential for businesses to be looking for ways to cut down on required meeting times but there is little indication that they are. The research seems to show that meeting hours per week continue to increase. The conclusion is clear that business leaders feel that in-person meetings account for mostly “time well spent”.

This would seem to be a profitable path for business gurus and advisers. How to cut down on physical meeting time while still generating ideas such meetings can generate.

So just how do we cut down in-person meetings while still maintaining their effectiveness in a pandemic work environment that would seem to necessitate frequent gatherings of the troops?

A recent study by OnePoll found that two out of every three home-based workers said they were less inclined to take time off from work than they would if they were based in a corporate office. This is making the definition of “sick days” less specific. Remote workers seem to work sick because they are not putting fellow workers at risk. Every home-based worker is now faced with the psychological challenge – “how sick do you really have to be to take off when you’re working from home”?

And then there’s this: How should employers be monitoring this issue?

So what is the real deal involving the storeowner selling 1985 Chicago Bears paraphernalia and the overseas manufacturers who sell it? Why are so many shelves emptying out?

The manufacturers can squeeze out the small business by seriously increasing minimum order requirements. Larger chains like Target and Walmart don’t have this problem. But once the overseas company produces and sells stuff to the small business owner, how are the goods shipped to the United States?

Normally stores have to negotiate and often fight for shipping container space.  The Washington Post reports that so-called “spot rates” as in “please may I have some space in your large container Mr. China” have risen from $4,000 per container in 2019 to a current average in 2022 of $24,000. These are the specific challenges faced by a store owner trying to order stock so more folks can share their idolatry for the 85 Bears,

Some economists justify the value of debt as a means to stimulate growth spending. But no economist on this side of sanity recommends that the United States maintain its present debt level. The figure changes by the minute but, as of this writing, our debt is $19.9 Trillion. So, by the time you read this, it  is accurate to say we have reached a historical milestone – the United States is $20 Trillion in debt.  There is another country that competes with us in terms of the amount of they are carrying – the problem is it really isn’t a single country, it’s 28 of them, the members of the European Union.

There is a way to pay off the national debt. That would require each family in the United States to write the government a check for $233,000. (That takes in current debt and proposed infrastructure spending.

Economics and conversation about debt is both complex and depressing. So let’s handle this subject in small slices and come back again to the subject soon.

We were sitting around one evening with six friends each of whom was rather accomplished in their chosen field. The conversation turned to a question we had posed, asking our friends if they suddenly had $1 million in new-found cash to invest in a business where would they put it? 

One response drew laughter. The doctor in our group said he would open the city’s largest store in downtown Chicago selling sunglasses. The two financial fellows in our group gave the doctor a hard time.

Then, three weeks later, we were reading the Wall Street Journal which had an article saying that Chicago has the largest per capita sales of sunglasses in the entire country. It turns out that the sun shines so irregularly in Chicago that residents forget where they have stored their sunglasses and go out and purchase new ones. 

What business, that does now not exist, would you open in your home town with a gift of $1 million 

Medical science has been predicted on the fact that we humans have 78 organs. For more than a century, medical textbooks have verified that fact. But that has just changed. Researchers at the University of Limerick have identified a 79th organ, the mesentery, a sheet of connected tissues connecting the intestines to the abdominal wall. It turns out that it is the mesentery that keeps our intestines from flopping around in the belly. We don’t yet know what else it does but this newest organ may lead to important work in the study of Crohn’s disease and other diseases of the gut region. 

Some of us are blessed with a lifestyle that includes access to outdoor food markets featuring fresh produce from local farms. But that is rare and most typical of Americans who live in urban areas,

In France, there are hundreds of well-organized rotating markets that go to a different village each day of the week. Even the most rural villagers know that market day is on Tuesday.

Could it be a sustainable business model to design a fleet of trucks that would set up specialized stalls in different locations each day of the week. Surely bringing foods not usually obtainable to the suburbs could be a profitable venture if the market operated six days a week.

It turns out that using a cotton swab to clean out wax from the inside of your ears may be counter-productive. William H. Shapiro, an Audiologist and Clinical Associate Professor at NYU explains that wax is created by our bodies to keep our ears safe from insects. The wax is normally replaced on its own. Shoving the wax, via a prod, further into the eardrum can cause serious damage.

Our ears are not for amateur prying and prodding. Professional ear cleanings that will not harm the eardrum are recommended. 

Among the “This has Never Happened Before” aspects of the Trump Presidency is the fact that he came into office with a “debt of at least $1 billion to 150 Wall Street banks and other financial institutions.” This quote is not from some left-leaning publication – it is from the Wall Street Journal . The banks owed huge sums include Wells Fargo, J.P, Morgan, Chase, and Fidelity Investments.

The ethics problems seem to revolve around the fact that these debts were packaged into bonds and then sold to investors.

So the question will be, since the new administration will be responsible for overseeing and regulating banks to which the President owes money, will this represent an important conflict of interest?

The stereotype may fit in one’s mind, but Nielson Ratings has released a report that demonstrates that Americans aged 35-49, Gen-Xer’s, actually spend the most time on social media,  a time-absorbing six hours and 58 minutes per week. Millennials only spend six hours and nineteen minutes per week on the major sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

But it doesn’t stop there. Gen Xer’s also watch streaming media and TV more than any other age group. It comes out to just about 32 hours per week. That works out to four and a half hours a night. This is almost counter-intuitive because the older Boomers, who you might think have more time on their hands, are watching media about 20 hours a week.

From a socialization standpoint, one must wonder why the group most likely to have young children and a challenging, uphill career climb, has the most time to spend on social and other media.

By the way – since social media is normally done with thumbs rather than voice, and it is most often a substitute for actual conversation using the human voice, wouldn’t it be more accurate to name it “anti-social” media?

American Airlines has placed a large order for new 737’s. But the airline has decided not to place back-of-seat entertainment systems on these new planes. There will be no visual entertainment of any kind. Why?

According to The Economist, nine out of every ten passengers flying now carry their own smartphones or tablets and the majority prefer watching movies on their own devices. Doesn’t that mean that as we move about this planet, 90% of us are connected to a rather powerful computer? What are the implications of that and where will that take us? We just don;t need an airline to entertain us anymore. We just need them to supply the power. So the power  becomes the commodity.

Putting seat back screens on a 737 comes at a cost of about $3 million. Then there is the additional cost of  weight from all the necessary wires and cables which decrease fuel efficiency.

Is in-flight entertainment a service whose time has past? Is it now technologically redundant?

In the year 2004, a quiet revolution took place in the United States. That was the year that the total amount of credit card transactions surpassed the number of cash transactions for the first time in history – and it happened in our country. But in 2016 the rest of the world caught up – and now cash is used less often than credit globally. The WSJ wonders if reducing the amount of actual cash in a geographical area  will significantly reduce the amount of  theft and  serious crime?

Golf insiders, even those at the poshest clubs, are talking about secret trips taken in the early morning to Costco to look for balls. The Costco brand, Kirkland, sells golf balls that, according to the WSJ, match or outperform balls costing twice as much.  What other generic brand of product is at least as good if not better than name brands costing twice as much?

Perhaps it is reshaping itself. In 1967 about 8% of the families in America earned more than $100,000. Today about 25% of Americans earn more than $100,000. A large number of middle class Americans have moved up to the the middle class ceiling.  We own, on average, more, better things, many of them technology-related. We live in bigger houses and we drive better cars. We eat better and we drink water curated in bottles. Can one argue, just for conversation, that the Middle Class is actually better off than its ever been?

There are three immediate things you can do to better understand the President and how his thought process works:

01 – Find a copy of “A Thirst for Power: Life and Times of Roy Cohen. Cohen, became general counsel to the late Senator Joseph McCarthy. He was also the pivotal influence on Donald Trump during his formative years. It was Cohen who taught Trump that when someone hits you you never walk away – you hit them back twice as hard.

02 – Watch Breitbart News on your computer. Trump’s current Chief Advisor was the Founder of this disruptive news network. The site was founded by Robert Mercer who was also Trump’s largest campaign contributor.

03 – Watch and listen to Infowars, the home of Alex Jones who rails against the influence of government in our daily lives. Infowars is also the source of numerous conspiracy theories some of which have been repeated by Trump or members of his team.

If you ever watch Trump and ask “Where did he get that?” there’s a good chance he got it from one of the three sources above.

For purposes of conversation, can one really discuss Trump intelligently without attempting to penetrate the sources for many of his views and those of his devoted followers?

Democrats and Republicans are finding it hard to talk to one another. But let’s go back to the essential differences between the parties. It all has to do with the Grey Area, all the stuff the Constitution doesn’t mention or isn’t particularly clear about. Republicans tend to want to send all of the majority of stuff in the political process, like schools, health care, crime-fighting, back to the States, The States, they reason, have their finger on the local pulse. Americans, they claim want government off their backs. They want decisions made by people at the local level instead of bureaucrats in Washington.

Democrats feel that the expertise and organization of the federal government, along with its strength, is necessary to bring about positive change in our society.  They just don’t see that the States have enough money or resources to get the job done.

But missing in the conversation is the question of where is one most likely to find major levels of corruption – at the state level, in places like Albany, Sacramento, and Springfield, or at the federal level in the halls of Congress and the offices along K Street in the nation’s capital.

Is state government or the federal government more susceptible to corruption and/or control by powerful outside forces?

Decaf coffee served in restaurants is not decaf between 5-10% of the time, according to industry statistics. Some brands of decaf coffee have been found to have a higher than expected proportion of caffeine. If you are a decaf person do not get your waitperson upset as the caffeine drugging of the unsuspected is a widely practiced revenge tactic.

Right now – today, a financial advisor has no legal responsibility to place their client’s best interests ahead of their own. There is no rule or legislation that requires a financial advisor to “reveal” how your investments benefit them personally.

Studies have shown that the average American’s life expectancy actually increases when they go to an airport and fly anywhere in the world that is not an active war zone. The life expectancy goes up the longer we Americans are away from home. (Note there a many variables involved in this postulation but it is essentially accurate) So the question is why? To look at life expectancy you have to measure what it is that is likely to kill you. The number 1 and 2 causes of death in the US are heart disease and cancer. But they are considered “travel neutral” so you have to go down the list to the # 3 and # 4 causes of death. They are automobile deaths and death by shooting. The largest demographic for causes of automobile deaths is the teenage driver – the largest demographic for murder by handgun is the American teenager. Your life expectancy increases (ever so slightly) when you travel abroad because you are away from American teenagers.

The world’s eight richest men own as much money and assets as the bottom half of the entire world, about 3.7 billion people. That is a bad thing – right?  When the charity Oxfam issued this fact in a press release it sure sounded awful. But among the eight are legendary benefactors devoted to improving life on our planet and pledged to give away the vast majority of their fortunes to erase childhood hunger and disease. Among the eight are Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. It is important to note that this wealth thing is complicated. The number of people on the planet in extreme poverty has actually dropped by 75% over the course of the last 30 years. That means that 1.2 billion people have escaped extreme poverty. So what is the relationship of extreme wealth to extreme poverty. Does the extreme wealth allowed under capitalism serve to allow for the care of those in the very worst of circumstances? (Boston Globe)