2020 Hindsight

ATM theft by wi-fi

Just got an email about ATM theft. It said, in part:

The team sits nearby in a car receiving the information transmitted wirelessly over weekends and evenings from equipment they install on the front of the ATM (see photos).

I googled the headline, and there was Snopes, saying it's true ... and adding:

In the United States, where independent ATMs (i.e., machines not maintained by banks) are more common, some crooks have resorted to even more thorough methods for stealing money. In December 2003, U.S. Secret Service agents arrested Iljmija Frljuckic, who had bought and installed more than 55 ATMs in California, Florida, and New York. Frljuckic used the machines to collect information on more than 21,000 accounts from 1,400 different banks, which he used to appropriate over $3.5 million from customer accounts.

Yet another reason for sticking to my bank's ATMs. The NotMyBank ATM fees are too much, anyway.

Creative Class War

Richard Florida's Washington Monthly article takes a different look at the outsourcing trend: The creative brain-drain (in arts and sciences, the incubators of new industry and economic power) reflects changes in the political landscape. Red states and blue states have different constituencies (and attitudes) about the creative class. Though "outsourcing of jobs" is part of the presidential debate, no one has addressed it from the standpoint of the creative class. [via The Story So Far]

But having talked to hundreds of talented professionals in a half dozen countries over the past year, I'm convinced that the biggest reason has to do with the changed political and policy landscape in Washington. In the 1990s, the federal government focused on expanding America's human capital and interconnectedness to the world--crafting international trade agreements, investing in cutting edge R&D, subsidizing higher education and public access to the Internet, and encouraging immigration. But in the last three years, the government's attention and resources have shifted to older sectors of the economy, with tariff protection and subsidies to extractive industries. Meanwhile, Washington has stunned scientists across the world with its disregard for consensus scientific views when those views conflict with the interests of favored sectors (as has been the case with the issue of global climate change). Most of all, in the wake of 9/11, Washington has inspired the fury of the world, especially of its educated classes, with its my-way-or-the-highway foreign policy. In effect, for the first time in our history, we're saying to highly mobile and very finicky global talent, "You don't belong here."

That's a lotta economic power

Daniel Weintraub of California Insider points to a study (commissioned by Wal-Mart, so consume with salt grains, please) on the economic impact of new supercenters (Walmart grocery stores). Money saved on groceries (at both Walmart and forced-to-compete Grocery Chains) would lead to the creation of jobs--lots of jobs. LA Times puts the report in a larger context, and adds detail of the study's sponsorship by Wal-Mart.

[from California Insider's recap] And all that money that people save – at least $668 million annually in the city of Los Angeles and more than $3 billion in the seven-county region – would be spent on other items, including housing, health, entertainment and transportation. Those redirected savings, which far exceed the wages lost by grocery workers, will create new jobs, at least 6,500 in the city alone, the study says. Regionwide, the change could cost 3,500 to 5,100 jobs because of the reduced purchasing power of lower-paid grocery workers while creating 36,400 new jobs outside the grocery business, according to the report.

Wow. What an economic powerhouse. Brings to mind one of the recent Wal-Mart articles that stated that Wal-Mart is responsible for keeping inflation rates low. And a term: The Wal-Mart effect

Shopping ourselves out of jobs: The WalMart You Don't Know

WalMart is the Saddam Hussein of retail: If you're a supplier, you don't want to piss them off. [via BoomNation]

The retailer has a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000 suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices.

..."People ask, 'How can it be bad for things to come into the U.S. cheaply? How can it be bad to have a bargain at Wal-Mart?' Sure, it's held inflation down, and it's great to have bargains," says Dobbins. "But you can't buy anything if you're not employed. We are shopping ourselves out of jobs."