Esther Ting

I didn't know Esther Ting. I don't usually read the obits, but this one caught my eye, and by the time I was done reading it, I was tearing up. Here is the obit:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/mercurynews/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=126321830

A friend's posts on Esther:

http://salcha.tumblr.com/post/96331972/in-loving-memory-of-esther-ting

http://salcha.tumblr.com/post/97737651/esther-ting

According to the above link (posted by Esther's friend on April 17, 2009), Esther died from a drug-related heart attack:

Now many of you are all wondering, how did Esther pass? What happened? Where, when, who..and so on...Wednesday April 8th, Esther overdosed on drugs which led to a heart attack. From what I heard from the nurse, she told me that they were able to resuscitate her, but her heart failed again and that’s when she passed.

Why would the world take a woman a few weeks before her 19th birthday? This makes no sense. It just makes no sense. May God help her family and those who were fortunate enough to know her.

NYT Immigration: "Remade in America"

The entire NYT series on immigration--called "Remade in America"--is fascinating. The link is below:

http://projects.nytimes.com/immigration/

Here's a so-so link linking countries and occupations:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/07/us/20090407-immigration-occupation.html

Some interesting points: Iran is under Asia rather than Middle East; and sales-related professions seem to be the most popular occupation.

NYT Immigration Chart

I am having way too much fun with this NYT immigration chart:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/10/us/20090310-immigration-explorer.html

You can get stats based on year (as far back as the 1800's!) and country.

Thanks to the NYT's Matthew Bloch and Robert Gebeloff.

Amica and Renter's Insurance

So it's 2AM on Saturday morning, I've just finished watching a terrible movie (Love, Honour and Obey, a BBC flick that came out in 2000), and I remember that a friend of mine told me to get renter's insurance.

Not being a materialistic type of person, I don't own that much expensive stuff, so I never bothered with renter's insurance. Well, as it turns out, renter's insurance is helpful because it also contains other components, like liability insurance. As my friend said, if you are walking and you accidentally bump an old lady into the street, causing her to die, your personal assets are at risk. That's where renter's insurance apparently comes in, to protect your personal assets. (Note: I do not own a home; otherwise, homeowner's insurance may have covered me.) It all seems counter-intuitive, but I guess it makes sense in the crazy world of insurance.

My friend recommended buying renter's insurance from my auto insurer to get a discount, but I decided to go with a different company. My auto insurer is Progressive, and they're not known for anything other than auto insurance. He also recommended buying an umbrella policy, but I forgot about that.

Anyway, I go online to find a good insurance company, and I stumble upon this website:

http://insurancenewsandviews.blogspot.com/

http://insurancenewsandviews.blogspot.com/2009/02/best-home-insurance-companies-usaa.html

I find that Chubb and Amica have good rankings (I'm not eligible for USAA, and Erie reminds me too much of a Civ Pro case), and I go with Amica. I log onto their website and use Amica's "live chat" feature. I get this great customer service rep who guides me through the process. Throughout the whole exchange, I am thinking, "This is great. It's almost 3:00AM right now, and this guy is alert and on the ball." Because of the time difference, I thought maybe the customer service rep was in India. At the end of the whole thing, I ask where he's from. Turns out he's from Spokane, WA.

Here's the exchange:

Matt: Given the time diff, I assume you're in India. What part of India are you in?

Matt: Gu[j]arat?

Joseph N.: Spokane, WA.

Matt: Oh, wow.

Matt: Very cool.

Joseph N.: We do it the hard way, graveyard, old fashioned right?

Matt: No wonder your English was perfect :-)

Matt: Damn good customer service, buddy.

Joseph N.: Thank you! We have people for you 24/7, so if you ever want to look at switching your auto let us know ;)

Joseph N.: I appreciate it!

Matt: Don't stay up too late. Have a good night.

Matt: Bye.

Joseph N.: You as well, goodbye.

I've always wondered if outsourcing customer service results in less overall quality. Of course, it depends on the individual, but perhaps there's something to be said for encouraging live, domestic customer service. I ended up buying the policy. I pay by credit card on Monday.

Oh, I learned a new word, too: "binding." A verbal confirmation of insurance coverage is called "binding"--as in, "I can bind the policy effective today." Who knew?

I am off to bed.

Update: the NYT just had an interesting article on insurance:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/your-money/life-and-disability-insurance/18wealth.html

Blog Referral

I'm still recovering from tax day, so not much writing for me today. But here's a blog I just found:

http://undomesticmama.typepad.com/the_undomestic_mama/

It's mainly about econ, of course.

Susan Boyle

Susan Boyle's excellent rendition of a Les Miserables song has made her popular beyond her wildest imagination. It strikes me as odd why no one is mentioning the sad lyrics to her song. I've included the lyrics below. If one reason for Ms. Boyle's excellent performance is that the lyrics hold some truth for her, then I would feel quite sad. Having said that, I hope Ms. Boyle wins.

Lyrics to "I Dreamed a Dream"

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame.

And still
I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms
We cannot weather...

I had a dream my life would be
So different form this hell I'm living
so different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

___________

Another singer of the same song is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt-IBJpEMzA

Shareholder Communications: Kudos to Dominion

Writing shareholder communications is a thankless task. Most shareholders throw away the reports, and even the ones who keep them won't read the fine print. This apathy results because most companies do a terrible job communicating with their small shareholders. With the exception of Berkshire Hathaway (aka Warren Buffett), no company seems to invest much time in producing creative or thoughtful shareholder communications. I know this because I read all my annual reports. I don't claim to understand everything I read, but I love reading them. Here are some highlights so far:

1. GE's 2008 annual report was excellent. Mr. Immelt continues to do a great job re-building his own and his company's reputation. When Mr. Immelt states, "I assure you that we will work hard to restore your trust, and we will continue to work hard to build GE for the long term," I believe him. Here are some other notable sections from the letter:

On government's expanding role: The interaction between government and business will change forever. In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner.

On Wall Street: The financial industry will radically restructure. There will be less leverage, fewer competitors, and a fundamental repricing of risk. It will remain an important industry, just different.

On America's future: I run a global company, but I am a citizen of the U.S. I believe that a popular, thirty-year notion that the U.S. can evolve from being a technology and manufacturing leader to a service leader is just wrong. In the end, this philosophy transformed the financial services industry from one that supported commerce to a complex trading market that operated outside the economy. Real engineering was traded for financial engineering. In the end, our businesses, our government, and many local leaders lost sight of what makes a nation great: a passion for innovation.

You can read the full letter here.

2. Other companies also took their duty to communicate to shareholders seriously. Kudos to Dominion Resources, Inc. (D) for its transparent, detailed 2009 proxy statement. I've always believed companies should be as transparent as possible when it comes to compensation and other issues, and Dominion did a fantastic job this year. It even managed to do a decent job defending the indefensible--supplemental executive pension plans. You would think after being paid millions of dollars, executives could manage their retirements without further shareholder assistance, but most companies pay executives millions of dollars after their executives leave.

Dominion stated that much of its executive compensation is based on long-term goals, so it needed an extra carrot to attract top performers. In addition, it argued its supplemental pensions are tied to restrictive covenants such as non-competes, dissuading retired executives from working for competitors. (Some states, such as California, won't enforce non-competes, but Dominion isn't a California corporation.) Elsewhere in the report, Dominion supported its arguments with charts showing that most of its executives' compensation was tied to long-term goals rather than base salaries. I'm not saying I was convinced, but at least I can clearly understand Dominion's point of view.

So far, only Dominion and Walmart have caught my eye when it comes to outstanding shareholder reports. They deserve recognition for their outstanding work.

Dominion isn't perfect. Page five of its "2008 Summary Annual Report" has a picture of a television screen showing what appears to be a generic basketball game. No one but a huge basketball fan would notice anything unusual about the picture, and even then, you'd need a magnifying glass to notice anything non-generic. Now, I happen to be a huge basketball fan, and I recognized Grant Hill and Joe Dumars from their Detroit Pistons days. What's the problem? Grant Hill hasn't played for Detroit since 2000. Joe Dumars hasn't played for Detroit since 1999. That means Dominion used a picture that is at least nine years old. Do'h!