Category: Current News

Well, it’s about dang time, that’s all I’ve got to say. The goats have finally arrived on the levee, and not a moment too soon. Any more weed growth and they’d have had to drop the fisherman in to the riverbank by helicopter, dangling from a cable like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. I mean, REALLY!

OK, today’s post is all about interest rates. And we’ve started off with a cartoon because it only hurts when you breathe deep – or when you laugh. Here are a couple of softball questions to test your financial knowledge. Yeah, sure, you could probably Google the answers. But where’s the fun in that? Let me know in the comments section how you did. If you don’t, I’ll just have to assume you got them all wrong. And we wouldn’t want THAT, now would we?

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1. How many members currently serve on the Federal Reserve Board?

A. Five

B. Seven

C. 435

2. Of those, what fraction are women?

A. None

B. All

C. About half

3. Which of the following are NOT current members of The Fed?

A. Colin Powell

B. Janet Yellin

C. Alan Greenspan

4. As of 4/16/2024, the 30-year fixed mortgage interest rate was…?

A. Above 7%

B. Between 6% and 7%

C. Below 6%

5. The commonly used short-hand term for the Federal Reserve?

A. The Fed

B. The Sonsabitches

C. The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders

6. Jerome Powell, current Fed Chair, was appointed by which POTUS?

A. Barack Obama

B. Donald Trump

C. Joe Biden

7. If interest rates remain high, who am I voting for in the fall?

A. Donald Trump

B. Joe Biden

C. Ralph Nader

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If nobody gets them all right, I will let you know and post correct answers in the comments tomorrow. Now, good luck y’all. And just to show I’m on your side, here are some free hints. Yer welcome.

I know it probably sounds over-dramatic, but every year when I finish doing the taxes, I feel like I’ve just been pardoned from death row. Having retired last year – and hopefully selling our CA place soon – this should be the last time we’ve got multiple state returns to worry about. And of course, without the aid of modern tax-filing software with its relatively simple Q&A interface, I’d more than likely have jumped off a steep roof in tax season a long time ago – just FYI.

Still, this year’s return(s) ran to over 60 pages. All that and I got it done with 12 hours to spare. New this time around was IRS form 199-A referencing Treasury Regs. §1.199A-4(b)(1)(i); as well as §1.199A-5(c)(2).  For those of you on the outside looking in, that’s the de minimis Safe Harbor Real Estate Statement. In previous years this was just covered by a single check box inside the Tax Act package. But this year, inexplicably, it required an additional .pdf attachment to form 1040. I could go on. But if I did, I’m afraid I might have to seek additional psychotherapy. And nobody wants to see that hot mess.

Suffice it to say, I’m walking on post-tax sunshine today, and that is a very good thing. We should all be so lucky. As I’m well aware, there are those of us out there who are not yet off the hook. Sorry about that, Chief.

LMK = “let me know,” just FYI.

Better luck next time, DJT.

Do I repeat myself? Yes, I guess I do. Recently I posted a funny one about technology from David Brooks, here. Today’s, titled “The Quiet Magic of Middle Managers” is more serious, but no less worth reading. (NYT subscribers: here.) It’s in keeping with Brooks’ center-right leanings ala Edmund Burke. But I would argue it extends from middle managers to teachers, coaches, parents, and indeed anyone not a hermit who exerts an influence over their neighbors, regardless of political philosophy.

Brooks takes as his model his old boss Jim Lehrer of PBS NewHour fame. He uses words like “moral” and “ethical” a lot. If either of those facts disqualifies his view in your eyes, I’d urge you to reconsider. Hey, anybody who quotes both Ted Lasso and Mary Oliver is OK in my book. They at least deserve a second look.

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Nobody writes poems about middle managers. Nobody gets too romantic about the person who runs a department at a company, or supervises a construction crew, or serves as principal at a school, manager at a restaurant or deacon at a church. But I’ve come to believe that these folks are the unsung heroes of our age.

 

Amid a wider national atmosphere of division, distrust, bitterness and exhaustion, these managers are the frontline workers who try to resolve tensions and keep communities working, their teams united and relationships afloat. At a time when conflict entrepreneurs (see: Tucker Carlson) and demagogues are trying to rip society apart, I’m beginning to think that these members of the managerial class, spread across the institutions of society, are serving as the invisible glue that gives us a shot at sticking together.

 

So how do these managers work their magic? When I hear people in these roles talk about their work and its challenges, I hear, at least among the most inspiring of them, about the ways they put people over process, about the ways they deeply honor those right around them. A phrase pops into my mind: “Ethical leadership.” This is not just management. Something more deeply humanistic is going on. Let me give you a few features of ethical leadership:

 

Knowing that moral formation is part of the job. Here we turn to the gospel of Ted Lasso. When Lasso was asked about his goal for his soccer team, he replied: “For me, success is not about the wins and losses. It’s about helping these young fellas be the best versions of themselves on and off the field.” The lesson is that if you help your people become the best versions of themselves, the results you seek will take care of themselves.

 

Creating a moral ecology. I love talking about my old boss Jim Lehrer. When I was starting out at “PBS NewsHour” and I said something he thought was smart, his eyes would crinkle with pleasure. When I said something he thought was crass, his mouth would turn down in displeasure. For 10 years I chased the eye crinkles and tried to avoid the mouth downturns.

 

Jim never had to say anything to me, but with those kinds of slight gestures he taught us how to do our jobs. He communicated: This is how we do things on the “NewsHour”; these are our standards. Jim is gone, but the standards and moral ecology he helped create live on. Morally healthy communities habituate people to behave in certain ways and make it easier to be good.

 

Being hyperattentive. The poet Mary Oliver wrote: “This is the first, wildest and wisest thing I know: that the soul exists, and that it is built entirely out of attentiveness.” The leaders we admire are paying close attention to those who work with them. They are not self-centered but cast the beam of their care on others, making them feel seen and lit up. In how you see me, I come to see myself. If you cast a just and loving attention on people, they blossom.

 

Knowing that people are watching more closely than you might think. We like to believe that it’s our fancy pronouncements that have a big impact on others. But what usually gets communicated most deeply is the leader’s smallest gestures — the casual gifts of politeness, the little compliment or, on the other hand, the cold shoulder of thoughtlessness.

 

The Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke wrote, “The law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in. They give their whole form and color to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them.”

 

Generativity. The economists tell us that people are basically self-interested, but there comes a time in the lives of many managers when the capacity to guide and foster the next generation is more rewarding than just serving themselves. And yet they do this mentoring with respect, not condescension. The most generative leaders don’t see themselves as doing things “for” people. They know that “with” is more powerful than “for.” The chaplain Samuel Wells once observed that modern societies often “attempt to construct a world that works perfectly well without love.” But, he adds, mature love between equals is walking “with” and not doing “for.”

 

The absence of a heroic sense. Albert Schweitzer was genuinely heroic. In 1905, he decided to leave his successful careers in music and academia to become a missionary doctor serving the poor in Africa. But he never thought that he was doing anything special, and he never hired people who thought of their work in those terms. If you’re going to last in a life of sacrificial service, he concluded, you have to treat it as something as normal as doing the dishes. He wrote, “Only a person who feels his preference to be a matter of course, not something out of the ordinary, and who has no thought of heroism but only of a duty undertaken with sober enthusiasm, is capable of becoming the sort of spiritual pioneer the world needs.”

 

The same humility is observed in the best organizations — the willingness to do the uncelebrated work, day after day.

 

Preserving the moral lens. People in most professions are driven by mixed motives. Doctors want to heal the sick but are pressured to speed through enough patients to make the practice profitable. Lawyers defend their clients but also have to rack up billable hours. In day-to-day life it is easy for the utilitarian lens of metrics to eclipse the moral lens that drew us to our work in the first place. Ethical leaders push against the creeping pressures of utilitarianism, so that the people around them remember the ideals that drove them into their work in the first place.

 

A posture of joy. We assume we are being judged on our competence, but mostly we are judged on our warmth. Ethical leaders communicate a joyfulness in what they do and attract followers in part by showing pleasure. Look at the example set by the great Russian martyr Aleksei Navalny. He was funny and teasing, even in the most brutal circumstances.

 

America’s founding fathers understood that when private virtue fails, then relationships fail and the constitutional order crumbles. The crucial struggle of our time is not merely the global macro struggle between democracy and authoritarianism; it’s the day-to-day micro-contest between the forces that honor human dignity and those that spread dehumanization.

 

The democratic fabric is held together by daily acts of consideration that middle managers are in a position to practice and foster. The best of them don’t resolve our disputes but lift us above them so that we can see disagreements from a higher and more generous vantage point. Democracy is more than just voting; it is a way of living, a way of living generously within disagreements, one that works only with ethical leaders showing the way.

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Well, waddayasay?

All comments welcome, pro or con.

I am happy to report that the  City of West Sac has finally cleared out the homeless encampment @ the Broderick Boat Ramp. The river is running very high this spring. Wouldn’t want all those taxpayers to get washed down the delta and on out into San Francisco Bay, now would we?

Here is that area a few years ago when they brought in the goats for weed control. From the looks of things now, it could stand another goat-grazing, pronto. But the absence of tents and trash is much appreciated.

Also, our venerable neighborhood bar “The Broderick” (founded in 1893 and only deep-cleaned once or twice in the ensuing  nearly-century-and-a-half) has re-opened, rechristening itself as a burger joint to compete with nearby Burgers ‘n Brew.  I will have to check it out. If they give you actual silverware (as opposed to a single solitary plastic spork) with your $15 lamb-burger-and-fries, then baby, I’m all in – deep-cleaning or no. Hey, I like a lotta ketchup on my fries and I don’t like picking them up with my fingers. So sue me.

Last but not least…

This just in: The Oakland A’s have agreed to make West Sac’s Sutter Health Park – just 6 blocks from 392 Midstream – their temporary home from 2025-2027 after their current lease expires while their new stadium in Vegas is being built.

I’m telling you, this could be a big boon to West Sac real estate. I mean, walking distance to @GoldenOneCenter (where the NBA’s Kings play) AND walking distance to see the A’s? C’mon man, this is freakin’ MLB here. (Unlike the woeful Rockies, who play their sorry brand of AAA baseball @CoorsField in Denver’s LoDo – AHEM.) Surely there’s an A’s utility infielder out there in need of a home-away-from-home – am I right?  Fan reaction has been mixed, see here. But I, for one, am all in.

Bonus photo for Rockies die-hards.

OMG – My life just flashed before my eyes.

No, I wasn’t viewing the eclipse through these.

The fact is, the 2nd hand computer I inherited from my father-in-law just started clocking with a warning that said “Disk Repair May Take More Than 1 Hour.”

On a normal day, this would be no big deal. I mean, the next solar eclipse won’t happen in the USA until August 23, 2044. And according to the Society of Actuaries, my chances of surviving until then stand at 55%. So, basically, a coin flip.

But taxes are due on April 15th, just one short week away. And without a functional computer, my chances of getting them done on time are basically zero.

Oh, wait… that trusty old PC just booted up, Jesus be praised. OK, that does it. I’m logging on to TaxAct right now. No sense tempting fate. Or the IRS.

Happy Day-After-The-Eclipse, y’all.

Got YOUR taxes done?

I’ve been having a bit of fun with a FB group called “The View From My Window.” And despite some snark from my model-railroading-cousin-in-Ohio (“Oh – you’re still on FB?”) it’s been a good ride, with people from all over the world posting pix that range from the breathtaking to the mundane-but-still-fascinating. A lot of sunrises and sunsets, plus plenty of late-spring-still-snowy shots from up north, all the way to late-fall-in-the-southern-hemisphere from New South Wales. The idea is to include a bit of window-frame, even if it’s only your car window on the way to/from work. I leave it to you to go to the site, here, for the latest and greatest. But I can’t resist this one I just saw: Gotta love that tongue-in-cheek.

The last known photo taken just as the meteorite hit the earth wiping out the dinosaurs. Thought everyone could do with a good laugh after all the negatives on the group of late.

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Why is this group turning more and more into a “look here is my cat in front of a window” or “hey look! This is a street, but not from my window” group….

 

 

 

My realtor calls this “Urban Living At Its Finest.” I don’t know about all that, but I do call it “My Home Away From Home.”

Here it is folks:  Proof positive from the inimitable New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks that even late-middle-aged UChicago grads can develop a sense of humor eventually, albeit under duress. Been there. Done that. And yes, thank G*d for tech-savvy offspring, without whom many of the arcane mysteries of WordPress would remain unsolved. (Thanks, @BenWolf!)

NYT subscribers, here. Everybody else, below.

Then I tried to pair it with my earbuds, which it usually automatically pairs with. Nothing doing. This sometimes happens, so I tried connecting it with my backup earbuds, the ones that sound like they’re beaming music from the bottom of the Pacific. These devices also refused to be on speaking terms. I went to the Bluetooth page on the phone, and it was just a bunch of “not connected” readings.

 

I did what any master technologist would do. I rubbed the earbuds against my phone in a seductive circular manner that I thought might foster a rapprochement. I put them in my ears and grazed the phone against my cheeks with a pressure that was amorous and gentle, but also firm. Still, the phone and earbuds refused to sync. People talk a lot about artificial intelligence but not enough about artificial obstinacy.

 

As I rushed to the airport my Find My app rubbed salt in the wounds by telling me I had left behind the earbuds that my phone refused to recognize in the first place. At the airport it occurred to me that I might clean the charging port by using a suction technique. So if you were at Midway International Airport last Friday and a small child asked you, “Why is that man sucking on his phone?” that man was me.

 

I got on the plane, secure in the knowledge that Southwest has very reliable Wi-Fi service. But the flight attendant informed us that this time it wasn’t working, because, you know, Satan. I got home and found my home Wi-Fi wasn’t working, either. I fixed it by turning it off and on, a maneuver that shows, as the Silicon Valley types would say, that I am “tech savvy.”

 

While at home I had to print six documents. I used to have a printer that served me well until one day it decided my ink cartridges were “corrupt” and refused to do any further printing. I bought more cartridges from the printer’s manufacturer, but my printer still saw shadiness in all new cartridges — like QAnon members looking at national politics.

 

We bought a new printer, but it’s snooty. Asking it to print something is like applying to Harvard. It was willing to print out an essay from the journal Daedalus and an academic paper on aging, but it was unwilling to print four other documents from mere newspapers and websites. Like Bartleby the Scrivener, it would prefer not to.

 

You might be reading this account thinking that I’m the problem here. I’m just a technology idiot who doesn’t know how to fix things. I am open to this possibility. When I last went shopping for a car and the salesman started explaining the amazing electronic features on the new models, I was unable to follow him after 0.7 seconds. But I remind you of the central reality. Gizmos that were working for me one minute stopped working the next. I want my technology to have many capacities, but free will is not among them.

 

As I’m writing this sad tale my computer is alerting me that I have to shut it down for a vital security update, as it does frequently when I’m on deadline. For a decade, if I deleted an email on my phone it was also deleted on my laptop, but one day that stopped working, too. Every time I log onto my bank’s website, using the same computer each time, I get an email telling me a new device has been detected. And don’t even get me started on subjective security questions. How am I supposed to remember what my favorite pizza topping was 15 years ago when I opened that account? People grow and change.

 

I am thinking of finding a priest who can do a full-scale technological exorcism — like in that old Linda Blair movie. Before I do, let me just send this off to my editor before my computer crashe$^%#&*((@”+!%#.

I recently stumbled across a FB group called “The View From My Window.” These were their posts that caught my eye today. Gotta love Saint Patrick’s Day!

No Saint Patrick’s Day post would be complete without a little razzing.

Last but not least…