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www.philly.com
Sunday, November 14, 2010
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
Personal Finance
By Gail MarksJarvis Up-to-the-minute stock and mutual-fund quotes and more at http://go.philly.com/business
Web Wealth By Reid Kanaley
M
oney means more in a marriage than many couples realize early on in the relationship. Knowing how to sort out finances might not come naturally, but it has to be done. These sites help.
Not just mommies. The site is
called justmommies.com (part of eHarmony Inc.), but a couple doesn’t need children for concerns to crop up over finances. This page names key ingredients for stabilizing expenses, such as treating the household as a business — at least when it comes to money — sharing a single credit card, and celebrating when a debt is paid. Perhaps there should be a note to keep the celebration expenses to a minimum. http://go.philly.com/marriagemoney1
Methods may differ. At mydollar-
plan.com, this article stresses that no single formula works for every couple. Some pool income, some keep separate accounts and pay separate bills. The important thing is to agree on a plan — and have each partner hold to it. General guidelines that make sense include budgeting, allowing spending money for
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each spouse, setting joint savings goals, discussing the status of finances regularly, and being “open to change if it isn’t working.” http://go.philly.com/marriagemoney2
Money problems. Here’s some ad-
vice on handling money problems if they arise. As in the advice above, your approach should be businesslike, not loaded with personal issues. Money problems usually mean you need to adjust your lifestyle in important, even painful, ways. To do so without ruining a relationship might require the help of a financial adviser or other neutral party. And, the sooner the better. http://go.philly.com/marriagemoney3
Better luck next time. OK. So
maybe that didn’t work out. Here’s a plan for talking money and marriage the second time
Among the suggestions at this website for married couples is to seek the help of a financial adviser or other neutral party. around. In this post, a financial planner says couples should put their financial plans in writing. After all, a remarriage that involves blended families can be extremely complicated in financial terms. Going forward, it’s a
good idea to schedule a monthly “money date.” http://go.philly.com/marriagemoney4 Contact staff writer Reid Kanaley at 215-854-5114 or rkanaley@phillynews.com.
Consumer 10.0 By Jeff Gelles
Comcast fighting multifront war CONSUMER 10.0 from E1 band Internet access. With the merger, it would control NBCU’s local stations, its popular cable channels, and a fabled TV network. Comcast’s critics have raised many questions, including the political impact of increased media consolidation. But for many consumers, the biggest question is more about the bottom line — theirs, at the end of each month. Like me, Comcast customers may enjoy its expansion of their entertainment choices — so far, Comcast has delivered more than 17 billion TV shows and movies via its video-on-demand service. They may welcome Comcast’s promise of being able to watch shows “anytime, anywhere,” including via Comcast’s new online delivery system, Xfinity TV. They may well be on board when chief executive officer Brian L. Roberts tells Congress that the merger will “help to accelerate a truly amazing digital picture for consumers.” What they don’t love is Comcast’s — or any cable company’s — prices. And recent program-access disputes around the country, such as the high-profile fight that kept Cablevision subscribers from seeing two of Fox’s World Series telecasts, only fuel their concerns. Pricing was the issue last week when Comcast’s deal drew a new round of skepticism from the American Cable Association, a group that represents smaller cable systems. The ACA submitted a study by Northwestern University economist William P. Rogerson, who estimates that unless regulators impose strict post-merger conditions on Comcast, consumers will pay at least $2.4 billion more over the next nine years because of the company’s “unrestrained pricing power.” That translates into an extra $2 a month, or about 3 percent more, on a $70-a-month cable bill. Comcast dismissed what it called a “flawed economic analysis” by Rogerson, who spent a year in the late 1990s as the FCC’s chief economist. Each side questions how the other quantifies potential consumer harm and benefit. But you don’t really need those details to weigh Rogerson’s underlying argument — that the expanded Comcast will have new leverage in its dealings both with other cable companies and with its own customers. And if you have any doubts that Comcast will use its leverage to boost market share and profits — as any business would — look no further than Philadelphia. Since the late 1990s, when Comcast
TheWeekInWords “The old stigmas are the new realities.”
— retail consultant Emanuel Weintraub, on the increasing popularity of thrift-store shopping, bargain hunting, and layaway purchasing
“If Ireland needs help, Ireland will get help. For the moment, Ireland hasn’t asked for help.”
— Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, leader of the group of euro-area finance ministers
Comcast has struck back
against Verizon with its “Don’t Fall for FiOS” ads. It has lost customers to the fiber-optic system. YouTube
took over the channel now known as Comcast SportsNet, Comcast has refused to share its telecasts of the Phillies, Flyers, and Sixers with its satellite-TV competitors. Until this year, it relied on a provision in the 1992 Cable Act known as “terrestrial loophole.” To keep cable companies from gaining unfair competitive advantage by hoarding channels they own, that law required them to offer competitors any programming distributed by satellite. But to encourage development of new local content, it exempted programming delivered via land-based connections. The loophole was probably valuable in encouraging the launch of local channels such as Comcast’s CN8. But critics rightly challenged its use to keep control of irreplaceable local sports — “must have” programming for many a fan. For years, the FCC has been chipping away at the loophole, which at the end affected only a handful of cities. This June, it closed the loophole for everyone.
Distrust spreads to Wall Street
But as the Phillies made their fourth straight playoff run this fall, you still couldn’t catch most of their games on DirecTV or Dish Network. And as the Flyers and Sixers begin their seasons, you can’t find them there, either. I asked both Comcast and DirecTV last week for an update. “We are talking,” was all I could get from Robert Mercer, a DirecTV spokesman. Comcast’s Sena Fitzmaurice declined to confirm even that. “We’re not going to comment on whether there are current negotiations,” she told me. Fitzmaurice repeated the argument that Comcast officials have offered for years — that DirecTV won’t share the NFL Sunday Ticket, a popular and lucrative package of out-of-market games it sells under an exclusive deal with the NFL. “We’ve consistently said that if they would give us access to their exclusive content, they can talk to us about access to our content,” Fitzmaurice says.
“We are no longer a sovereign nation in any meaningful sense of that term. From here on, for better or worse, we can only rely on the kindness of strangers.”
— Irish economist Morgan Kelly, known as the “Dr. Doom” of his country’s financial crisis
“The government is handing out oil-drilling licenses left, right, and center as if the Deepwater Horizon disaster never happened.”
— John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, on North Sea oil-drilling licenses issued by the British government
“Instead of hitting home runs, sometimes we’re going to hit singles. But they’re really important singles.”
— President Obama, after leaders of 20 major economies refused to endorse a U.S. push to get China to let its currency float
As far as I’m concerned, that’s never passed the smell test. DirecTV isn’t withholding the Eagles from their hometown fans. Under FCC rules, the next step would be for the satellite companies to file a program-access complaint, alleging that Comcast is engaging in discriminatory conduct or significantly hindering competition in the market. Or the FCC could impose terms that would closely monitor Comcast’s conduct if it allows the NBCU deal to go through — and finally require Comcast to share Comcast SportsNet with the two satellite companies. That step would effectively double or triple the number of pay-TV choices for Philadelphia’s hardest-core sports fans. If Comcast has proved anything over the years, it’s that it knows how to play hardball. It’s time for the FCC to get a little more game. Contact columnist Jeff Gelles at 215-854-2776 or jgelles@phillynews.com. Read his blog at www.philly.com/consumer
“The only concrete agreement seems to be that they should go on measuring the size of the problem rather than doing something about it.”
— Stephen Lewis, chief economist for London-based Monument Securities, on the G-20 dispute
“And he loved shoes and spent a lot of money on 250 pairs — some never worn.”
— Bob Sheehan, who will conduct the auction of seized property of Ponzi schemer Bernard L. Madoff
Compiled from The Inquirer, Associated Press, Bloomberg News.
merican voters, angry at politicians and mistrustful of government, gave many incumbents their walking papers. But there’s another protest movement under way that’s just as fierce: Investors are dissing Wall Street in addition to purging Capitol Hill. The trend is expressed in the flow of $56 billion out of the stock market this year, despite the type of rally that typically tempts reluctant investors, and in the hundreds of e-mails I’ve received. A sampling: “The Dow could hit 15,000 and no one would care,” wrote JK. “With high-frequency trading and scandal after scandal, the average investor has finally wised up and understands he can’t beat those guys.” “We are dealing with the devil, which is the banks … or make that two devils — the banks and the government — since the entire government stood by and let this happen to the American public,” said Larry Kramer. “They have ruined our entire economy.” “Government and big business [have] become corrupted to such an extent by lobbyists and graft that no one has any faith or respect for these institutions,” Michael Weiner said. From what I’ve seen, many individuals have come to see the stock market as a rigged game.
Outrage in the market
In response to news that baby boomers are not saving enough for retirement, Jane Slupecki wrote: “It is depressing to read that we, the baby boomers, are going to starve to death” if we don’t invest for the future. But as she struggles to pay for her daughter’s college while watching bailout tax money paying the executives’ bonuses, her conclusion is: “I’m not touching the stock market. No way!” Some of this outrage was tallied at the polls. But you also can tally it in the low volume of trading in the stock market and in the inability of some young companies to expand by raising money through initial public offerings. They are hamstrung because they cannot sell their shares if the public is hesitant to buy. “Few large IPOs have come to market because investors have shunned U.S. equities,” noted Charles Biderman of research firm Trim Tabs in a recent report. Offerings are at the lowest level since 2005. Muriel Siebert, president of Muriel Siebert & Co. Inc. brokerage firm, said she worries that lasting distrust could deprive the economy of those young companies that become the next global giants such as Microsoft Corp. More immediately, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said recently that one reason he was forcing interest rates lower was to tempt people to buy stock.
Trust is missing
But while Wall Street pundits insist that investors will return to the stock market once they are more certain about the economy, there are impediments that go beyond economic weakness. Suzanne Duncan, a researcher for International Business Machines Corp.’s Institute for Business Value, has just completed an 18-month study into perceptions of the financial-services industry. She found that trust is sorely missing and that professionals such as pension fund managers are as skeptical as individuals. They sense that Wall Street has conjured up increasingly complex products that investors cannot understand because they are opaque — or designed specifically so only those who constructed them can analyze them and derive a profit. Rather than helping investors, the industry is in it to serve itself, 70 percent of investors said. When Duncan surveyed the industry, she found that 70 percent of insiders agreed that they focus on selling products rather than helping clients. Paul Purcell, chief executive officer of Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc., said the industry must rebuild its credibility, especially the tarnish from Wall Street’s wild behavior. He said it would be in the industry’s interest to welcome further financial reforms — like controls on leverage or debt levels — so trust can be rebuilt and the financial system would not be in danger of a new meltdown. Gail MarksJarvis is a personal-finance columnist for the Chicago Tribune. E-mail her at gmarksjarvis@tribune.com.