If it were, it would have had to investigate and give you (provisional) refunds fairly quickly - assuming they were consumer transactions.
BTW - you lost the use of your money for a month while they investigated - so you did lose (probably given the current interest rate environment) a couple of cents.
Kind of sounds like they've got issues in the backend systems that track balances and authorize debit cards. If that's the case - they've got problems! It's one thing for the web frontend to go down, but if the backend systems are gone - ouch!
Maybe I'll luck out and get the "Superman Bonus" where all the fractions of a cent are placed in my account. You'll know I did if I drive to work tomorrow in a yellow Ferrari:)
Bank regulation is one of the few valid uses of government oversight. Without it, things like stock market crashes of 2001 balloon into the Great Depression like the 1930's. "Safety and Soundness" and the FDIC keep the publics trust in the banking system (will my money be there tomorrow?)
I don't say this lightly as I work in a bank and have to deal with it. The regulation of banks has worked well enough for long enough to migrate the impetus of many regulations away from "safety and soundess" (the two cornerstones of a properly run bank) to consumer protection and antiterrorism.
With the advent of paypal and other non-bank players entering the financial services arena, these entities need to be brought under the same regulations that face banks. Make paypal live and work under Reg E. Make insurance companies deal with CRA issues. Make Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac live up to the same standards set forth for other financial institutions.
Just think: "Save the environment, have sex TODAY!"
It would also help save social security! When our folks start retiring, we're going to need a hell of a lot more young ones starting in the job market to pay for their retirments!
In all seriousness - what about cropland? How does a small chunk of the country being reforested compare to endless acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, and other assorted growing things?
My feeling is we in the U.S. could meet the pollution levels if the rest of the nation met California's smog standards.
Not sure if it is the case anymore, but it's my understanding that the equipment required for California emissions controls have "issues" when confronted with cold weather. Would a car equipped for that SmogCheckII work in the upper midwest in February?
$25,000, from what has been reported as spammer income in other stories linked from here on slashdot is less than a day's profit. The Mass. AG did the same thing the NY AG did, grab headlines to promote himself for future office, and tuck away an action against a popular cause.
Then expect Iowa's AG to do the same thing within a couple of weeks. He's the greatest "me-too" attorney general in the country.
I've got a minivan and an s-10 blazer (a small suv). Whenever we go anywhere more than 1 hour away, we take the minivan - it's easy to separate kids in it and it makes for a safer (read: dad not having to constantly stop bickering) trip.
The s-10 is nice because it's got 4 wheel drive - sometimes very helpful in the winter. I primarily use it when I'm carting computer equipment around.
Newt and the fact that the pie that the government was pulling taxes from was growing (fast!).
I'll get mod'd into oblivian for saying this - but the 90's showed what Ronald Reagan said was true - hold the line on spending, cut taxes a bit, and the economy will balance the budget.
I'll grant that they didn't balance the budget - they used social security to show it as balanced - but it was as close to being balanced as it was for 30 years prior.
I think that the real Y2K catostrophe was the recession. All businesses threw out their normal upgrade cycle in the late 90's and upgraded a lot of hardware and software that would have normally been done later rather than sooner.
As soon as 1/1/2000 passed, businesses took stock and saw that everything was working - and running on shiny new hardware and software. At that point, they didn't need to spend their normal upgrade budgets because they were good to go for a couple of years. So they reduced spending and cut back on staff - helping out with the recession.
Interesting stuff - thanks. I took a look at my district (Iowa - 4th district) and the challenger has only raised about $100K - but he has virtually no chance in winning in this district.
Slashdot Mirror
If it were, it would have had to investigate and give you (provisional) refunds fairly quickly - assuming they were consumer transactions.
BTW - you lost the use of your money for a month while they investigated - so you did lose (probably given the current interest rate environment) a couple of cents.
The smiley is if my regulators are reading this post :)
Well said. It is a convenience only and should be treated as such.
Maybe I'll luck out and get the "Superman Bonus" where all the fractions of a cent are placed in my account. You'll know I did if I drive to work tomorrow in a yellow Ferrari :)
No - but they have disaster plans.
I don't say this lightly as I work in a bank and have to deal with it. The regulation of banks has worked well enough for long enough to migrate the impetus of many regulations away from "safety and soundess" (the two cornerstones of a properly run bank) to consumer protection and antiterrorism.
With the advent of paypal and other non-bank players entering the financial services arena, these entities need to be brought under the same regulations that face banks. Make paypal live and work under Reg E. Make insurance companies deal with CRA issues. Make Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac live up to the same standards set forth for other financial institutions.
Given the winters there - duh :)
Not bad at all.
You've apparently not stood outside in the middle of winter in Minnesota :)
It would also help save social security! When our folks start retiring, we're going to need a hell of a lot more young ones starting in the job market to pay for their retirments!
In all seriousness - what about cropland? How does a small chunk of the country being reforested compare to endless acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, and other assorted growing things?
Not sure if it is the case anymore, but it's my understanding that the equipment required for California emissions controls have "issues" when confronted with cold weather. Would a car equipped for that SmogCheckII work in the upper midwest in February?
See my other posts there - I did do some checking. It is a legitimate expense in Canada, but not in the United States (which kind of surprised me).
Then expect Iowa's AG to do the same thing within a couple of weeks. He's the greatest "me-too" attorney general in the country.
That does look pretty cut and dried that they are not deductible.
Looks like they're not (anymore) in the United States - at least on the Federal level:http://grassley.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAct ion=PressReleases.View&PressRelease_id=59
And insert them into one of his convenient orifices...
Whether or not it's a legitimate business is another story, though.
The s-10 is nice because it's got 4 wheel drive - sometimes very helpful in the winter. I primarily use it when I'm carting computer equipment around.
You're browsing the web on a 386 based PC with 16MB RAM and a 512MB hard drive running Windows 95?
I'll get mod'd into oblivian for saying this - but the 90's showed what Ronald Reagan said was true - hold the line on spending, cut taxes a bit, and the economy will balance the budget.
I'll grant that they didn't balance the budget - they used social security to show it as balanced - but it was as close to being balanced as it was for 30 years prior.
As soon as 1/1/2000 passed, businesses took stock and saw that everything was working - and running on shiny new hardware and software. At that point, they didn't need to spend their normal upgrade budgets because they were good to go for a couple of years. So they reduced spending and cut back on staff - helping out with the recession.
That's right - we all know that the national tree should be the walnut tree!
Interesting stuff - thanks. I took a look at my district (Iowa - 4th district) and the challenger has only raised about $100K - but he has virtually no chance in winning in this district.
Thanks. Sometimes that kind of discussion kind of gets under my skin.