July Quiet

Here in the City of Trees, PhDs, and poor city management, Claremont, California the days are hot and quiet: Students are off campus (home), Retirees are in San Diego or visiting grand kids back east, Families are at the beach or if they can avoid the fires, in the mountains, those of us who are left just want quiet.

Lite traffic, you can carry on a conversation in a restaurant and hear, and a slower pace, highlight July. A rare event in Southern California, calmness, enjoy it for a very short time, come mid-August, history.

In July birthdays are celebrated with key lime pie, not birthday cake.

In July the Stanley Cup visits lakes not, rinks.

In July tenure faculty are no where to be seen, adjunct faculty rule.

In July you sit on a porch and listen for the birds.

In July the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels seasons are over.

Cool people born in July are Leos.

In July shorts replace slacks.

In July I wish I was on Nauset Beach not Waikiki Beach.

In July operating budgets in higher education mean nothing, student enrollments mean everything.

In July basements are nice and cool, attics are brutally hot.

What we are Reading in July: “The Dawn of Detroit” Tiya Miles, a chronicle of slavery and freedom in the city of the straits.

“Casey Stengel” Marty Appel, a fine biography of baseball’s greatest character.

“Other People’s Money” John Kay, the real business of finance.

What we are watching in July: “Godless” Netflix, a western epic.

“Sharp Objects” HBO, creepy.

“Breaking Bad” AMC, finally watching every episode, classic.

ROBOCALLS, THE HORROR - Remember when phone calls meant people wanted to talk to you about something other than lowering your interest rates? These days, the phone rings so often with recorded robocall messages—You qualify! You owe! You’ve won!—answering feels like a hazard.

I have hit my own robocall breaking point. Enough is enough! Why can’t anyone stop this madness? When will it end?

First, the bad news: Almost every person I talked to about robocalls used the phrase, “There’s no silver bullet.”

But developments in the works should get the robocall problem more under control. And there are steps to take on your own that actually do reduce calls.

Where did this evil come from?

Back when phone calls were transmitted over copper wires, businesses paid a lot of money for phone systems that allowed 1,000 employees to make calls without needing 1,000 phone lines. These systems inserted caller ID so, for instance, customers all saw the same business number, regardless of which employee made the call.

With the internet, businesses don’t need expensive hardware. Anyone can start a mini call center with software that auto-dials numbers and spoofs caller ID. They also need a provider to “originate” the call, that is, connect the internet call to the phone network.

Some robocalls are legitimate—your pharmacy, your bank—but not the ones that change numbers constantly to appear local and avoid detection. Robocallers even spoof numbers held by ordinary phone customers like you and me (so don’t call them back to yell at them.)

With caller ID basically broken, developers have proposed a call-certifying protocol (known as STIR) and guidelines for implementing it (known as SHAKEN). The names behind these acronyms are long and confusing.

With it, an originating phone carrier could check that a caller has the right to use a number and create a digital fingerprint for the call. The carrier on the receiving end could verify that nothing was messed with in transit.

“They’re actually not saying that the call comes from the phone number. What they’re saying is this user is entitled to use this phone number,” says Jim McEachern, a principal technologist with the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, a technical working group that helped develop guidelines for this call-certification protocol.

If a bad guy tries to spoof the caller ID, the call would go through, but it wouldn’t be verified. Eventually, users would see a check mark or other indicator for verified calls.

Mr. McEachern likens the current state of robocalls to the days before email spam filters. “I think something similar will happen with this,” he says. “Suddenly people will say, ‘Remember how bad that used to be?’”

Mr. McEachern estimates that could take two to five years. Verizon plans to start rolling the system out later this year and other carriers are expected to follow.

“We are optimistic it will have an impact but again, this alone is not going to solve the problem,” says Matthew Berry, chief of staff at the Federal Communications Commission, which comes up with rules for the industry, fines people and companies for violations and develops public policy initiatives.

What you can do now - When you get a robocall, hang up. Don’t say anything, don’t press buttons and don’t call back. Once scammers know a number works, they can sell it and your call volume could increase.

It can feel like there’s no point in blocking numbers in your phone—I blocked one peddling chronic pain management and got the same recording from another within 48 hours. But do it anyway, because there are plenty of repeat offenders out there. Here’s how to do it on iOS and Android.

Also, add yourself to the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call Registry. Just know that you will still get unwanted calls, because scammers don’t obey rules. Also, keep filing robocall complaints. It helps the FTC spot evildoers.

Service providers have upped their robocall-protection offerings recently so check in with your carrier. They include features to identify possible scam calls—and even gauge the likelihood it is a scam—as well as block them or send them to voice mail.

AT&T call-protection services are also free, and include blocking suspected fraud. It also offers a $4-a-month service that lets you block specific categories of calls and includes reverse phone-number lookup.

Verizon’s recently improved $3-a-month Caller Name ID service for wireless can now send spam numbers to voice mail.

Sprint’s newly updated Premium Caller ID, also $3 a month, lets iOS users automatically reject calls based on the likelihood they are scams. Android users will get this feature later this summer.

Just stop the madness.

SPEAKING OF PRIVACY - Google has a “dirty secret.” The internet giant said a year ago it would stop its computers from scanning Gmail users’ inboxes but continues to let hundreds of outside software developers scan millions of those inboxes.

RACE TO A TRILLON - Track the market cap race to a trillion: Will Apple, Amazon, Microsoft or Alphabet reach the ‘quatro commas’ club first?" Leading tech companies have enjoyed surges in market capitalization, as revenues and profits have powered ahead and investors showed an insatiable appetite for their shares. Apple is closest to becoming the first [public] company to achieve a $1tn valuation, but Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft are not far behind.

SUMMER TRAVEL - At an average of almost $3 a gallon, pump prices are 60 cents more than last Memorial Day, and the highest in four years. Here are the culprits:

President Trump for his decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

OPEC and Russia for cutting oil production in 2016.

The EPA for requiring cleaner and more expensive gasoline blends in summertime.

JULY POLL - A USA Today poll made a clever distinction in its questions and had a more encouraging result (taken online July 5 and 6; 1,004 U.S. adults; ±3.5 margin of error for total):

72% felt proud to be Americans.

42% feel proud of America right now.

Consider:

"The U.S. had more job openings this spring than unemployed Americans." (Wall Street Journal)

We travel freely: Every day, 2.5 million of us board 42,000 flights.

25% of us do volunteer service.

The U.S. government spends close to $50 billion (1% of total federal budget authority) helping the world, plus billions more from U.S.-based philanthropies.

Americans are part of just 39% of the world population judged by Freedom House to be "free."

"Violent crime in the U.S. has fallen sharply over the past quarter century." (Pew Research Center)

"Crime in New York City Plunges to a Level Not Seen Since the 1950s." (N.Y. Times)

"Powered by a booming stock market and a strong economy," charitable giving in the U.S. last year "exceeded $400 billion in a single year for the first time." (Giving USA)

About 1.3 million of us are on active duty in the military, and 20 million of us once served. (But, per the Pentagon: "The number of Americans with firsthand experience with service members or veterans has declined precipitously since the beginning of the all-volunteer military in 1973.")

Labor Market – more Americans are now changing jobs for higher pay.

COLLEGE CHRONICLES – Better off students: The unpaid internship is becoming less common. Thanks to a tight labor market with historic lows in unemployment, more companies are paying for workers they used to get for free, in order to secure a pipeline of young talent. Since 2012, when half of all internships weren’t paid, unpaid internships have steadily declined, hitting 43% in 2017.

Grand Canyon Education Inc. won approval on Monday to spin off Grand Canyon University into a nonprofit institution. The $875-million deal positions the university to expand its enrollment, and the company to become a major vendor on the higher-education scene. As part of its agreement with the university, the company will manage services including financial aid and admissions. Once Grand Canyon Education starts to offer those services to outside institutions — which it expects to do for a couple of institutions within six months — there’s no reason it couldn’t handle that work for students at other colleges, too.

Since at least 1975, the humanities have been in a downward spiral. In 2008 enrollments and jobs started to vanish, with no recovery in sight. At Penn State, for example, the number of humanities majors fell by about 40 percent across all disciplines from 2010 to 2015.

This general decline in undergraduate humanities enrollments does not correspond to a decline in undergraduate enrollments overall or in the liberal arts more generally. It has taken place in a relatively short period of time — not since 2008, but since 2010 or 2011, which is what makes it hard to see, given that much of the data we have for historical enrollments are at this point a year or two (or more) behind the times. At many institutions, the decline in humanities majors since 2010 is over 50 percent.

But it doesn’t have to end, even if it does have to change. No one ever said you would get to do the job in the same way for all 40 years of your career. No one ever said that large-scale social changes wouldn’t change your working conditions. And now they have. It is time to be creative, time to look for new ways to connect with our students and help them love what the humanities can do for them.

MERGER MANIA - More than $2.5 trillion in deals were announced during the first half of the year, putting M.&.A. in 2018 on pace to surpass $5 trillion. That would be the largest yearly total on record.

• Many of the biggest deals, particularly those in the media business, are bids to fend off competition from tech companies.

• Cross-border deals totaled $1 trillion, despite trade tensions — though it could be too early for that rancor to have an effect.

• The largest portion of deals are takeovers of American companies.

There’s also a warning: Other recent peaks in merger activity have been followed by a recession. Potential trade wars, regulatory uncertainty and rising interest rates could mean this boom will end the same way.

GDP - The economy did fine in the second quarter. The question for investors is how it will do for the rest of the year.

Gross domestic product grew at a 4.1% annual rate in the second quarter, up from 2.2% in the first, the Commerce Department said Friday. The reality isn’t quite so good, but even though the economy might not be off to the races, it is growing solidly and set to retain that momentum throughout 2018.

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Tony Bennett (92) New York, NY; Ted Lindsay (93) Birmingham, MI; Tom McGuire …I should have roomed with him at St. Lawrence.

THE WAY WE WERE – A new segment to Rink Rats, some photos of years gone by, submitted to us by some sick individuals desiring to make us look like fools.

Seriously, wonderful memories and special friends.

Peter Blair, while touring with Kool and the Gang.

Left to right: Jeff Dillon, Ron Harris, Bill Reid.

Left to right: Two Words: Road Trip

A thank you to Tom McGuire for unearthing these photos.

MARKET WEEK – It's another big week in corporate earnings.

Apple will report numbers Tuesday. The tech behemoth may face unforeseen hurdles with the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. It has been exploring more ad sales, which could help offset slowing iPhone growth, but such an effort would face stiff competition from Google and Facebook.

Tesla will release earnings Wednesday afternoon. As the electric-car company seeks to ramp up production of the Model 3, Tesla recently asked some suppliers to return cash to help turn a profit.

CBS will have to address allegations against Leslie Moonves and its culture when it reports earnings Thursday. The company is investigating accusations against its CEO after the New Yorker published an article reporting sexual-harrassment claims from six women. These issues come as the company is locked in a legal battle with Shari Redstone over a potential merger with Viacom.

The Labor Department releases the July jobs report Friday. Wall Street will watch to see whether average monthly job gains this year continue to outpace the last two years. Economists surveyed by WSJ forecast employers added 188,000 to nonfarm payrolls, while the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.9%.

The Federal Reserve meets Tuesday and Wednesday. The Fed is widely expected to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged and then increase in September. The market will be watching to see if there are any clues on whether there still will be a third rate hike in December.

ANOTHER MASTERS NO – For fifteenth straight year, another no from The Masters:

“We have completed the random selection process for 2019 Practice Rounds and Daily Tournament tickets and regret your application was not selected for tickets. Be sure and visit masters.com for up to the date Masters Tournament information.”

“As a reminder, you will be notified next May when the ticket application process begins for the 2020 Masters.”

“Thank you for your continued interest in the Masters.”

Sincerely,

Credentials Committee

Masters Tournament

SWAMI’S WEEK TOP PICKS –

MLB Game of the Week – Saturday August 4; Houston Astros (67-40) visit Los Angeles Dodgers (59-47), both teams have narrow division leads but are expected to perhaps meet again in the World Series. Dodgers win this one 4 - 3.

Season to Date (30 -20)

ON THIS DATE – July 29, 1958; Today marks 60 years since The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was created and NASA have achieved some truly incredible feats in that time.

In 1951 Alan Shepard became the first American in space, Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon in 1969 (something Shepard did in 1971) and in 1983 Sally Rider became the first woman in space. In 2001, the first crew of three took up residence in the International Space Station and there are currently six crew members on board - three Americans (Andrew Feustel, Richard Arnold and Serena Auñón-Chancellor), two Russians (Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev) and a German (Alexander Gerst) on expedition 56/57.

NASA has always been the gateway to the unknown and the unexplored. They are America's link to all that surrounds us, and their missions and research is fundamental to how much we know about space today.

DRIVING THE WEEK - Monday: National Cheesecake Day; Earnings (Stifel, Caterpillar, AthenaHealth, Chegg)

Tuesday: FOMC meeting begins; Bank of Japan meets; Earnings (Apple, Shopify, Nintendo, P&G, Pfizer, Pandora, Honda, Baidu)

Wednesday: World Wide Web Day; Earnings (Tesla, FitBit, Humana, Square, Volkswagen, Sprint, TripAdvisor, U.S. Steel Corp.)

Thursday: Bank of England meets; Earnings (Wayfair, Blue Apron, Cigna, GoPro, Aetna, CBS, Kellogg, Yum! Brands)

Friday: Jobs data for July; International Beer Day; Earnings (Kraft Heinz)

Next Blog: Preseason Football Picks.

Until next time, Adios

Claremont, California

July 30, 2018

#IX-7-375

CARTOON OF THE WEEK – The New Yorker, Vacation