AskDong

This certainly has not been a good week. My email account gets hacked. Yesterday the fence blocking my parking spot gets built. I had been silently hoping that our neighbor might have forgotten about the matter, and the fence would not come to pass. To my chagrin, and the greater chagrin of my car, the fence is up. As I’m on vacation in the west coast, I have yet to actually see this fence. I’ve only heard about it through my neighbor.

Over the last day and half, I’ve been battling myself and my worst inclinations. I’m upset over the matter. The removal of the parking space has effectively decreased the value of my condo by about $30,000. Poof! It’s gone. That’s depressing. However, I’m not about to take this lying down. I am seeking legal recourse.

On this second front, I find myself exposed to the some worst aspects of my personality (and everyone else’s for that matter). I’m angry and I want vengeance. The neighbor never bothered to contact me to let me know that the fence was going to be put up yesterday. I gave him my phone number when we first crossed paths. My hackles are raised. It’s amazing how a phone call would’ve made a world of difference.

I don’t like being angry. I don’t like feeling vengeful. While few would mistake me for the Buddha, I’m generally not angry or vengeful. I tend to empathize, and I’m trying very hard to empathize with our neighbor. I do understand his position, especially as a real estate professional. However, at the moment, my reptile brain is getting the better of me. I fantasize about a scorched earth legal campaign against this man and his company. I know this is not a good line of thinking. I will pursue the matter legally, but I need to do so pragmatically and boil it down to a financial number. If it’s going to cost me 40k to recoup 30k loss, it doesn’t make sense. Emotionally right now, I’m willing to spend what it takes to exact my pound of flesh. That’s not good.

Whenever you go out to a meal with a large group, it’s almost inevitable that at the end of the day there’s not going to be enough to cover the bill. It doesn’t matter if you decide to split the meal evenly or along cost. The situation is only compounded if tip is not already included in the bill. I don’t believe there’s anything nefarious going on. While there may be a few individuals who feel like they might be able to get the best of their friends and acquaintances, most people are trying to chip in what they think they owe. The problem of course if that they owe more than they think.

I often get the bill for the meal and think, “wow, that’s more than I thought it would be,” and it’s often just for me and my girlfriend. In a large group the underestimation becomes compounded. People forget about the appetizers, or that they ordered three drinks not two. Mistakes are easily made.

So how do you avoid these sticky situations when a solicitation is made to table for more money? Those solicitations are often answered by those who already paid too much, and ignored by those who think they’ve paid “just right.” Somebody just has to take firm control, take the check, and collect specifically from each individual. If you’re worried about shortchanging, be that person! This of course is much easier when the bill is split evenly. Even when the bill isn’t, the actual act of collecting individually from people rather than passing the bill around is quite effective. When a bill is passed, people end up slouching as they do in a game of tug of war. Social loafing happens on subconscious level. Making people hand out a given figure vocally prevents that from happening.

Personally, I’ve found that as I’ve gotten older, I’m in fewer situations where I find the tab underpaid. If anything, we often have too much. This I imagine is the consequence of people overcompensating for dealing with years of being short on the tab. It’s much more pleasant to hand out money to people than to ask them for more.

Yesterday, my friends and acquaintances received an email from my gmail account. I didn’t sent this email however.  It was one of many variations on the “Nigerian” money transfer scams.  The email was sent from my account, and signed off with my name.  My gmail account was hacked! I don’t know how, and don’t know exactly when. It came at the most inopportune of times.  I’m currently on vacation in the west coast.  Were I not so addicted to the Internet, I might not have found about this until next week.

While I hope and expect that nobody in my address book will fall for this - I have tried to email or contact everyone that I have addresses for to ignore the email - I do think this scam is pretty nefarious.  The story is marginally believable, and relies on potential trust that I have personally built.  The typical scam is from a random individual and is easily dismissed. This scam might actually work as it and builds on the trust that comes from using my name and actual email address.

The body of the email is:

Hello
How are you doing today? Fine I presume. I am writing to inform you about my traveling in Africa, even though it might sound odd to you but it’s for real. My aunt and God mother who live here as a missionary is seriously ill, she is suffering from a critical fibroid and she needs family support around her to keep her going. Am very sorry for not informing you before embarking on my journey, I had no option but to act fast because the news of her illness arrived to as emergency, the doctor said that her condition is deteriorating that she will undergo a hysterectomy operation to keep her alive because her fibroid has gotten worse (70 pounds Large) and has done a lot of damages to her abdominal area.I was wondering if you can lend the sum of $2500, because I want to transfer her back home so that she can have the surgery done at a well equipped hospital, because I am not comfortable with things here am afraid something might go wrong. I am traveling with little cash because I didn’t expect things to be the way it is right now. Please let me know your financial status, if you are able to lend me the money, I have to come up with the money as soon as possible to be able to pay for her freight bill and other medical cost that will be required for the transfer. Get back as soon as you receive my message or call my hotel on +234 17493909

I am almost curious enough to call the phone number.   Though I don’t actually expect to reach someone who will answer to my name.   I imagine the number is just a number of a generic hotel to give credibility to the story.

To say the least, I was very upset when I learned my account had been compromised.  The account has been shutdown by google after I alerted them to the matter.   I would hope they would actually investigate, but given what I know of their actual customer service - that’s probably not in the cards.  I’m generally speaking pretty careful with my account information.   That particular email address wasn’t even one that I use widely.   I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that nothing else has been hacked (I have taken preventative measures).

I was hoping to pick up a copy of Wii Fit yesterday on it’s North American debut. I had no such luck. Wii Fit is generally sold out at most retailers to my great disappointment. It looks like I’ll be repeating my Wii hunt of 2007. I’m not hugely suprised by the shortage of Wii Fit, but I am more astounded there are still shortages of the Wii almost 20 months after the initial launch.

Wii Fit retails at $90, but if I were to buy it now from less savory sources I would have to pay as much as $250. I’m not paying that extra premium. While I’m certainly not supportive of people and companies somehow jumping the line and hoarding items only to resell them, I can’t blame people for pricing a product at which it’ll sell.

I’m biased by the nature of the industry I work in, and my study of economics. I’m a strong believer in price. Price is agnostic, and price is what ensures the markets work properly. If people are willing to pay $250 for Wii Fit, that gives Nintendo incentive to produce more. Pricing it at $250 also dissuades someone like myself from going and buying the product. The price balances the market.

The efficacy of price is the clearest in the commodity market such as oil, copper, and natural gas. By it’s nature a barrel of oil from one producer is indistinguishable from one produced by another. I’m fudging a bit because crude does have different grades, but for the purpose of pricing the basic commodity the variation between West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Dubai are inconsequential. While Nintendo may not have a monopoly on video gaming, it does have a monopoly on the Wii and Wii Fit.

In the world of oil, the closest thing we have to a monopoly is OPEC, The Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries. While they have influence, it would be foolish to think they control the oil market. OPEC learned it’s lesson in 80s. Other countries start producing more oil, and consumers started consuming less. As much as it hurts the pocketbook, high oil prices are part of the solution. However this time around, I don’t believe Oil prices will fall to 1980 levels. Many non-OPEC countries are tapped out - the North Sea is about dried up, and other such as Russia are not so eager to see prices come down. Demand management, especially in Developed nations such as the U.S., will be critical lever to keep things in balance.

The personal finance blogs have been awash with suggestions on how to drive more efficiently. The foremost solution is to drive slower. Jack Caffertty at CNN.com have even gone as far to suggest that U.S. bring back the 55 MPH speed limit. At first blush, lowering the speed limit does nothing to actually benefit the the poor commuter. As is, drivers always have the option of driving slower and therefore putting a smaller dent in the wallet.

In reality, this is much harder said than done. This weekend, I drove nearly 200 miles from Boston to Western Mass and back. Since turning 30, I’ve shed a few pounds but apparently only in my right foot. I’m a slowpoke. I’m also cheap. So it should be no surprise that I turned on my way back machine and drove like I was living in the 70s. I tried to keep my speed under 60, and failed. On the most part I was still the slowest car on the road.

So while on the surface it seems almost absurd to mandate a speed limit for greater fuel efficiency when every driver has the option of driving slower, the fact is it’s often difficult for drivers to do so. Traffic operates more efficiently when the majority of the cars cruise at about the same speed. Currently that cruising speed is easily over 70 MPH. As a result it’s not only difficult to drive at 55, but often times dangerous. A car driving slower than the traffic around is not much different from a car driving substantially faster than the traffic. I felt it. As I cruised at 55-60 MPH, I had cars passing me left and right. It was almost like I was weaving in and out of traffic. I had the option of staying in the left most lane, but if there are frequent exits that’s not a safer choice.

While I remain agnostic to the idea of lowering the speed limit, I do believe that a big part of the solution to the current energy crisis, and long term goal of energy sustainability is energy efficiency. Driving slower isn’t going to solve the problem, but it could be part of the solution. It’s also unclear if 55 MPH is the ideal speed as different vehicles have different optimal point.