tfl: The Flatiron Life

NetBank Inc., an online bank with $2.5 billion in assets, was shut down by the government on Friday because of an unsustainable level of mortgage defaults.It was the largest thrift to fail since the end of the savings and loan crisis more than 14 years ago. Federal regulators appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as a receiver for NetBank, which is based in Alpharetta, Ga.

Reports the NYT

It looks like NetBank has not been doing well as a corporation for a while.  Here is a time line of the company.

ING Direct is taking over the accounts and customers will be able to conduct business online later today.

Normally, this might just be an interesting story but not really something reported on TFL.  True, but imagine my surprise this morning when I went to my bank’s site and saw this,

On September 28, 2007, NetBank, Alpharetta, GA was closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver. All insured depositors are now customers of ING Direct Bank, member FDIC. No advance notice is given to the public when a financial institution is closed.

The FDIC has assembled useful information regarding your relationship with this institution. Besides a checking account, you may have Certificates of Deposit, a business checking account, a Social Security direct deposit, and other relationships with the institution. The FDIC has compiled  information which should answer many of your questions.

Today, I am an ING Direct customer!  Time to add a news feed of ING to Reader so I am not caught unawares again.

asanna R., a member of out off-shore team in Bangalore came on-shore a couple weeks ago. Last week, for him joining and a Brock, a new full timer, joining we went out for lunch. Prasanna R. wanted to send a picture back to India for them to be able to put faces with names. I thought you might like to see some of the people I work with. Not everyone is here, but most are.

The heads from left to right it is Chandu, Me, Brock, Praveen, Tom, Prasanna L, Anton, Alax, Jeremy, and Tan. The second picture is the same, but Prasanna R. is in the picture and Chandu is taking it.

Yesterday I gave a too favorable reading to John Stossels health care article.  I usually agree with Stossel and I made the leap that he must have been talking about things I agree with.  After Joscelynn and Rob critisized the post, I reread the article and found it did not say what I thought it said.

Stossel takes a must harder view on insurance in general than I thought he did.  I am not anti-insurance.  I suspect my solution to the ‘health care crisis’ would lead to a more diverse insurance menu.

I think that our health care system is broken for two main reasons.  First, government requires the minimum insurance to cover more items than the market would demand.  Second, the cost of your insurance is almost complety hiden from you because most employers pay the majority of it.  In the tale of the auto insurance, I was assuming these two things where being applied to auto insurance like they are for health insurance.

There’s a bank in the kitchen here at work hawking me a special deal on its wares. For example, I can get, in 1995 fasion, checks! As if that one check a month I continue to write was really draining me financially. I can also get unlimited access to ATMs and full branch service. They might as well have said “We’ll let you be a customer.” All of this and I”ll “Receive a value of $1,370.” I find that pretty hard to believe.

We all take a lot of crap like this from people trying to sell us things and here are a few things I’ve always wished I had the nerve to say:

1. Marketer: “Receive _, of $x value for free!” - (usually a sign that a bonus item, which you would actually be willing to spend a maximum of $0 on, is being included in your purchase.)

Me: Who the are you to tell me how much I value this? Lets do a little auction and I’ll tell you how much I value this feature.

2. Marketer: “We’re providing you this thing at this seemingly high price because it is so expensive for us to produce it.”
Me: Bull honkey! Cost of production is your problem, not mine. You’re charging me this price because I let you and I have no basis for complaint. Just tell me why I’d want it, no appologetics about the price please.

3. Marketer: “You want to avoid x at all cost.”

Me: Really? You think I should pay *pinky to lip* ONE BILLION DOLLARS to avoid this?

Having now registered for a wedding and a baby and with the holidays looming ahead, Jacob and I have discussed several times how we wish we could just register for any old occasion where one might feel inclined to gift us. And what do you know, as of today (as I make it obvious that I’m a shameless registry checker) Target offers Target Lists. A registry! For any occasion! It’s brilliant! I know you’ve always been able to do this on Amazon, but I’m pretty sure this is a new wave for a brick and mortar store.

Kristoffer, if you’re making money on this, we want our cut.

How often have you said this or heard it said? Is insurance the answer?

Imagine if your car insurance covered oil changes and gasoline. You wouldn’t care how much gas you used, and you wouldn’t care what it cost. Mechanics would sell you $100 oil changes. Prices would skyrocket.

This is John Stossel moving the health care debate to something a little bit easier to grasp. You might say you cannot compare health care and auto care because one is a necessity of life. However, given the publics apparent inelastic demand for gasoline, I am not sure I know which is the necessity.

Read this weeks article spelling out the problem. Next week he promises to have some solutions.

This weekend I was watching Diggnation and was blown away.  How could a tech podcast be the first place I heard about a promising new cure for HIV?  This is the only story I can find about this.  Is IBN Live not a reliable source?

Friday we start our courses at NMH about babies and parenting.  This first ones are about how Jonah is getting out of Joscelynn; I hope they start with how he got in there in the first place.

I think after learning about birth, breastfeeding, CPR, and general first year care and joining that to our general common sense, we are going to be fine parents for the little guy.  However, I don’t remember seeing a course in defending my family from the barrage of the state that Joe Spoor recently encountered.

I just learned that public schools in the United States are now required to celebrate Constitution Day. I like to think that rather than displaying a lack of enthusiasm for founding documents, the schools chosing to disregard the holiday are doing so with conscientious objection, noting that The Constitution in fact includes The Tenth Amendment and such a requirement, promulgated by the federal government, should be considered unconstitutional.

Stephen Dubner asks “Do Restaurants Blacklist Low-Spending Customers?”  He is focused on high-end places, but if you ask my mom you will know that she is on the shit-list of every buisness out there, especially restaurants.

Ever wanted to know what the kitchen of your favorite resturaunt looks like?  Ask my mom out for dinner and you will be seated as close as possible.

Ever wanted to know what it is like to fill your own glasses?  Take Vicky out for a meal and she will also serve the tea, because the waitress will not.

Want to be the first to have their order taken in a resturant?  I cannot gaurantee you will be first, but if my mom is at a nearby table, the odds of your order being taken before hers goes up dramaticlly.

You think I am joking?  Not on my mother’s life! Ask her about the flowers to my Grandma Tomaw’s funeral sometime for a non-restaurant experience.