Mammon category archive
How Far Will Wells Fargo? 0
Apparently, pretty damned far.
I used to bank at Wells-Fargo, because they gobbled up the honest bank that gobbled up the honest bank where I had an account. I must admit that I put off changing banks too long, because doing so is an annoying and laborious task, but, really, one can only take so much.
The straw that broke this camel’s back was the story about Wells employees’ creating phony accounts to meet draconian sales quotas. I remember that, when I called up the outfit that handles my pension to change my direct deposit, the fellow on the other end of the call said, “We’ve been getting lots of calls from persons who have changed from Wells-Fargo.”
I filled him in on the news. He was aghast somewhat taken aback at Wells’s conduct.
Aside:
I notice that, in the Sunday New York Times, Wells has been running full-page ads about how they have changed.
Color me skeptical.
Your Private Vehicle Isn’t–Private, That Is 0
My local rag reports that Ford is considering mining customer data for fun and profit. Here’s a bit from the article:
Data mining is a highly lucrative revenue stream.
General Motors recently tracked the habits of 90,000 drivers in Chicago and Los Angeles who agreed to have their car-radio listening habits tracked to assess the potential relationship between what they listen to and what they buy.
Ford CEO Jim Hackett provided a glimpse into what sounds like a potentially massive data mining plan. His remarks were made during a Freakonomics Radio interview for a podcast released Nov. 8.
“We have 100 million people in vehicles today that are sitting in Ford blue-oval vehicles. That’s the case for monetizing opportunity versus an upstart who maybe has, I don’t know, what, they got 120, or 200,000 vehicles in place now. And so just compare the two stacks: Which one would you like to have the data from?” Hackett said, according to the podcast transcript.
Scrap Medal Industry 0
Paul Krugman considers Donald Trump’s approach to awarding “Presidential Medal of Freedom.” A snippet:
Now, this may seem like a trivial story. But it’s a reminder that the Trumpian attitude toward truth — which is that it’s defined by what benefits Trump and his friends . . . .
Scooflaws 0
My local rag reports that Bird, the outfit that’s randomly dropping scooters all over the country, holds itself above the law (that’s my words, not theirs). Here’s a bit:
Bird now owes $362,800 to the University of Georgia and $32,000 to Santa Cruz, California. Virginia Beach has impounded 205 scooters and is owed $1,700, as of Oct. 31.
And that’s just the beginning. Bird scooters have been reported in the cities of Nashville, Cleveland, Denver, Salt Lake City, Ann Arbor and Greensboro, North Carolina, just to name a few, according to news reports. . . .
“I think it’s very difficult to look at one locality and see the big picture,” he (Graham Henshaw, executive director of the Alan B. Miller Entrepreneurship Center at the College of William & Mary–ed.) said. “What they’re trying to do is blanket the entire country in scooters.”
The story goes on to report that Bird does not respond to inquiries from government agencies and doesn’t seem interested in getting its scooters out of impound.
I’m not quite sure how the characterize this, but the phrase, “arrogant, greedy SOBs” comes to mind.
Silence Is Complicity 0
Dan Simpson is not amused with the United States’s passivity regarding the Khashoggi case and the Trump “administration’s” seeming wish that it all would just go away. Here’s a snippet from his column:
It used to be that the reliance of the world, including the United States, on Saudi oil served to give the kingdom a pass on humane behavior. In the case of the United States, there was also heavy U.S. oil company involvement in Saudi oil production. In the case of the United States, there was also heavy U.S. oil company involvement in Saudi oil production. U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia also became increasingly important to America over the years. . . .
Gilding the Polity, Reprise 0
Shorter Mitch McConnell: Pity the 1%.
Gilding the Polity 0
(Update: the embed is giving a 500 error as of 2018-10-16 22:30. I checked. It’s their error, not mine. One hopes it’s cleared up soon.)
The Pusher Men 0
I have high blood pressure. Fortunately, my medicines do not include extra added jet fuel. (Also, you will not see the medicines I’m prescribed advertised on TV because they are generic, cheap, and effective, with minimal side effects. They fail all the tests for drugs advertised on television!)
Learn more here.
